Date of Graduation

2026

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Advisor(s)

Nina Rowe

Abstract

Design is everywhere in our lives, from product and book layouts to advertisements and the web. Design packages information into visually appealing formats which grab attention and relate an easily understood message. Through fonts, illustrations, patterns, and color, good design does more than just convey information. Rather, it is an art form in itself that has the power to stay within the viewer’s imagination through impactful visuals. The act of designing is a creative process, but also one that often borrows from the past. Before printing was widely adopted in Europe in the fifteenth century, books were written out and illustrated by hand. The decoration of these handmade books is called “illumination,” because of the gold leaf used in the most luxurious examples which made the pages light up and flicker as the pages were turned. Between around 800 and 1500, illuminated manuscripts created across Europe feature a wide range of layout techniques filled with intricate designs and elaborate scripts. Manuscripts also blend text and image into a cohesive design so that word and image work together in the act of storytelling. Print technologies gained popularity and opened possibilities for mass production, yet designers still turned to familiar manuscript models. This standard was set in fifteenth-century Germany when book producers used the new technology of movable type to set the text on the page, and complemented the words with woodcut images (and later engravings). Nineteenth-century designers followed a similar path when chromolithography was invented. With the rise of print advertisements in the expanding

industrial capitalist culture, artists were guided by centuries-old manuscripts for eye- catching imagery and effective layouts.

With each iteration and borrowing of manuscript imagery, medieval design was reinvented through the centuries as a code that could carry a range of meanings. From a call to return to the handmade in opposition to consumerism to a symbol of a rebellious and free spiritedness, illumination still carries the power to hold meaning and inspire the imagination.

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