Graphic design books—mostly—that Reed Reibstein owns, wants to read, and has not yet. He has a lot of reading to do.Tumblr (3.0; @smallpica)http://smallpica.tumblr.com/<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov20eOM4O1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Ogilvy on Advertising</h1> <h2>David Ogilvy</h2> <p>A candid and indispensable primer on all aspects of advertising from the man Time has called “the most sought after wizard in the business”.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018819040http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018819040Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:17:01 -0400to readdesign<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov1vaZxnR1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision</h1> <h2>Mark Changizi</h2> <p>In The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision, Mark Changizi, prominent neuroscientist and vision expert, addresses four areas of human vision and provides explanations for why we have those particular abilities, complete with a number of full-color illustrations to demonstrate his conclusions and to engage the reader. Written for both the casual reader and the science buff hungry for new information, The Vision Revolution is a resource that dispels commonly believed perceptions about sight and offers answers drawn from the field’s most recent research.</p> <p>Changizi focuses on four “”why” questions:</p> <ol><li>Why do we see in color?</li> <li>Why do our eyes face forward?</li> <li>Why do we see illusions?</li> <li>Why does reading come so naturally to us?</li> </ol>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018708409http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018708409Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:13:58 -0400to readideas<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov1svUNAB1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer</h1> <h2>Roy Peter Clark</h2> <p>One of America’s most influential writing teachers offers a toolbox from which writers of all kinds can draw practical inspiration.</p> <p>“Writing is a craft you can learn,” says Roy Peter Clark. “You need tools, not rules.” His book distills decades of experience into 50 tools that will help any writer become more fluent and effective.</p> <p>WRITING TOOLS covers everything from the most basic (“Tool 5: Watch those adverbs”) to the more complex (“Tool 34: Turn your notebook into a camera”) and provides more than 200 examples from literature and journalism to illustrate the concepts. For students, aspiring novelists, and writers of memos, e-mails, PowerPoint presentations, and love letters, here are 50 indispensable, memorable, and <em>usable</em> tools.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018654871http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018654871Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:12:30 -0400to readdesign<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov1r5mF4i1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Paul Renner: The Art of Typography</h1> <h2>Christopher Burke</h2> <p>German typographer Paul Renner is best known as the designer of the typeface Futura, which stands as a landmark of modern typographic design. <em>Paul Renner</em>, still the only study in any language of Renner’s brilliant career, details his life and work to reveal the breadth of his accomplishments and influence. Christopher Burke presents a wealth of hithertounpublished materials, drawing on primary sources and archival research and clearly written with an eye to today’s reader. Beautifully designed, <em>Paul Renner</em> is an inspiring tour de force portrait of this typographer’s extraordinary career and his ongoing influence on the graphic arts.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018617178http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018617178Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:11:29 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov1qjPgEE1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing</h1> <h2>Adam Greenfield</h2> <p>Ubiquitous computing—almost imperceptible, but everywhere around us—is rapidly becoming a reality. How will it change us? how can we shape its emergence?</p> <p>Smart buildings, smart furniture, smart clothing… even smart bathtubs. networked street signs and self-describing soda cans. Gestural interfaces like those seen in Minority Report. The RFID tags now embedded in everything from credit cards to the family pet.</p> <p>All of these are facets of the ubiquitous computing author Adam Greenfield calls “everyware.” In a series of brief, thoughtful meditations, Greenfield explains how everyware is already reshaping our lives, transforming our understanding of the cities we live in, the communities we belong to—and the way we see ourselves.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018603953http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018603953Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:11:07 -0400to readideas<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lov1oseBBw1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>American Wood Type: 1828-1900 - Notes on the Evolution of Decorated and Large Types</h1> <h2>Rob Roy Kelly</h2> <p>The first and most authoritative history of wood type in the United States is now reissued in paperback. This book tells the complete story of wood type, beginning with the history of wood as a printing material, the development of decorated letters and large letters, and the invention of machinery for mass-producing wood letters. The 19th-century heyday of wood type is explored in great detail, including all aspects of design, manufacture, and marketing, and the evolution of styles. Many related trades interacted with wood type production; the book examines the influence of lithography, letterpress, metal-plate and wood engraving, sign painting and calligraphy, poster printing, and type-founding. Long out of print, the book is still regarded by scholars and designers as an invaluable resource for a rich legacy of typographic art. More than 600 specimens of wood type are classified and annotated, as are more than 100 specimens of complete fonts. This reissue includes a new foreword by David Shields, Design Curator of the Rob Roy Kelly Wood Type Collection at the University of Texas at Austin, discussing the renewed interest in the subject since the mid-1990s as well as ongoing research into the history of wood type.