Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes [Paperback]

Colin Wheildon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2005 | ISBN-10: 1875750223 | ISBN-13: 978-1875750221 | Edition: 2nd

With additional material by Geoffrey Heard and the original foreword by advertising guru the late David Ogilvy, this is a book for anyone who has a say in what appears in print and needs to know whether, as well as looking good, it will do its job by being read.

Out of print for several years, this expanded and updated edition of the book is based on research carried out by the author in Sydney. Parts were first published in a brochure Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes by the Newspaper Advertising Bureau.

It created a furor in the publishing and advertising industry because while it supports some old mores, it demolishes others. As David Ogilvy says in the foreword: "Hitherto designers have had to rely on their guesses as to what works best... all too often they guess wrong. Thanks to Colin Wheildon they no longer have to guess. No guesswork here. Only facts."

Previously published as Type & Layout: How Typography and Design can Get Your Message Across or Get in the Way, by Strathmoor Press, Inc., Berkeley, California, USA. ISBN 0962489158

Editorial Reviews

Review

Type & Layout should be the definitive reference for anyone involved in design, publishing and print advertising. -- Philip Hamson, Advertising IT Liaison, Newcastle Newspapers Ltd, Aust.

Using principles of this sort, I make millions for my clients every year -- Carol Worthington-Levy, Direct Marketing Consultant and Partner, Creative Services, LENSER, San Rafael CA

You need this book if you use the printed word to sell, promote, or persuade! -- Mal Warwick, fundraiser and author, publisher of Type & Layout first edition

About the Author

Colin Wheildon, son of a master printer, was aware in his quarter of a century as an editor and designer that the rules of typography were largely ancient maxims, with little documental emirical evidence. With advisors such as Prof Henry Mayer, Prof Edmund Arnold, Dr Simon Gadir, Prof David Sless, David Ogilvy and Bryce Courtney (who, when not writing bestsellers was creative director of a major advertising agency), he set out to test comprehension rather than readability or legibility. Colin Wheildon is now retired but co-operated actively in Geoffrey Heard's re-editing and updating of his book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: The Worsley Press; 2nd edition (March 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1875750223
• ISBN-13: 978-1875750221
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing new edition, November 8, 2005

By 

Victoria Jones (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes (Paperback)

I adored the first edition of Type & Layout. When I saw it was being reprinted, I promptly bought copies for every graphic designer I know and wrote a glowing review of it for Amazon.com. Then I received my copy of this new edition, and I have deleted my glowing review to submit this much-dimmer one. Geoffrey Heard, who provided the "additional material" for this edition, has taken a readable, well-laid-out book and transformed it into a mess of drawings of eyeballs, arrows pointing every which way, scattered call-outs, multiple exclamation points and question marks, and unnecessarily dramatic pronouncements ("A shocker!"). Every one of Wheildon's rules is broken in the layout of this new edition, and Heard should be permitted nowhere near Photoshop. I wonder who decided that Weildon's book, which had been through four printings and stood the test of time, needed improvement, or that Heard was the guy to improve it. The good news is that most of Wheildon's original work remains intact. So, buy this book, ignore all the extraneous, messy, goofiness that Heard infused into it -- you'll know it when you see it -- and give it all of your designer friends with the disclaimer that it used to be a really great book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable guide for typography and layout, September 4, 2006

By 

D. Ogawa - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes (Paperback)

As stated in the beginning of Type & Layout, this in "...not a book about opinions, it reports the results of nine years of hard-nosed, rigorous research." For anyone working in publishing, this book is an indispensable guide for using typography and layout that ensures maximum comprehension and readability.

Colin Wheildon covers a wide range of topics including the readability of serif vs. sans-serif body type, upper and lower case vs. ALL CAPS, black vs. color body text, and much more. The conclusions in this book are clear, the supporting research data is convincing and the examples provided are enlightening.

The only thing I don't like about this book is the horrible cover design (front and back) and the ad for other Worsley Press books in the back. As David Ogilvy states in the forward, the person who ignored the rules presented in this book "should be burned in oil." In any case, I highly recommend this book if you have never read this before.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Non-communication AND making ugly shapes......., December 15, 2007

By 

Linda C. (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Type & Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes (Paperback)

I'm a graphic designer. I'm one of those oddballs who reads books on typography for fun. Really. That being said, it's been a very long time since I've come across a book as amazingly awful as this one. I read the first 20 pages and found my mind constantly wandering, then skimmed the rest. The book's content is mostly opinion dressed up as "scientific" study. Hey, opinions are fine, no problem. But if you're going to insist that they have a scientific basis, then cite your research, explain how it was done (control groups? blind studies? how were volunteers chosen? age groups/demographics? Anything?!) and back up your theories. None of which happens here. And it's all related in a tone that goes from ridiculously fawning to faintly hysterical and back again.
In terms of layout, this book is a great example of what NOT to do. Illustrations and example ads are discussed, with the text in one section, and the photos stuck in completely unrelated sections, so that you constantly have to flip back and forth thoughout the book. The visual examples have been doctored with arrows, cartoonish stars, etc., making it hard to actually see the ad itself, and in the paperback edition, all the color ads are printed in black and white, with the colors "described". Oh man. All this for $39.95?! I couldn't return it fast enough.
Check out Stealing Sheep, by Spiekermann & Ginger, or Thinking With Type by Lupton, instead.