Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Type Tells Tales focuses on typography that is integral to the message or story it is expressing. This is type that speaks - that is literally the voice of the narrator. And the narrator is the typographer. This can be quite literal, for example when letters come from the mouth of a person or thing, as in a comics balloon. It can be hand lettering, drawn with its own distinctive peculiarities that convey personality and mood. Precedents for contemporary work might be in Apollinaire's calligram 'Il pleut' or Kurt Schwitters' children's picture book The Scarecrow , or in Concrete Poetry, Futurist 'Words in Freedom' or Dadaist collage.

Seeking out examples in the furthest reaches of graphic design, Steven Heller and Gail Anderson uncover work that reveals how type can be used to render a particular voice or multiple conversations, how letters can be used in various shapes and sizes to create a kind of typographic pantomime, and how type can become both content and illustration as in, for example Paul Rand's 'ROARRRRR'. Letters take the shape and form of other things, such as people, faces, animals, cars or planes. There are examples of how typographic blocks, paragraphs, sentences and blurbs can be used to guide the eye through dense information.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Heller (former art director of the New York Times) and Anderson (former creative director at SpotCo, an ad agency known for poster designs for Broadway plays) explore the endless opportunities of graphic design in this rich study of typography. The book's 332 images showcase experimental designs in which type and letters "are active participants in the composition" of written stories. Classics works, such as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," take on a new life in the hands of designer Hermes Mazali, who illustrated a version of the story using hand-drawn lettering inspired by the human anatomy. Artist Herman Inclusus mimics the Cyrillic letter forms of medieval manuscripts for the text in his original graphic novel Dismal Incantation. The text almost disappears entirely in one of Sam Winston's compositions, which plays with the text of classic fairy tales. There are numerous examples from children's books with work from the venerable Maira Kalman and Milton Glaser. This beautiful book is sure to strike a chord with bibliophiles and art lovers alike. Color photos. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

Heller and Anderson (both, School of Visual Arts) have produced a beautiful book examining the increasingly diverse world of type and font design. Books of this kind have been popular at least since Walter Tracy's Letters of Credit was published by Godine in 1986. The trend has only increased with the coming of the internet age and the proliferation of fonts. Heller and Anderson take the reader/viewer through a smorgasbord of tasty typographic treats. As always with type design, discretion is called for: many of the fonts the authors include are exercises in personal expression and may not be the most readable or legible. Special note must be made on the production values. Yale University Press has printed the book in rich color on an excellent paper in an oversize folio, production choices that enhance the drama of the typefaces and render them almost master drawings. Summing Up: Recommended. All readers. --Steven Skaggs, University of Louisville