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018566987http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/8018566987Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:10:04 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolywot6eD1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Designing for Interaction: Creating Innovative Applications and Devices (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter)</h1> <h2>Dan Saffer</h2> <p>Interaction design is all around us. If you’ve ever wondered why your mobile phone looks pretty but doesn’t work well, you’ve confronted bad interaction design. But if you’ve ever marveled at the joy of using an iPhone, shared your photos on Flickr, used an ATM machine, recorded a television show on TiVo, or ordered a movie off Netflix, you’ve encountered good interaction design: products that work as well as they look.</p> <p>Interaction design is the new field that defines how our interactive products behave. Between the technology that powers our devices and the visual and industrial design that creates the products’ aesthetics lies the practice that figures out how to make our products useful, usable, and desirable.</p> <p>This thought-provoking new edition of <em>Designing for Interaction</em> offers the perspective of one of the most respected experts in the field, Dan Saffer. This book will help you</p> <ul><li><p>learn to create a design strategy that differentiates your product from the competition</p></li> <li><p>use design research to uncover people’s behaviors, motivations, and goals in order to design for them</p></li> <li><p>employ brainstorming best practices to create innovativenew products and solutions</p></li> <li><p>understand the process and methods used to define product behavior<br/> It also offers interviews and case studies from industry leaders on prototyping, designing in an Agile environment, service design, ubicomp, robots, and more.</p></li> </ul>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825642540http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825642540Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:31:35 -0400to readdesign<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyueo9nL1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>TypoMag</h1> <h2>Laura Meseguer</h2> <p>This is the first book in the new Typo collection, which is conceived as a source of inspiration for designers who use typography as one of the main resources in their projects - from both an expressive and communicative standpoint. The first volume of the collection is TypoMag and is dedicated to typography as used in magazines. TypoMag analyzes excellence in the use of typography, custom-made fonts and the personalized fonts used in more than 30 magazines on a variety of topics.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825589232http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825589232Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:30:14 -0400to readjournalism<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolysd2YaQ1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Page One: Inside The New York Times and the Future of Journalism (Participant Media Guide)</h1> <h2>David Folkenflik</h2> <p>The news media is in the middle of a revolution. Old certainties have been shoved aside by new entities such as WikiLeaks and Gawker, Politico and the Huffington Post. But where, in all this digital innovation, is the future of great journalism? Is there a difference between an opinion column and a blog, a reporter and a social networker? Who curates the news, or should it be streamed unimpeded by editorial influence?</p> <p>Expanding on Andrew Rossi’s “riveting” film (<i>Slate</i>), David Folkenflik has convened some of the smartest media savants to talk about the present and the future of news. Behind all the debate is the presence of the New York Times, and the inside story of its attempt to navigate the new world, embracing the immediacy of the web without straying from a commitment to accurate reporting and analysis that provides the paper with its own definition of what it is there to showcase: all the news that’s fit to print.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825542758http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825542758Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:29:01 -0400to readjournalism<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyq4VtpA1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Language Culture Type: International Type Design in the Age of Unicode</h1> <h2> </h2> <p>Language Culture Type grew out of the first international type-design competition, the 2001 bukva:raz!, whose goal was to promote global cultural pluralism, interaction, and diversity in typographic communications. The book lavishly presents the winning entries, along with information about each typeface, its language, and its designer. A series of essays gives context for the interplay of types and languages in the world today — including the attempt to mesh all existing scripts into a single digital encoding system called Unicode. It also delves into the specific issues around developing typefaces for the many linguistic cultures in the world, from the various Cyrillic letterforms to Vietnam’s ancient ideographic script.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825490958http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825490958Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:27:40 -0400to readletterforms<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyovwC7X1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>By Its Cover: Modern American Book Cover Design</h1> <h2>Ned Drew</h2> <p>We all know we’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, but the truth is that we do just that nearly every time we walk into a bookstore or pull a book off a tightly packed shelf. It’s really not something we should be ashamed about, for it reinforces something we sincerely believe: design matters. At its best, book cover design is an art that transcends the publisher’s commercial imperativesto reflect both an author’s ideas and contemporary cultural values in a vital, intelligent, and beautiful way.</p> <p>In this groundbreaking and lavishly illustrated history, authors Ned Drew and Paul Sternberger establish American book cover design as a tradition of sophisticated, visual excellence that has put shape to our literary landscape.</p> <p><em>By Its Cover</em> traces the story of the American book cover from its inception as a means of utilitarian protection for the book to its current status as an elaborately produced form of communication art. It is, at once, the intertwined story of American graphic design and American literature, and features the work of such legendary figures as Rockwell Kent, E. McKnight Kauffer, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Rudy deHarak, and Roy Kuhlman along with more recent and contemporary innovators including Push Pin Studios, Chermayeff & Geismar, Karen Goldberg, Chip Kidd, and John Gall.