Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode [Hardcover]

John D. Berry (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2002

Language Culture Type grew out of the first international type-design competition, the 2001 bukva:raz!, whose goal was to promote global cultural pluralism, interaction, and diversity in typographic communications. The book lavishly presents the winning entries, along with information about each typeface, its language, and its designer. A series of essays gives context for the interplay of types and languages in the world today — including the attempt to mesh all existing scripts into a single digital encoding system called Unicode. It also delves into the specific issues around developing typefaces for the many linguistic cultures in the world, from the various Cyrillic letterforms to Vietnam’s ancient ideographic script.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Graphis Press (November 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932026010
• ISBN-13: 978-1932026016
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 7.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,240,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very well put together; great essays and visual examples, July 21, 2003

By 

SL (RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode (Hardcover)

The first half of the book contains well-written essays on typography from various typographers from around the world:
Voices, languages and scripts around the globe / Robert Bringhurst
Unicode, from text to type / John Hudson
ITC Cyrillics, 1922- / Maxim Zhukov
How do the Japanese read? / Akira Kobayashi
An approach to non-Latin type design / Fiona Ross
A primer on Greek type design / Gerry Leonidas
Zvi Narkiss and Hebrew type design / Misha Beletsky
Type ramblings from Afrika / Saki Mafundikwa
Arabic type and typography / Thomas Milo
Civil Type and Kis Cyrillic / Vladimir Yefimov
Pickled herring and strawberry ice cream / Adam Twardoch
The other half of the book contains typographic visual examples and work from famous typographers in color and B/W. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in studying typography. Essays are better written than those on "Looking Closer" series.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book, November 1, 2003

By 

Flunk "a_dg" (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode (Hardcover)

This is by far the most beautifully designed book I have. The binding is elegance like I have not seen in a long time. Definitely gives off that "wow" factor when you first open the box.

But it's what is inside that counts. It is put together so well, the writing is fantastic and well illustrated. The articles are of great interest and will be as essential to me as Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style has been. Highly recommended.