25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hardcore Design Book for Hardcore Designers, July 30, 2009
This review is from: Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design (Hardcover)
Every graphic designer and design student should get a copy of this book. Created by two of our field's most committed chroniclers and advocates, this book is full of information and ideas. Providing the backstory for today's design profession, this book is fun to read and fun to look at. If you're looking to invest in your permanent design library, this volume will be useful for years to come. It will help newcomers to the field get up to speed on what graphic design is all about. (What is it all about? The intriguing people, the ever-changing visual language, and the rough and glittering texture of public life.)
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The layers of creativity peeled back, April 22, 2010
This review is from: Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design (Hardcover)
The two authors of this amazing book wisely say in the intro that their endeavors are not really comparable to the Meggs, Hollis, Bringhurst or even newcomer Stephen Eskilson's standard history of graphics, design and typography. They have approached the subject in a fresh and I thought unique way.
The book is in four sections: Principles (design, type and print); Knowledge (books, online, collections and colleges); Representatives (designers, type creators, design writers and design clubs) and Practice, with 139 pages bulging with practical examples of anything designed. What I thought interesting was the way these four sections are developed to cover a phenomenal amount of information, either historical or contemporary, and presented primarily as visual items backed up with bite-size text.
Obviously the more technical aspects of design can only be covered briefly: print is wrapped up in twelve pages (and nothing on paper) but the range of design, from magazines, motion graphics or typography: anatomy; genealogy; classification; typesetting is spread over fifty-eight pages. Brand identity covering logos and corporate programs gets twenty-five pages. Perhaps the weakest part of the book is 'Recommended reading', summed up with just a spread and not including the 1989
Typographic Communications Today by Ed Gottschalk or the 2001
The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher and a book I'm sure would have been included had it been published before 2009
Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books.
All of this information, which includes 2500 images, is deftly served up in a clear, straightforward page and typographic design which fortunately avoids one of the annoyances of books for designers: acres of empty page space (I tend to think this is only an indication of too little material for too many pages). There is though a slight annoyance with the book. Whenever a cross reference appears in the text a miniscule arrow is used pointing to a page number both of which are in a light tint and therefore almost unreadable.
As the title's sub-deck says 'A visual guide to the language, application and history of graphic design' and I thought it worked a treat. A real-page turner presenting creativity in a fresh format.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover,
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The first book of its kind I have seen--and it is superb., July 20, 2009
This review is from: Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design (Hardcover)
It is not a history, a how-to, a reference, or a book of examples--though it includes elements of each. Instead, it offers a studied impression--via 400-plus well-written, beautifully illustrated entries--of the people, principles, and ingredients that have made (and are making) the field of graphic design such a compelling part of world culture.
Authors Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez Palacio ([...]) have again demonstrated their wonderful sense of what is important about graphic design. It is a must-have.
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