Customer Reviews

Inside / Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design (2nd Edition)

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it's nice to see the relationship between student work and studio work, and how students are prepped for "real" projects. Many of the student projects featured are still taught today, which makes them even more interesting.

This is one of most impressive books I have ever read, the author truly shows the power that "simple" images can present. Grear is one of the best design artists in the United States; his company has created images for major corporations and organizations, including the summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.
The first segment of the book is a set of assignments for courses in graphic design. On the surface, they are quite simple, for example, "Draw a maple leaf" and "Use colored lines to create the appearance of movement." In looking through the examples, it is clear how difficult it is to create quality logos. Later in the book, there is the anecdote.

A client has asked an artist to create a powerful image. Later, the client walks up to the artist and asks the artist about the progress on the project. The artist then draws a spectacular image that pleases the client, who remarks how amazing it is that the artist could conjure up the perfect image just like that. To which the artist responds by opening a closet door which causes an enormous number of similar sketches to fall out.

Other demonstrations are the many ways to represent a letter and how letters can be transformed from one form to another. For no specific reason, the transition is to be done in ten steps.
The last section is called professional practice and is a demonstration on how Grear and company carry out their business. There are many examples of their work as well as a brief description of how they managed to arrive at the final product. He is consistent in his theme of noting that none of this came easy, there were many false starts and failures before the product was pronounced done.
Graphic design is very difficult, but from this book it is clear that success is a combination of talent, persistence and imagination. Grear has created a book that can be used as a text in a graphic design course or read for the sheer enjoyment of seeing the results of a master craftsman.

So I'm probably not the intended audience for this book, as it's not quite what I thought it would be. But still, I can appreciate what Malcolm Grear is setting out to do in the book Inside / Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design (2nd Edition).

Contents: Introduction; Acknowledgements; Graphic Design; My Training; Student Assignments; Letterform Studies; Ten Steps; Letterforms and Typography; Professional Practice; From School to Studio; From Student to Professional; Design as a Business; Design Commissions; Doing This Book; A Way of Working; Learning to Listen; Other Lessons Learned; Joy; Coda; Index

Grear is (apparently) a well-known graphic designer who is also a teacher of the art. In this book, he starts out with a number of lessons and "student assignments" that mirror what he does with his pupils. These assignments are designed (no pun intended) to allow the student to break out of their normal mindsets and to look at ordinary things in different ways. Interesting concepts, to be sure, but far beyond my level of skill or interest. He then transitions to how these concepts play out in his business, and how he applies the skills of design to jobs he and his firm have been asked to do. These include the logo for the Presbyterian Church along with work for the Atlanta Olympics. It's very interesting to see how concepts play into images and form, and then are carried through an entire span of products to create a cohesive branding.

When I said I wasn't the intended audience, it's because I thought it would be more practical towards web site design. That'll teach me to read the description more carefully! There's actually very little (if any) web stuff here, and I'm not interested in drawing and sculptures. Plus, there's a lot of subjectivity as to what is good and what isn't, which I have come to expect in the world of graphic design. There seem to be some fundamental concepts and guidelines, but at times it seems to be a "I like, she likes" debate. Grear has the credentials to back up his views, but it's all a bit too "touchy-feely" for this techie...

If you're into graphic design and exploring the power of images, then you'll probably really like this book. Definitely a good purchase for you. But if you're like me and looking to improve your woeful graphical skills, this may be more than you're ready to handle...