Noisy Decent Graphics

BINR; Paula Scher: Works

I’ve only had this book a few days so it’s no surprise I’ve not read it. In fact, I’ll never read it. That's the point of this blogging series.

This is a good book. Simple monograph of Paula Scher put together by Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy who both know Paula well.

I like Paula and her work a lot. Her output is vast and the book reflects that, page after page of bold, vibrant, energetic graphic design. I flick through it in the video below and I think it’s the longest video in this series. Some lovely work in there. Nice big pictures.

There’s an interview by Shaughnessy, he’s good at that sort of thing so I would imagine that’s good too.

They also discuss some of the projects in depth and where Paula has worked with a client a long time, like Public Theater, that format looks like it works really well. As ever Paula has strong opinions and isn't afraid to state them.

Any graphic design that isn’t by Paula, like the cover and the chapter pages, I presume were designed by Tony Brook and Spin. They are lovely and fit the subject without getting in the way. The book is too heavy to read, like all good design books.

Here's a video of me flicking through the book. Excitingly this one has sound.

Paula Scher: Works from Ben Terrett on Vimeo.

You should probably buy this and you can from Unit Editions.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

 

BINR; Paul Rand: Steven Heller

Phiadon - The White Album.

Only joking, this is Paul Rand written by Steven Heller but I’ve binned the book jacket because I hate them so much.

Good book this. Classic monograph material. Heller knows how to write this stuff. Includes an intro by George Lois and plenty of good stories. I’d actually like to read this. One day, one day.

Lots pictures. The work is so good. Beautiful.

Paul Rand as a kid in Brooklyn.

As a designer working with the client at IBM. They look so cool. In 50 years time, will post-its look as cool?

Not much else to say about this. It's a simple premise, well executed. I don't remember when I bought it or any other details. I've enjoyed flicking through it again.

You can (and should) buy Paul Rand from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

BINR; Open Design Now

I couldn't remember why I bought this and then looking through it it became clear. It's a seductive proposition. I like design and I like openness. I especially like it when they come together.

I like the simple use of black and white on the cover. I agree with the thought that "design cannot remain exclusive". The contributors, like John Thackara, are good. The titles of the articles look interesting, the featured projects are right up my street.

But I've never read or even opened this book.

That's no surprise, it's hard to read. The layout is mostly impenetrable, full of wacky typography and bonkers diagrams. The very opposite of openness. 

I've included some bonkers diagrams above for you to examine. They feel like they've been drawn by people playing that game where you draw random charts on a whiteboard as you leave a meeting.

Back to the cover. There's a yellow circle that says, "with visual index". What they mean when they say "visual index" is pictures. What they mean when they say "with visual index" is that unlike normal books they've put all the pictures at the back because the front is mostly impenetrable essays full of wacky typography and bonkers diagrams.

I guess that didn't fit in the sticker so they opted for "with visual index".

The pictures are printed on a faded yellow stock. The book is too big and too heavy to read, like all good design books.

You can buy Open Design Now from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

BINR; Arup: Total Design Over Time

We’re a few weeks into this series and these books are falling into several categories. There are books I never want to read, books I can’t read and then there are books I genuinely might read. This falls into the latter category.

I bought this after I went to see the Arup exhibition at the V&A I like Arup and I loved the exhibition. Bought the book, haven’t read it. I’d actually like to read this one as the exhibition contained theories that resonated with my own work. The large scale and practical nature of their work appeals to me.

It’s a seductive mix of stunning photographs of large infrastructure and essays that add intellectual heft to the pictures.

The stuff about historical projects and how they unfolded, like this about their collaborations with Richard Rogers looks good. I’d like more of those.

Often monograph type books about living designers (or design firm in this case) appear a bit salesy. That’s inevitable, as this book will be sent to all clients and given out after every client meeting. It will act as a sales tool. Does that affect how it’s written? I’ve not read this, but I’m not convinced Arup really are “empowering marginalised communities” through their work. Maybe they are. I need to read the book.

You can read it too, you can buy Arup: Total Design Over Time from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

 

BINR; Plastics and Design: Hufnagl, Florian

Not only have I never read this book, I don’t think I’ve ever opened it.

