Customer Reviews

Conundrums: Typographic Conundrums

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While these are generally not my favorite type of puzzle, I like this book a lot. I haven't been able to solve all the puzzles and I'll try to resist looking at the answers for those I can't solve. That way, I can have another try in a few weeks or a few months, perhaps after I've lent the book to relatives to try out.

The puzzles take the form of words (and occasionally numbers) arranged in various ways, printed normally or backwards and sometimes rotated. Sometimes words may be broken or crossed out. A maximum of three colors are used throughout the book, these being black, white and orange. The solutions to the puzzles are supposed to be well-known phrases, but I can't confirm if they all are as I don't know all the answers. Also, it's worth noting that this is a British book, so some of the phrases may not be common elsewhere in the world.

Unlike another reviewer, I'm not going to give you any answers, but here are some example puzzles that give you an idea of what to expect.

Puzzle 19

HE

ADA

CHE

Puzzle 31

666666

777777

Puzzle 58

"SHOP"

Puzzle 90

COMPANY

COMPANY

CROWD

CROWD

CROWD

Those are ones that I found easy but I'm not going to tell you about the puzzles I haven't solved in case you tell me the answers.

A reasonable title to dip into when using the smallest room in the house. A nice mixture of easy and sort of hard conundrum solving though as the author/designer is British I doubt that readers here will solve every one unless they are really clued into Brit colloquialisms, still, it's fun trying.

I was intrigued by the publisher, on the back cover, listing the book as Art/Design though as it only has boxes of large display type on most pages I guess it's correct. The design aspect of the pages, I thought, really let the book down, so three stars. The editorial contents are a bit of fun and froth yet the layout is cold and rigid. Using just one type, the AG Old Face (a contemporary version of the decades old Berthold Akzidenz-Grotesk) in one weight and printed in black and orange doesn't create a light feeling.

The author gives thanks to Alan Fletcher at the start of the book. He was a great designer and one of founders of Pentagram and if he had designed this book with the same content it would sparkle with bit bits of whimsy and lovely graphic surprises on each page.

The book, unfortunately, is a good example of contemporary hard edge design and rather unsuitable for the soft, lighthearted editorial.

+++LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Just a fun puzzle book for those of us who love the frame game style puzzles. Great job harry.Thank you. Do some more conundrum books please

Claude Diamond

I was never good at conundrums as a boy, but I am happy to announce that I have a found a book that makes me look good! So much so, in fact, that I wind up wondering, is this book too easy? When you have the word "hearted" spelled out across the page, with giant gaps gaping between each character, and you come up with the solution, "open hearted," does that actually prove anything about you being smart? To test my theory, I asked my three cats for an answer, and two of them came up with "open hearted," the third insisted on "big hearted."

Harry Pearce is an excellent designer and with three colors (white, black, and a Halloweenish orange) he produces dozens of agreeable word pictures, but he may not be devilishly clever like a Martin Gardner. Here's an example at random. I picked up the book, opened it without thinking, and confronted a spread of the letters of the word "DECK" made into a stylish cube. Scattered across these four letters are about twenty iterations of the word "hand" in orange. If this isn't "all hands on deck," I'll eat my hat. Were these the same puzzles that induced brain fever in me as a child? Or are they radically simplified versions for the ADHD generation? Okay, there's a solid wall of the word "ears" repeated 1000 times, and like a shadow captured on a Xray, you see the ghostly word "WET" superimposed across it. "Wet behind the ears" anyone? I won't even try to describe the transparencies of "Two's company, three's a crowd," "broken leg" or "fork in the road." Just buy this book if you want to feel better about yourself, and who doesn't need a little sugar now and then?

I've been looking for a good typographic conundrum book for a while. My friend got this from Crate & Barrel, so I thought I'd check it out before buying it myself. This book, while mildly entertaining, is not even close to challenging enough for me. It's pretty much just there to look and make you look more intellectual. I went through this book in about five minutes. Elementary level conundrums.

This is a fun puzzle book that will make a great holiday gift for the person who enjoys working out the word plays that make up the Conundrums. The problem with this as a present is that the purchaser will want to do the 171 puzzles to include the back cover. I had the additional fun of competing against my husband who loves these types of word-picture plays. He kicked my donkey in as he clinched the victory with too much left to go. After that we had a good time teaming up to solve the entries. Most are cleverly designed though a few of the solutions may not be the best interpretation as viable alternatives exist. Fans of puzzles will relish this enjoyable collection made much more fun by playing with someone else, but remains a winner even competing with Harry Pearce.

Harriet Klausner