Customer Reviews

A Visual Dictionary of Graphic Design

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This book is an excellent tool to have when you are working with a layout program like indesign cs. You can pretty much look up the definitions for most of the commands and you can understand what they mean and what they are for. I'm very pleased with this purchase.

This book doesn't go into too much detail on any single topic, but it gives you a good introductory guide to a useful number of art cocepts, history, and industry jargon (just stuff you only could ever need to know). A lot of the information may seem trivial, but it's all good to know if you are interested in entering an artistic field, regardless of which one.

Content-wise, this book is diverse. There's stuff for printers/publishers, typographers, art historians/teachers, digital graphic designers, photographers, writer/journalists, colorists, iconographers, pretty much any student of art! I will say that there's not that much for painters, sketchers, and other more 3-dimentional artforms, but a lot of the information does come in handy since nowadays, a lot of people use computers to compose graphic art.

Here's a sample of the stuff I learned:

Recto - right page of an open book
Verso - left page of an open book
Tessellation - Repeated layout of a design that doesn't have gaps or overlaps
Ascender - Parts of a letter that extend above the x-height
Descneder - Parts of a letter that extend below the baseline
Art Deco - A style of decorative designs that started during the 1920's which celebrated technology via geometric designs, intense colors, and use of plastic and glass
Canadian Binding - A book binding method that uses a spiral
Moire - Printed patterns produced by colour (CMYK) halftone dots which ultimately combine to reproduce images
Denotation - The literal and primary meaning of an image

As you can see, the kind of information in this book is really diverse; from components of text to composition basics. Some of the stuff is pretty basic, but a lot of times the book adds to a subject something that you either didn't know or don't pay enough attention to.

The book itself is a good piece of art; it not only explains concepts in text, but it also demonstrates them by using graphics (mostly photographs) and comitting an entire page for every topic. I think this is something graphic designers really could use and enjoy having.

This is a fantastic dictionary! It's great value for money and is one of those titles that I find myself reaching for again and again. It is a great compact size, which means I am able to carry it with me and I really like the illustrations and find it is a book which, unlike most dictionaries, is enjoyable to read.

Great book, very nicely put together, easy to go through and tons of knowledge in few words. A must for any graphic designer.