Customer Reviews

Design Language

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

 

 

I teach at a graduate school that is structured around the concept of writing and design, type and image, and I found this book very useful for in class and homework assignments.

Each student had their own copy and I asked each of them to pick a word from the book as well as one of the corresponding definitions, and describe it typographically - using type as image to convey the meaning. It proved to be a great exercise to teach students the basic principles of scale, contrast, unity, perspective, etc. and actually have them retain it! Even the weaker students suprised me and themselves with how effective thier solutions were. It motivated most of the students to use the principles in their more complex design projects. Plus it's small, it's durable and it's beggs to be written in - making your own notations along the way.

I'm pleased visual examples were omitted by the author. It allows the reader to make his/her own interpretations of the word. The definition is there to keep us in check.

The book is probably of some use for somebody who is totally outside the design field in that it is basically a glossary of terms. For anybody other than that it's pretty much useless.

I have purchased many copies of this book to give to students over the years. I found it to be useful, inspiring, and a great read. The layout has a great gestalt. I think it is a sexy little book about design terms. The quotes in it are timely, and thought provoking. The terms are well defined and cross referenced. Professor McCreight has a wonderfully small package packed with useful stuff.

I really liked the simplicity of the book but I wish that it showed some visual references to explain the ideas more clearly. I am an educator as well and I have found students like to see examples especially when they are trying to learn to be visual thinkers. The author did not define logo in his book. Why not? The colors chosen for this book are too close in value and when printed next to each other made it very difficult on the eyes. It is so bad in some areas (example: see Unity) that it seemed as though the printer purposely did not trap the colors (orange type in a grey field) because the reader could not of read the type. The typeface that was chosen for the main text was very difficult to read - Design Language missed the mark on legibility in some parts of the book. In fact, the author did not even define legibility within the book - it may of helped the designer who laid out the book.

While this book would not be comprehensive enough for an introductory course text, it would be an invaluable supplemental resource for both professors and advanced students.
Layout, vocabulary and quotes are acute and inspirational.
The only criticism would be to drop the 'Jewelry Crafts' from the title. This little book should be read by anyone interested in design.

Tim McCreight's Design Language provides concise definitions for terms used in the arts. I have found it helpful in my introduction to art concepts class.

Basically, this book is just plain tough to read. The contrast of typeface color over the page color is "arty" but totally impractical for easy reading. Interesting concept for a book, though, and some good ideas. Still, I put it into the tag sale pile for spriing clean-up, if you're interested. Toobaad since i like all of his other work.

This tall, thin volume is delightful to hold. It is the physicality of the book that first engages. The visual art department of my school (8-12 grade) uses this book in both middle and upper school. In upper school each student has a copy of their own and their sketchbook assignments are generated from the words. Between each class meeting a student chooses a word to work from and then links it to another in the book. The lovely cross-referencing of vocabulary allows each student to meander through the book on different paths. The middle school benefits from the words as prompts for design problems and sketchbook exercises. Those of us who teach, love to use the book as a departure point for our own studio practice.

Every field has its jargon. Medicine, mathematics, sciences, and even sailing and horsemanship baffle outsiders with the many unfamiliar words that insiders use to abbreviate meanings unique to their fields. Although problematic to an outsider, when the coversation abounds with mysterious terms, the listener can realize that communication is failing. Communication failure becomes harder to recognize, and all the more baffling, when a field's jargon consists of familiar words assigned new meanings. Then, the unwary listener might feel some level of understanding, when in fact there is little or none, or genuine misunderstanding. McCreight uses this book as a glossary to the designer's senses of words that non-designers already know.

For example, this booklet's definition of artists' "density" never mentions physical mass at all, although it does mention "weight" - which, in turn, has visual meaning far beyound grams and tonnes. The way it defines "structure," as another example, leaves the reader hard-pressed to identify the load-bearing frame of a building as its "structure." When dealing with such shifts of language, McCreight goes beyond dictionary-style definitions for each term. In addition, a brief discussion, a paragraph to a small page, adds connotation to the definitions. Also, a handful of cross-references to other definitions allow the reader to compare related concepts. Finally, a quote from some famous thinker decorates each definition. (Careful - this book identifies "decorative" as 'often used in the pejorative sense.' I didn't mean it that way.)

I find it sadly paradoxical that so much of this design book's layout represents poor design. Text on each page is laid out clearly and consistenly, helping the reader to organize the different parts of the definition at a glance. However, just about every page is decorated (in the negative meaning) with lines or geometric figures that don't relate to the text and that sometimes actively interfere with typographic organization. In the worst cases, orange text on a gray background becomes nearly impossible to read - a problem that good design would never have allowed.

Although McCreight works in metals, often a technically demanding medium, his artistic sense sometime introduces scientific bloopers. For example, in discussing the audio meaning of "volume," he states that it refers to "how many sonic waves are packed into the air around us." More waves would tend to mean less space between waves - i.e. a change in the wavelength and therefor frequency, affecting pitch or timbre. A change in audio volume holds the number of waves constant, but changes the amplitude of the waves.

Despite these glitches, this remains an interesting set of definitions, sure to help beginners encountering the unfamiliar jargon of design for the first time.

-- wiredweird

This book aids in the ability to write about design aesthetics. I am a studio jeweler and felt I needed to enhance the ability to defend my work. This book was a great assistance in my writing.