This is the best design book I've ever read.
This is the last Summer Of Design Books post. Have you enjoyed it? I have, although I've been disappointed that only Loic bothered posting anything! Especially as lots of people told me they were writing reviews and then didn't. Lazy buggers.
I'm also disappointed that I didn't manage to get through all the books I'd wanted to this summer. But hey, there are plenty more summers left.
Still, this is one book I did read. And I'm glad I did because it's brilliant. I made notes throughout and I'm gonna stick photos of those up here. That might not be much use to you. Which is tough, really. You should buy the book.
The problem with all the design books I've read feel like they've been written by wankers. They might not have been, but they feel like they have. Boring, self important people. Not the sort of people you'd want to be sat next to on a plane. You know the type.
This feels like it's been written by a mate. Or a really interesting bloke you met in a nice pub who happened to know a lot about graphic design.
Like the title says, it's 79 short essays about design. The key word there is short. Short is good in design books. It's more like a collection of blog posts.
It's humorous in places and laugh out loud funny in others. It's humble and personal but it covers the big debates of the day - Innovation is the New Black is a good example. It's been written with care and thought. It has plenty of head nodding familiar moments.
I couldn't put it down - and there's no other design book you can say that about is there?
Michael Johnson has written a more detailed, scholarly post about the book here. He even lists writing tips gleened from the book which are well worth a read and a bookmark.
You should buy it.
My own fault for not including a credit perhaps but I actually did this one:
http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/2008/07/summer-of-des-3.html
But anyway, I totally agree about 79. Brilliant.
Posted by: Richard | Oct 01, 2008 at 14:02
You did Richard yes. My mistake, sorry.
Posted by: Ben | Oct 01, 2008 at 15:38
Too many books – not enough time!
Posted by: LazyBugger | Oct 01, 2008 at 15:47
"The key word there is short. Short is good in design books. It's more like a collection of blog posts."
Just wanted to check.. aren't all the 'stories' referencing this list of blog posts by Bierut: http://designobserver.com/archives/author.html?id=19 ?? if so is there anything new/extra other than the book looking wonderfully designed? :)
Posted by: Dan | Oct 02, 2008 at 05:44
Not all the stories are from Design Observer. A lot of them are from articles Bierut had written for magazines like Eye in the nineties.
I need to check, but I think all of them had been published somewhere else.
Posted by: Ben | Oct 02, 2008 at 08:46
Thanks for this post. I've just ordered the book, based on your small review of it. Looks interesting.
Posted by: Neil Martin | Oct 03, 2008 at 00:54
Just ordered this as well. Been on the to read list for a while!
Posted by: Guy | Oct 08, 2008 at 21:20
Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!
Posted by: dissertation write up | Jan 16, 2009 at 10:36
Thanks for the info!
My next purchase from Amazon will now be this book. :)
Posted by: Patrick McLaren | Jan 17, 2009 at 12:51
Hi,
It was a very nice post! Just want to say thank you for the information you have shared. Just continue writing this kind of post. Thanks.
Posted by: Essays | Nov 03, 2009 at 05:27
Send me your accounting & finance assignments and i will send you back the answers. I also help in projects, papers and essays.
http://www.dissertationhelpindia.com/dissertation-samples.html
Posted by: dissertation samples | Apr 10, 2010 at 09:35