Customer Reviews

Essentials of Visual Communication

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Aimed at students studying for a first degree," reads the first line of the publisher's description for this book. This is a disservice to the depth of the content - it is far more than a student text. While it would make good required reading for a course in visual communication/visual studies, I'd recommend it as supplementary reading for practicing graphic designers, photographers, videographers and people in advertising, brand-building, or strategy.

Many people in these professions have studied one or two subsets of visual communication. This book presents a well-written overview of how all these branches of visual communication work (and work together.) The book fills in holes.

It is beautifully produced with current examples, mostly from Europe (it is published by a British publisher and thus is slanted toward the European market.) Unlike many books on visual studies, it comes across as a well-written, carefully considered and structured text with appropriate and current illustrations rather than a collection of images with explanatory text shoehorned in to fit.

We used this book as a supplement to an Advertising class I had. It was very easy to read and also interesting.

This book really is an introduction to visual communication, with excellent quality, full of images and meaningful content.

I hate this book because it is an exercise in effete, vacuous designobabble. The pictures are huge because he has very little real information to convey. There is not much there, there. I think Bergstrom must be Swedish for "buyer's remorse".