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tepping As young designers it is our ultimate goal to be at the forefront
of design. We wish to be new, different, cutting edge. Having
to live up to past expectations can be daunting and we often
find ourselves ignoring all precedents. At times it seems as
though all that could be designed, has been designed and our
community stands still waiting for the next revolution to arise.
It is at moments like these, that it is important for us to take a

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step back and re-immerse ourselves within our design past, for
without history there is no future.
We often over look the relevance of researching and revisiting
Kathleen Vrinat the history of design, it’s not our fault history is often associated
with dense texts, over complicated explanations and outdated
theories. As visual communicators we find comfort in quick to
the point, easy to understand, visual dominant representations
of information and ideas. The study of history is often not
engaging, but that does not mean that design history is boring.
The history of design should be inspiring.
In today’s society we are quiet spoilt. The digital revolution
changed design forever. It has allowed us to create and
communicate our ideas and that of our clients almost
instantaneously. Without research and understanding, we do
not appreciate how far we have come.
Now let’s go back in time, before the revolution of the
computer, starting with photography. Photography began in the
1830s, through the combination of the camera obscura which
was used as a tool for painting and a trial of chemical mixtures
for developing the images. Taking the photo was the easy part,
getting the captured image to remain permanent on the canvas
was much harder. The first successful photograph was made in
1927 and took eight whole hours to develop.

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 These days it takes us only a matter of minutes to develop and
with digital photography that translates to seconds.
Another sector is typography. Way back, typography was
highly specialised, typographers such as Jean Jannon, suffered
to create type casts by hand. These typecasts then needed to
be manually arranged on a linotype machine; adjusting the
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leading, tracking and kerning. During a raid by the French
government Jean Jannon’s type casts were seized for producing
them illegally. Typography visually communicates what the text
has to say.
The struggle that these designers went through to alter the
way we design and facilities we use is priceless. These days,
typefaces are created regularly and often are just a rip off of
older typefaces. Though there is one man, often over looked
and this is the writer’s inspirer; Walt Disney, with the classic
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
It revolutionised animation and the film industry, being the first
of its kind. With this film he broke down the boundaries and
succeeded. The concept for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
began in the 1930s. Never before had anyone attempted to
create a feature length film out of a cartoon.
Walt Disney had little support, his wife was famously quoted
saying “Nobody will go to see your stupid dwarf cartoon”, it
was said to be “Disney’s Folly”.
Walt Disney placed a lot of faith into this film. He believed that
this could be achieved and mortgaged his home and his studio
to receive the funds needed to begin production.
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
revoluntionalised the film industry
It took Walt Disney and his team of over 700 artists and
musicians, working shifts night and day for three years to create
this film from start to finish, where as these days they can be
made in a year.
Disney and his team created over three million paintings not
including drafts for the entire film. They developed more than
fifteen hundred colours for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
and each background is painted in watercolour and then
photographed in sequence onto the film, this was done more
than half a million times.
Next time you watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs you
will truly see the beauty and effort they put in to create every
moment. There is a timeless grace that rarely transcends into
recent films. Remind yourself on how other sectors of design
have changed to benefit you. Photography is an enduring
example of how designers before us transformed it into a
design practise that takes minutes instead of hours. Also how
typographers have assisted in providing the written word
another means of communication.
It is important to revisit the past and learn how things were
done. Embrace design and take the time to awe over earlier
works and you will find motivation; because without history
there isn’t a future.
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 Bibliography:
A History of Photography. Robert Leggat. 1995. 6 Marc 2010
<http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/>
“Garamond”. Absolute Astronomy. 6 March 2010 <http://www.
absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Garamond>
Hart, Brad. “The True Origins and History of Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs.” Goodread.com. 11 February 2010. 15
March 2010
<http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/60644-the-true-
origins-and-history-of-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs>
How Walt Disney Cartoons are Made. RKO Radio. Television,
1938. Youtube 16 March 2010.
“Walt Disney.” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 15 March
2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/165713/
Walt-Disney>.

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