Visual Thesaurus: A Quick Flip Brainstorming Tool for Graphic Designers [Turtleback]

Chris Goveia (Author), Hatmaker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

Writers are artists of words, and one of their primary tools is the thesaurus. Designers are artists of images and this book offers a way for them to think about and approach the creative process by creating a visual narrative of words and concepts. Organized alphabetically, each entry is accompanied by a stream of associated images that seeks to mirror the way an artist's creative mind works. Designers should find this idea generator useful to find different visual solutions for every kind of design project.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on the premise that graphic designers are "image artists" in the manner that writers are "word artists," this book of brainstorming cluster diagrams claims to mimic the action of the designer's mind in its pictographic organization. Each page offers a single-word concept, which the authors illustrate with icons whose relevance varies between obvious and incomprehensible. Take the entry for "yearn": there's a man incubating a baby in his belly, a flat-chested woman in boxer shorts (or a man with a womanly face and legs?), a guy playing guitar, a sad-faced dog and a woman with one hand on her stomach and another on what seems to be a cocktail. (The pictures are tiny, usually less than an inch tall.) Despite its cleverness, the book comes across as a half-baked self-promotion ploy on the part of Hatmaker, a branding company from Boston whose corporate work appears for no reason scattered throughout, including in an ad for itself between the entries for "tropical" and "ugly." And with only about 600 word-concepts, this thesaurus feels spare and remedial.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Sayles Graphic Design has clients around the globe in nearly every type of service and industry and its work is included in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution's National Design Museum and the Library of Congress. John Sayles has developed over 500 logos and nearly 200 letterheads.

Product Details

• Turtleback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Rockport Publishers (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564968944
• ISBN-13: 978-1564968944
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,916,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Meh... it was probably worth the $10..., March 20, 2007

By 

Lori Otto (DFW, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visual Thesaurus: A Quick-Flip Brainstorming Tool for Graphic Designers (Paperback)

I had high expectations for this book... but it's just a bunch of ugly clip art related to different key words. I like the book, in theory, but it could have been executed in a way that a designer might actually like it... to me, it just seems thrown together... it didn't help with the job I bought it for, but maybe it'll help in the future.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neat little reference tool, May 13, 2007

By 

Laura M. Reisinger (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visual Thesaurus: A Quick-Flip Brainstorming Tool for Graphic Designers (Paperback)

This is probably the best quick inspiration guide I've seen yet. It's small and easy to reference, and it actually helps a lot. Anybody who has ever had a mental block while trying to brainstorm would benefit from this book.

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is a JOKE, December 26, 2009

By 

Brian Rooney "R7 Media" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visual Thesaurus: A Quick Flip Brainstorming Tool for Graphic Designers (Turtleback)

$35 for this book?(cover price). I'd rather spend $500 for toilet paper. It's a great idea, but poorly done and very thin on content. You can do much better with a Google image search.