Yun Feng Zhu says:

if you are a serious designer, you need something for reference, this is the book you’re looking for. hundreds of picture, unique idea about design, and stong typographic backgroud, this book is really nice and carefully done.
Rating: 5 / 5

Benjamin Riordan says:

This book, ostensibly an instructive text, is coffee-table worthy for its extensive full-color illustrations. Well over a century of advertising is presented, and- although the book should not be regarded as a historical treatment of the subject- a good perspective can be gained on the current state of the art by tracing the evolution of ads from early handbills to today’s glossy magazine spreads.

In addition to the main text and accompanying illustrations, the margins are generously peppered with pithy quotes from important figures within the ad industry. This book is very much aimed at the reader as a creative professional (as opposed to books that focus on, e.g., the art of typesetting or the science of color). The tone of the book is authoritative but informal; the author often uses real-world examples to illustrate why a certain thing is important or why a certain thing is to be avoided while creating an art package. The book leads the reader through a realistic presentation of the required skills and expected duties of people working in the ad industry, whether in the capacity of art director, graphic designer, copy writer, or administrator.

A random sample from the table of contents:

-The Unique Selling Proposition

-How to be seen in noisiness

-What makes readers respond

-The three design elements

-Internal and external structure

-Hierarchy: Three levels of type

I can’t review this book without making two criticisms (one large, one small):

1. The book’s layout makes it frustrating to read. The body text is surrounded on all sides by illustrations, captions, and charts that draw the eye immediately away from the center of the page. The result is that I would scan the entire two page spread before actually reading the text; I was left choosing to either read captions without understanding why or trying to read the main paragraphs while my eyes wandered at each line break. It may sound like a small matter, but for a 200-page book it was a trial of my patience.

2. There were a surprising number of misspelled words and typos for a book about design and typography. Again, it may sound like a small matter, but it is jarring to parse a sentence several times to figure out what it was supposed to mean (especially considering criticism #1).

All told, this would be a good campanion book for a degree program or a good introduction for someone getting started in the business. It is clear that the author comes from a teaching background, and the information is well-ordered and clear. This is definitely a book that I will keep close to my workstation.

Rating: 3 / 5

Robin Benson says:

If you understood my headline maybe you don’t need this book as you’ve probably reached a level of deep typographic and design awareness but if your not quite sure then this fascinating title is well worth buying.

Every year there are several new books on design published and I tend to group them in two categories: over-designed with images afloat in a sea of white page space and (most annoyingly) small text type and even smaller captions so you can only read the book in sunlight, the other category includes books with good, solid, editorial perspectives that get to grips with the subject matter and present design concepts: practical and theoretical, with clarity in a well designed format. I think Alex White’s book definitely falls into the latter group.

With 1500 plus illustrations the book is the opposite of those titles that seem to think that just a few large images will do. Nearly every spread has fourteen lines of text, either side of the gutter with the illustrations making a border round them. This main text sets out ad design concepts and the images show practical examples. Fortunately all the illustrative material is captioned. I did notice though, that on a few pages, with so many ad reproductions, some are too small to take in the point being made about the headline or design.

The three ad sections: Strategies; Design; Typography basically cover print advertising and there is a short overview of billboards, TV, radio and web design. The section that really interested me was Typography. In sixty-five pages White packs in a remarkable amount of type knowledge, so much, in fact, that on first reading you’ll probably miss a lot. For instance, on page 169, there is an ad by the great designer Herb Lubalin and next to it the same ad with a couple of vertical red lines added to show how Lubalin optically lined up the stacked headline. Page 198 has block of display text and on 199 the same text is vastly improved by using nine examples of typographic finesse. This sort of content is very typical of the practical ideas and suggestions throughout the book.

The title was designed by the author and well printed (with 175 screen) on gloss paper. Considering it is about design I thought it rather odd that the cover, title, imprint and contents pages were rather subdued in their presentation but a minor point when considering the wealth of information in all the other pages. White’s book is just the thing to help you knock that bright idea into a classy graphic reality.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking ‘customer images’ under the cover.

Rating: 5 / 5