The Bournville Village Trust publications of the mid-20th Century, particularly ‘When We Build Again’ published in 1941, used the process of Lithography to produce illustrations that allowed the author to use colour to distinguish between data. These images took reference from the bold utopian visual propaganda that was being produced to represent the Bournville village and it’s way of life. At the same time, the process was also being used by other organisations more ambitiously, such as the railway industry using the bright visual signature of lithography to present the destinations of their respective lines. Within this publication, the quality of paper was also varied dependent on both the practicalities of printing and to distinguish between image and text to the reader.
I intend to explore the process of lithography and other printing techniques, such as the far more detailed and archival method of photogravure, and to assess how the limitations and opportunities of these processes produce a quality of image that can be used to portray the ideological position of the author, such as the early propaganda of the Village Trust. Also what role does the physical print play in a publication? Does a higher quality paper alter the portrayal of this image, and how does this interact with the process of printing?
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further research into folks such as Isotype and Otto Neurath might contextualise the datagraphic approach. See http://www.gerdarntz.org/content/gerd-arntz#isotype