Design Language

Rating:
Summary: Great but it could be more visual
Review: I really liked the simplicity of the book but I wish that it showed some visual references to explain the ideas more clearly. I am an educator as well and I have found students like to see examples especially when they are trying to learn to be visual thinkers. The author did not define logo in his book. Why not? The colors chosen for this book are too close in value and when printed next to each other made it very difficult on the eyes. It is so bad in some areas (example: see Unity) that it seemed as though the printer purposely did not trap the colors (orange type in a grey field) because the reader could not of read the type. The typeface that was chosen for the main text was very difficult to read - Design Language missed the mark on legibility in some parts of the book. In fact, the author did not even define legibility within the book - it may of helped the designer who laid out the book.

Rating:
Summary: Great for Design Instructors!
Review: I teach at a graduate school that is structured around the concept of writing and design, type and image, and I found this book very useful for in class and homework assignments.

Each student had their own copy and I asked each of them to pick a word from the book as well as one of the corresponding definitions, and describe it typographically - using type as image to convey the meaning. It proved to be a great exercise to teach students the basic principles of scale, contrast, unity, perspective, etc. and actually have them retain it! Even the weaker students suprised me and themselves with how effective thier solutions were. It motivated most of the students to use the principles in their more complex design projects. Plus it's small, it's durable and it's beggs to be written in - making your own notations along the way.

I'm pleased visual examples were omitted by the author. It allows the reader to make his/her own interpretations of the word. The definition is there to keep us in check.