Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning [Paperback]

Adrian Frutiger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Watson-Guptill (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823048268
• ISBN-13: 978-0823048267
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent source for knowledge, February 17, 2001

By 

Shahr Yar (Walnut Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (Paperback)

This book contains a wealth of information on the history and evolution of symbols. And it has the widest range and depth of symbols and their variations. With my degree in neuroscience and psychology, I also appreciated the insights and reminders about the deepest aspects of sybol/sign recognition.

The type and layout may need to be refined, but this is a real book, about real design--not just another portfolio piece by some design firm/publisher coalition that makes glossy books.

I have been a professional designer for a few years without having gone to design school. This is one of the most valuable books I used to gain the knowledge I use in my profession.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphic Signs and Visual Literacy, August 19, 2003

By 

Charles Leonard (Atlanta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (Paperback)

Signs and Symbols: their design and meaning is a rare book in the realm of graphic design texts. It is one of the few that I have ever read that offers an expert practitioner's meditations and speculations on the roots of the visual symbol.
It is also about the only graphic design book with which I have ever found it worthwhile to argue. In the early 1920's Paul Renner laid out fourteen rules for typography, the first of which is that non-conformation to the rules is acceptable as long as they are considered. Frutiger's book is similar in that he doesn't offer formulae or recipes. Instead, Frutiger posits first causes-some of which I disagree with-and builds an argument for intelligent understanding and practice, something virtually absent from the discussion of all applied design. This book provides a singular contribution by a world renowned practitioner of the discipline of a personal, highly informed perspective of the origins and visual parameters of written language.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent source for knowledge, February 17, 2001

By 

Shahr Yar (Walnut Creek, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning (Paperback)

This book contains a wealth of information on the history and evolution of symbols. And it has the widest range and depth of symbols and their variations. With my degree in neuroscience and psychology, I also appreciated the insights and reminders about the deepest aspects of sybol/sign recognition.

The type and layout may need to be refined, but this is a real book, about real design--not just another portfolio piece by some design firm/publisher coalition that makes glossy books.

I have been a professional designer for a few years without having gone to design school. This is one of the most valuable books I used to gain the knowledge I use in my profession.