Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Visual excitement is the theme of this abundantly illustrated anthology of modern graphic design. Book typography must obey the rules of simplicity, clarity, and legibility, says Elam, but other forms of communication--such as printed advertising, magazine illustration, posters, and record jackets--demand a more self-assertive, expressive style that should tease the eye and challenge the reader. To this end, she advocates several different techniques: changes in perspective, hand lettering, collage, three-dimensional effects, and abstraction. At best these effects can help to communicate an idea with wit and verve; at worst they numb the eye and distort historic letter forms, as if viewed in a kaleidoscope or fun-house mirror. The author herself has had so much trouble reading some words in her illustrations that she has mistranscribed them in her captions. Any school with a graphic design program will want to have her commentary for teaching purposes, for its explication of how these visual tricks were achieved (although some are so striking that mere prose could never do them justice). Libraries that collect specimens and history of typography may prefer E.M. Gottschall's larger, more authoritative, and better-edited Typographic Communications Today (CH, Dec'89). -J. Bidwell, University of California, Los Angeles