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825461921http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825461921Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:26:54 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolym7IbQF1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Type Now: A Manifesto</h1> <h2>Fred Smeijers</h2> <p>With the desktop publishing revolution of the 1980s, typographic design came within the reach of anyone with a home computer. Since that time, we have seen a boom in the production of new fonts. This book takes stock of what was achieved during this protean period. Smeijers, a first-generation digital type designer, knows the possibilities of computer technology, but nevertheless argues for the continuing validity of the traditional skills of drawing and shape-making. He suggests that the trends of the recent past are already exhausted. As new industry standards are introduced, font design must again become a job for engineers rather than self-trained designers. The book concludes that the number of new fonts being introduced must be reduced, and it ends with a proposal for a new “moral code” for type designers.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825400321http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825400321Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:25:18 -0400to readletterforms<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyn9O8401r06jy1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Art Direction Explained, At Last!</h1> <h2>Steven Heller</h2> <p>This book is a highly informative, highly entertaining introduction to what art direction is and what art directors do. Written by two of the world’s leading experts on the subject, it covers the role of art director in numerous environments, including magazines and newspapers, advertising, corporate identity, museums, and publishing. It also provides an insight into what makes a successful art director, what an art director actually does all day, what makes things go right, and what makes things go wrong.</p> <p>Alongside perspectives on typography, illustration, and photography, there are case studies of successful art direction in different spheres, from <em>McSweeney’s</em> to Vier5’s web design. The authors have also invited pre-eminent international art directors to interpret their roles in special sections of the book that they have art directed themselves. The result is an impressive, enlightening, and often very funny diversity of perspectives and approaches.</p> <p>Clearly written, including a glossary of handy art director sayings, an “art director test,” and more, <em>Art Direction Explained, At Last!</em> will provide students with insights into the world of art direction and professionals with a perceptive overview of their profession.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825425318http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825425318Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:25:00 -0400to readjournalism<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyl3VNRh1r06jy1o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces (Design Brief)</h1> <h2>Bruce Willen</h2> <p>No component of graphic design has attracted as much interest or inspired as much innovation in recent years as lettering and type. These fundamentals of design, once the exclusive domain of professional typographers, have become an essential starting point for anyone looking for a fresh way to communicate. Practical information about creating letters and type often amounts to a series of guidelines for executing a particular process, font program, or style. But what makes lettering and type endlessly fascinating is the flexibility to interpret and sometimes even break these rules. <em>Lettering & Type</em> is a smart-but- not-dense guide to creating and bending letters to one’s will. More than just another pretty survey, it is a powerful how-to book full of relevant theory, history, explanatory diagrams, and exercises. While other type design books get hung up on the technical and technological issues of type design and lettering, <em>Lettering & Type</em> features the context and creativity that shape letters and make them interesting.</p> <p>Authors and designers Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals examine classic design examples as well as exciting contemporary lettering of all stripes—from editorial illustrations to concert posters to radical conceptual alphabets. <em>Lettering & Type</em> is ideal for anyone looking to move beyond existing typography and fonts to create, explore, and use original or customized letterforms. This latest addition to our best-selling Design Briefs seriesfeatures a foreword by Ellen Lupton and hundreds of images and examples of work by historical and contemporary designers, artists, and illustrators, including Marian Bantjes, Stefan Sagmeister, Matthew Carter, Christoph Niemann, Steve Powers (ESPO), House Industries, Christian Schwartz, Margaret Kilgallen, James Victore, Abbott Miller, Sibylle Hagmann, Ed Fella, and many more. Throughout the book interviews with type designers, artists, and graphic designers provide real-world perspective from contemporary practitioners.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825375178http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825375178Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:24:39 -0400to readletterforms<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyho60dy1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences</h1> <h2>Nancy Duarte</h2> <p>Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they’ve wasted their time? All too often, presentations don’t resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action.</p> <p>Just as the author’s first book helped presenters become visual communicators, <em>Resonate</em> helps you make a strong connection with your audience and lead them to purposeful action. The author’s approach is simple: building a presentation today is a bit like writing a documentary. Using this approach, you’ll convey your content with passion, persuasion, and impact.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825295962http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825295962Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:22:36 -0400to readdesign<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolyexQRnd1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History</h1> <h2>Franco Moretti</h2> <p><strong>The ‘great iconoclast of literary criticism’ reinvents the study of the novel.