I must have bought this when I was at university. I believed that you should be interested in the materials you were working with (still do) and there was a good book about paper that everyone had. No idea why I thought I'd ever work with plastic though. The student loan must have just come in.

There are a lot of chairs.

Even if I wanted to read it I couldn't because it's all small type on neon paper.

Hard to find this book to buy, there are some second hand ones on Amazon and Abe Books but if you ask me nicely I'll post you my copy free of charge.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

BINR; Digital by design: Troika

Blimey this feels dated. Flicking through this was like opening up a time capsule. It was first published in 2008 and really feels like a moment in time captured in a book. Full of projects that normally have an A4 notice stuck to them.

The book has a forward by Paola Antonelli (which I haven’t read but is probably good) and then it’s straight into the projects. It’s mostly full of this sort of stuff, which I remember the ad industry being obsessed with. This book probably spawned the term Creative Technologist and confused ad agencies forever.

I was as bad as anyone else. A look back through my 2008 pinboard reveals the tangibledigital tag which makes me guilty as hell. It was clearly a big hit in pitch meetings. Did this turn into Chalkbot?

 

It’s an odd book to review now because so many of the ideas have been superseded or just aren’t worth worrying about anymore. There are bigger issues or smaller, less laboured solutions. Anyway, there are some familiar faces.

Nik looking handsome.

Hard to recommend buying this now, but you can buy Digital by design: Troika from Amazon. I need a sit down and a cup of tea.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

 

BINR; Thomas Heatherwick: Making

Bought this in 2012 after going to the exhibition at the V&A. I think I’m right in saying this was the most visited free exhibition the V&A have ever put on. I took the GDS design team. As we were starting GDS we inspired by the great British designers and I would include Heatherwick in that group. I’m a huge fan. 

Although I don’t like the Garden Bridge, I think it’s the wrong bridge in the wrong place.

V&A Exhibition, blurry photo taken on an iPhone 4. Is that Hurrell on the right?

This book is pretty straightforward. Four page intro and than straight into the work. All killer, no filler. It feels like it’s every project Heatherwick has ever done.

There are all the classics, the cauldron, the rolling bridge, the zip bag, the thing in Conran’s garden. The window thing outside Harvey Nics - anyone remember that? Driving past that in 1997 first alerted* me to Heatherwick. It was so unexpected on Kensington High St, and so striking for a retailer. I thought it was his first project out of college (I don’t think it was) and I remember being impressed that it won a Black Pencil. More here.

The book’s nicely laid out, bigger projects get more text and more sketches. It conveys the depth of his output - it’s staggering. Big photos which are always good. But very heavy. Like all these design books you couldn't carry it around on the Tube.

A nice touch is the inclusion of things you never see like, the company Christmas cards which are obviously ace.

One small criticism - towards the end of the book it’s hard to tell which projects are ideas and which actually went ahead. It’s nice to have ideas in there, but it would be better if they were clearly marked as such. Feels like trickery to include the "Colindale Tower" and then not mention that was only a proposal. This tower doesn't really exist in Colindale.

Here's the obligatory video.

A great book though, by a great designer. Buy it before everyone only remembers the bus and the bridge. You can buy Thomas Heatherwick: Making from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

*say that like George Harrison says it in While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

 

BINR; Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design

I can't remember why I bought this book. Did Saul Bass have an exhibition at the Design Museum? I don’t think so. The blurb tells us it was the first book published of his work. 15 years after his death.

I bought it when I was at Wieden’s and it’s worth mentioning in this series that while at Wieden’s I started buying design books again. I’d always bought these sort of design books when I could afford them but sometime in the early 2000’s I stopped. They were too expensive, too heavy and I never read them. If I needed stuff for reference it could be found online so there seemed little point.

And then at Wieden’s I restarted. Maybe it's because advertising is so derivative. So many people working like magpies searching through reference material. The internet is good for the latest stuff but books are useful for stuff that pre-dates the internet and often better for photocopying. I probably had a bit more money in pocket and felt some obligation to build a design library too, even though Wieden’s had a good library.

This book is the classic monograph. You’ll notice I’ve discarded the book jacket. I hate book jackets. It’s big and heavy. There’s a lot in it because he did a lot of work. A lot of work. A lot of good work.

