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“… absolutely stunning. Its imaginative and intelligent approach to what many might consider a prosaic subject should delight anyone who uses type as a craft, who finds enjoyment in the printed word, or pleasure in design.” (Montreal Gazette)
“Imaginative and intelligent, it makes typography come alive …” (Graphis: The International Journal of Visual Communication)
About the Author
Carl Dair was awarded numerous prestigious prizes in his field, including the Medal of the Royal Canadian Academy for distinguished achievements in the arts and a Silver Medal at the Leipzig International Book Exhibition. Among his prodigious designs is the Cartier typeface.
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Product Details
Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division (1982)
There's a reason why Carl Dair's book has been continuously in print since it was first published in the '50s. It's one of the best introductions to the idea of contrast in design: contrast of size, contrast of weight, contrast of position, and so on. And it's visually inspiring itself, despite being a small, square, one- and two-color volume. Recent printings have unpleasantly tight bindings, but it's still a classic, and one of the best available tools for typographic design.
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This book is, as everyone is saying, the acme of the study of design using type as a graphic element rather than just for making words. No we don't use type much any more but the lessons this book teaches are valued by thousands and I recommend the book to all would-be web designers as a valuable resource on layout.<br /><br />However, I'm docking a star because of the following presentation issues:<br /><br />The book is too small - it could easily have been reproduced at twice its size and saved the old eyeballs, which will be working overtime with this book as it is all about what things *look* like.<br /><br />The binding should be a "lay flat" one, such as a spiral, rather than pefect binding which will require housebricks to keep the (small) pages open while you work.<br /><br />The (tiny font) main text has been confined to a square that is laid out on the lower left of the page - acres of whitespace surround it that will eventually hold examples of typeface use. Unfortunately, this very 60s layout means on every other page the text will snuggle up to that binding. It looks awkward and is hard to read without breaking the spine if one's hands are both doing something else. Also, the hyphen used to continue words over multiple lines is vertical whereas hyphens used in the body of the text are horizontal, as usual. I found this to be annoying rather than eclectic. Your mileage will vary.
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Unlike other books I have come across, this title is worthy of being on the shelf. More visual examples could have been shown but I say this because I enjoy looking at pictures. The text in this book is definately valuable. $25 is a fair price I'd say.
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