</strong> In this groundbreaking book, Franco Moretti argues that literature scholars should stop reading books and start counting, graphing, and mapping them instead. In place of the traditionally selective literary canon of a few hundred texts, Moretti offers charts, maps and time lines, developing the idea of “distant reading” into a full-blown experiment in literary historiography, in which the canon disappears into the larger literary system. Charting entire genres—the epistolary, the gothic, and the historical novel—as well as the literary output of countries such as Japan, Italy, Spain, and Nigeria, he shows how literary history looks significantly different from what is commonly supposed and how the concept of aesthetic form can be radically redefined.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825233218http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7825233218Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:20:57 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_loluw85x841r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Beer: A Genuine Collection of Cans</h1> <h2>Dan Becker</h2> <p>Ever crack open a can of Chief Oshkosh of Wisconsin, or sample Pabst’s Big Cat Malt Liquor? Remember the original St. Pauli Girl, Tennent’s bevy of lager lovelies, or Olde Frothingslosh (“the pale stale ale with the foam on the bottom”)? Presented alphabetically by brand, the nearly 500 cans collected here come from thirty countries and range from the iconic to the obscure to the downright bizarre. From long-forgotten brews to classic brands that have changed their look but never gone out of style, <em>Beer</em> offers a peek into the last century of beer culture, exploring what we drank, how we drank it, and why we picked it off the shelf. While it may not be as refreshing as a frosty cold can of Bud, cracking open this book is certain to stimulate beer lovers and design fans alike.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7822446866http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7822446866Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:04:55 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolqof9HNN1r06jy1o1_250.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>History of the Poster</h1> <h2>Josef Muller-Brockmann</h2> <p>History of the Poster, co-written by Josef and Shizuko Muller-Brockmann, is a landmark account of one of the most prolific visual traditions of our culture. Originally published in 1971, this seminal study is clearly written and richly illustrated. Now reprinted by Phaidon Press, History of the Poster is an essential read for anyone intrigued by this most modern medium. The book presents an exhaustive collection of posters, ranging from the end of the nineteenth century until the early seventies, when the book was published for the first time. Conceived, written and designed by one of the best and most influential poster designers of the twentieth century, the book defines the nature of a poster and indicates the laws of designing it. Muller-Brockmann defines and describes four fundamental conceptions of the poster, approaching the function-type of each and presenting an array of methods used to capture the attention of the viewer. The author employs sure aesthetic judgement in his selection of images as he guides us through the formation and evolution of style, emphasis and connotation in poster design. This reprint has not tampered with the original edition’s design or layout and stays true to Muller-Brockmann’s original concept.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819084182http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819084182Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:33:51 -0400to readhistory<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolqn4RWhE1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Perennial Library)</h1> <h2>Edward De Bono</h2> <p>The first practical explanation of how creativity works, this results-oriented bestseller trains listeners to move beyond a “vertical” mode of thought to tap the potential of lateral thinking.</p>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819055300http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819055300Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:33:04 -0400to readideas<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lolqmfwEQe1r06jy1o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><h1>Letter Fountain</h1> <h2>Joep Pohlen</h2> <p><b>Everything you could ever want to know about printing letters and numbers</b></p> <p>Looking back as far as man’s first efforts to communicate with visual signs and drawings, <i>Letter Fountain </i>is a completely unique typeface handbook: in addition to <b>examining the form and anatomy of every letter in the alphabet</b> (as well as punctuation marks and special characters), the book cross-references type designs with important works of art and art movements <b>from Gutenberg’s times until today</b>.  Further attention is given to the esthetics of the digital age and <b>typographical recommendations</b> such as the choice of the right typeface for a job. Rounding out the guide are an <b>in-depth comparison between sans-serif and serif typefaces</b>, an essay about measuring systems and indications, advice about typographic rules, plus a manual for developing digital fonts.</p> <p><b>Over 150 typefaces</b>, their origins, and font characteristics are <b>discussed in detail</b>, visually explained by full page tables including scale, weight, and slope increments. The <b>extensive appendix</b> contains a general index, one on typefaces (more than 300 are depicted in the book), an index on <b>over 250 type designers</b>, an exhaustive index on type founders from Gutenberg to present, a graphical dictionary, and a bibliography for further reading.<br/><br/> The original Dutch edition <i>Letterfontein</i> received a <b>Certificate for Typographic Excellence</b> from Type Directors Club New York (TDC) in 2010, and a <b>red-dot design award</b> from the Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany.<br/><br/> Special features include: </p> <ul><li> thoroughly hardbound in half linen with three ribbon bookmarks  </li> <li> 144 pages appendix with resourceful glossary and indices </li> <li> convenient typographic ruler with conversions between four measurement systems and hidden shortcuts for your Apple keyboard! <b><br/></b> </li> </ul>http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819039071http://smallpica.tumblr.com/post/7819039071Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:32:39 -0400to readletterforms