And a lot of work has gone into this book. The quality is very high, not many designers get a foreword by Martin Scorsese “he was a legend in my eyes”. It has a preface by his daughter who is co author of the book.

It’s nicely broken into sections, organised well and every piece of work has a comprehensive description and every picture has a caption. It’s irritating how often that doesn’t happen. I worked with a bloke who had worked with Peter Kindersley of Dorling Kindersley who insisted every picture must have a caption. It’s a good rule.

Not many sketches, but lots of pictures of the work and some cool pictures of New York. His whole career looks so cool. Who wouldn’t want a picture like that of their work?

He seems like a cool character too. I bet meetings with Saul Bass were cool.

All the work is brilliant. Gorgeous. Look at those signs. look at them.

I've made another flicking through video after the success of the last one. Except this one is upside down. Just go with it. This is a lovely book.

You can buy Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

 

BINR; Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico

I bought this when I was Design Director at w+k. I think we were doing a pitch and we wanted to use some hand drawn type so I bought this as inspiration.

This book contains various photographs of type sketched by designers. Not really famous designers, at least not famous to me. There are a few well known names like Tom Geismar and Matthew Carter. Each designer talks a little about their sketchbooks and their relationship with type. There are a few paragraphs and two spreads for each designer. 

Flicking through now, I don't think there are enough actual sketch books. I'd love to see more sketch books, not neatly edited but complete with the shopping lists written in the margins. 

Although I have never and will never read this book, I don't think you're meant to read it. It's best when it's flicked through. I made a short video to illustrate this insight.

Looking at this book 6 years after I bought it, it's a little underwhelming. There aren't any sketches I fall in love with. It's a weird mix of doodles and detailed drawings. It's nice to flick through though.

You can buy Typography Sketchbooks from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

 

BINR; Kenneth Grange Making Britain Modern

I bought this after the exhibition which I reviewed here back in October 2011.

The exhibition was great and I think a huge success for the Design Museum. Kenneth Grange does exactly the type of design I love; function first but still beautiful. Simple things produced at scale, designed for everyone. It was after visiting this exhibition that I decided to take the job at GDS.  

The book is really the catalogue of the exhibition which itself was a monograph of Grange's life and work. It contains a piece by Deyan Sudjic and history of his life by Gemma Curtin who I think was the curator of the exhibition.

The book contains lots of sketches which are always fascinating and like Grange's work they need very little explanation. I love sketches like this and I like reading the stories behind designs, the process. I think most designers do.

I imagine most designers have a poster similar to this one he did when he was ten. Maybe not about the war, but very direct first attempts at graphic design. 

There's an interview with him which a quick scan tells me is as interesting and as humorous as he is in real life. Yesterday he was the guest on Desert Island Discs which you can listen to here. 

Grange was one of the founders of Pentagram, I can't find much about that in here but it must be in there somewhere.

There's a timeline at the end, a simple device but there isn't a better way to get across the influence Grange has had on Britain and the world. The 70s were a productive decade.

Interviews, opinion pieces, timeline and sketches - it's a good format for a design monograph. Functional, simple and more approachable than most. A fitting book for the man himself. I'd like to read this book.

You can buy Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern from Amazon.

Part of a series; Reviews of books I’ll never read.

Reviews of books I’ll never read

I own these books. I’ll never read them.

I only many books like this about design, mostly monographs of designers. When I bought them I don’t think I ever intended to read them, yet I still bought them. I imagine you own similar books. Sure, I always imagined a future sitting in an Eames chair reading designer monographs all day long, but that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

They're part reference book for a future project and part information I'd dearly like to have readily at hand. Some are huge and heavy, some are small. Usually they have lots of pictures and not many words. And yet I've still never read them.

So I thought it would be good to do a series of book reviews that explain why I thought they were interesting enough to buy, and what I can tell about the book just by flicking through a few pages and then writing a blog post. 400 words and 4 pictures, that sort of size. It might be fun, hopefully we'll all learn something and I might start to absorb some of that information.

I’ll try and do one a week. I've started with Kenneth Grange: Making Britain Modern.

So far:

Digital by design: Troika

Thomas Heatherwick: Making

Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design

Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico

Kenneth Grange Making Britain Modern