Customer Reviews

Primer of Visual Literacy

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This is a wonderful book that brings understanding to visual/cognitive procedures that are usually assumed to be more instinctive than evident.

It would be nice to have this classic updated to include form and media from the 20-odd years that have passed since it was published

This book was required for class, so I wasn't expecting it to be incredibly enjoyable; I wasn't wrong. The information is great, and the author obviously knows what she is talking about. The delivery of said information, however, is very dry and dated, and almost gets too academic while you're trying to study art. Know that you need this information, it just might be easier to digest from another source.

This book is extraordinarily frustrating. Dondis has so much good information--but it's obscured by what I find to be very poor writing. I found her sentence structure difficult to apprehend, and she's way wordy. Add to that the type face used--all sans serif! There's a reason that almost all books are printed in serif typefaces--and it's not tradition, it's ease of use. How bizarre that a book that is meant to clarify and explicate the use of visual media would employ a user unfriendly font.

I've tried to read this book twice, and even have used ideas that I found in that space while teaching a class on art appreciation. I SOOO wish that someone would take the info, rewrite it with sentences that actually flow, and lay it out in a readable font. Anyone up for that? In unleashing some really wonderfully illuminating information, you'd be doing the world much good.

If you study visual literacy or visual communication, this book is a must-read. Although it was written in 1973, the book is one of the first to explore the need for visual literacy in our schools as well as the components that make for a visually literate person. Granted, there are no pictures and a few graphics but I see that mainly as a function of the time in which it was printed. Overall, it is a text before its prime.

IF you have to read this for class and quote it - then buy it. Otherwise skip to a different book about "The Elements and Principles of Art" from the 21st century.