The Designer's Eye

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a visuall book about visual quality!
Review: Why this book has not been written before? its arguments are compelling, the evidence is before our eyes. Why was I never exposed to a similar book during my 8 years of studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts?
"The Designer's Eye" is about visual tradecaft. It shows on the same page, on the right side the way a building could have been, and on the left side the way it is. The difference between the 2 images is a visual detail, sometime very simple (say, a painted horizontal line) sometime more elaborate (say, a cornice). The visual result of this before and after approach is compelling.
From time to time a little humorous vignette is added to illustrate with a non architectural detail - usually borrowed from women fashion - the visual point made on the page.
The great strength of Brolin's book is that it shows real examples selected among a wide range of buildings. Some are architectural icons like the "Palazzo Nuevo" from Michelangelo, other are anonymous buildings like a suburban house in Pensylvania.
Ninety percent of the book is visual, no long winded theory, just two images next to each other, and a few lines of comments below, in case ones doesn't get the point right away.
The Designer's Eye demonstrates that no building needs to be visually unpleasant. A little care about the way things will look from the street will do wonder. Designers and builders who do not have instinctively this visual sensitivity would be well advised to borrow freely from Brolin's examples which are grouped by architectonic themes, facades, edges, details, etc.
For those who think that they are already visually creative, a little reminder of all the tricks of the trade might also help.
This book is a must for architects, remodellers, and more broadly for people interested in improving the visual quality of their own environment, at least when they have any control over it.
I only regret that the book is not in colour, or may be on a CDROM. May be a future coffee table book edition?
PS. I know why this book has not be written before. Without digital images and the possibility of modifying them easily this book would be impossible to produce. Previous books dealing with the same subject would have to ask the reader to imagine what the Michelangelo' capitol would look like without the "Grand Ordre" spanning two floors. Impossible to do without becoming terribly verbose, and therefore boring for the visually oriented.