Public Transport In The 19th Century

With new ground in design and printing, board passes, passports and railway timetables were introduced as public transport became a necessity. All of these factors played important roles in the fast development of the transport industry in the 19th century. These travel documents were required for the successful running of this particular industry as everything must be tracked and timed from the timetables to the tickets. Things in Europe were picking up and industries previously made to aid easier living like factories for medicine were inspiration for the production of new items for the greater public and also increases in economy. Many of this centuries new commercially demanded products were made for profit in Europe first appeared
Following this, a demonstration by the people of Prague took place as they were disappointed in their leaders for permitting the invasion and occupancy of the countries. To them their government was a symbol of failure and defeat. The demonstration was deemed a ‘peaceful process’ as no damage was done to any property other than the plastering of posters all over the capital on trains, shop windows and houses. Citizens decided that the posters were a silent but extremely piercing expression of their emotions on paper. (Sylvestrová, Bartel, 1992). In more northern regions of Europe graphic design was being strongly influenced by the Netherlands. The Netherlands had become one of the most significant design hubs in Europe. Because of its central location it was an ideal place to develop industry and quickly experienced a cultural and commercial renaissance during the 17th century. Being by the sea made it easy to make connections with Britain, Scandinavia, Russia and Africa. It is said that the Dutch strong-suit in graphic design is influenced by the unique landscape of The Netherlands. Its countryside that to some looks like a quilt made up of highways, canals and railway lines. “An obsession with perfection helps complete the sketch of the Dutch identity. The Dutch are averse to improvisation, to the non-essential and the arbitrary, and they have a distinct proclivity for simple logic and common sense”(Sylvestrová,
Machines had replaced handwork and with that the machines got better as did their products. “In spite of bleak predictions by those apprehensive about the effect of the new technology on the quality of printing, by the end of the nineteenth century industry was finally in a place at least to make printed material a more inexpensive and influential commodity.”(Jobling, 1997). Change was always met with apprehension but with the invention of the printing press gave rise to new crafts such as letterpress printing. In the printing press a book can be set letter by letter and printed perfectly, the machines were then experimented with and new ideas could be realised. Printers could play with type specimens and sizes, colours and imagery which created a new craft of image making. The growth of a more illustrated form of journalism evolved during the 19th century where the first evidence of graphic design appeared. An image which consisted of both image and text. “By 1900 there were 2,328 magazines and reviews in circulation across the British Isles and it is likely that the majority of these would have been illustrated in one way or another” (Jobling, 1997). Another important style of writing was born on this continent in France was caricatured and satirical journals. Britain soon followed with the creation of political and illustrative caricatures with Thomas