Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students Author: Ellen Lupton | Language: English | ISBN:
1568989695 | Format: EPUB
Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students Description
Our all time best selling book is now available in a revised and expanded second edition. Thinking with Type is the definitive guide to using typography in visual communication, from the printed page to the computer screen. This revised edition includes forty-eight pages of new content, including the latest information on style sheets for print and the web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, the use of small caps and enlarged capitals, as well as information on captions, font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering. Throughout the book, visual examples show how to be inventive within systems of typographic form—what the rules are and how to break them. Thinking with Type is a type book for everyone: designers, writers, editors, students, and anyone else who works with words. The popular online companion to Thinking with Type (www.thinkingwithtype.com) has been revised to reflect the new material in the second edition.
- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 2 Rev Exp edition (October 6, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1568989695
- ISBN-13: 978-1568989693
- Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
This book had an initial very strong appeal to me, that quickly wore off. While the title of the book seems to suggest that the principle topic of the book is typography, it is not. Rather, it is a manual of modern design ideas. Ellen suggests that her goal is not to encourage readability, but to encourage the reader not to read. I quote "Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design's most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading." This thinking is quite consistent with the decontructionist philosophical school that she tends to often quote, especially with Jacques Derrida. That is fine and dandy, except that the fact that Ellen is writing something suggests that she hopes that somebody will read what she writes. She is correct about one thing, that this book was not easy of the eyes to read. Her efforts to be different or unconventional made it very tense to get through her book. The book is laden with illustrations and the first impression of the plethora of examples of design that she provides is that they are cute. Subsequent impressions of her examples are less complementary, in that they are a tremendous strain on the reader (user, if you wish) to interpret the message being conveyed. Unfortunately, as she has received many favorable comments on Amazon.com, there will be many budding young graphic designers out there trying to establish their position in the world of graphic design, and are spurred by this book to be bizarre rather than effective in communicating an idea. If one has no ideas or thoughts to communicate, then this book is excellent for you.
Thinking with type is a critical guide for graphic designers. This book is not just about fonts. It's about seeing type as a visual element. Terms such as kerning, hierarchy, and type size give meaning to type in a visual composition. Creatively speaking, designers are able to manipulate typography and turn it into a message, like a symbolic code or a meaning.
The categories of this book are dissected into four components that consist of letters, texts, grids, and appendix. In the letters category, type is displayed as a narrative and a program. In electronic communication, one designer created typefaces consisting of no diagonals or curves in order to display type on a video screen. The designer proposed a design methodology that is rule-based and systematic.
In narratives, typography adopts the behaviors of the typeface’s name. One example from the book is a typeface called Beowulf. Created in 1990, this typeface has randomized outlines suggesting a behavior similar to the typeface itself.
In the text category, kerning is a really important subject in this book. The use of adjustment of space between two letters is significant in type. Ellen Lupton explains this beautifully in pages 102-103. These pages cover two types of kerning, metric and optical. Exercising space, Line spacing, and alignment are something that designers must be aware of when designing typography.
Throughout this book, there are helpful terms and guides on how not to treat type. These rules are called type crimes. Rules like these are helpful, because it gives designers the reason why they should avoid these crimes. Crimes such as vertical text and stretching type are the biggest offenders in type. Only designers who can justify their design can intentionally break these rules.
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