Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual
I bought a copy of Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual based on its Call description here. It was a bit of whim, probably to get $39 worth on Amazon, but I was pretty excited at the idea of a Bringhurst/Chicago-esque manual for graphic design.
I’ve been picking it up here and there for the past couple of weeks and it’s not what I’d hoped. In no way is it a bad book, it has some really useful ideas and examples, but it’s not a manual. Nor is it comprehensive. Comparing yourself to Bringhurst — a typographic authority with the soul of a poet who, contrary to popular belief, is actually very nice — is pretty intimidating. I’d never do it, but these guys did and really shouldn’t have.
There’s a lot of repetition, a lot of flowery language, and the majority is dedicated to typography. I’m not really sure who the audience is: I didn’t learn anything new, but a beginner probably wouldn’t understand the language. Buy it if you like reading about graphic design in the bathroom — there’s no more than 100 words per page so it makes a good quick read.
« The Adaptive Web - Mornings »
Comments
Post a comment