Véronique Vienne

Writer; Editor; Lecturer / Graphic Design / France /

www.veroniquevienne.com/intro.php

Books Every Graphic Designer Should Read

. . . I am sure that soon enough a genius will come up with an iPhone GPS app that can tell me where I stowed away my copy of In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, Diana Vreeland’s memoirs, or the English translation of Boris Vian’s endearing novel L’Ecume des Jours. They are among the books that have helped me understand what design criticism is all about. I’d like to make an argument that they should be on the list of “Books Every Graphic Designer Should Read.” Meanwhile, I recently pulled from my bookcase ten odd volumes I’d like to put on that list as well. . . . View the complete text

I thought that I had an idea that would make me rich. I wanted to develop a smart interactive “wand” that would help me geo-locate my favorite books, many of them tucked in my bookcases in the wrong place or forgotten on a pile somewhere on a table, a ledge, or a chair. This “Book Beeper,” as I called it, would be able to identify a misplaced book with a beep, the same way some devices help you find misplaced phones, remotes, or car keys.

“For your device to be interesting, it has to speak to as large an audience as possible,” said the product designer I eventually consulted. “If it only speaks to you, it’s a prosthesis, not a product.”

A prosthesis, he told me, is a design solution to a specific problem, whereas the kind of objects that make sense nowadays do more than offer answers—they create value and become part of social ecosystems.

Jargon aside, he had just described what makes books still relevant today. They do create value and become part of social ecosystems. There is no faster way to bond with someone than to mention the title of a book and say, “You’ve got to get it. I couldn’t put it down.”

I am sure that soon enough a genius will come up with an iPhone GPS app that can tell me where I stowed away my copy of In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, Diana Vreeland’s memoirs, or the English translation of Boris Vian’s endearing novel L’Ecume des Jours. They are among the books that have helped me understand what design criticism is all about. I’d like to make an argument that they should be on the list of “Books Every Graphic Designer Should Read.” Meanwhile, I recently pulled from my bookcase ten odd volumes I’d like to put on that list as well.

My hope is that the following comments will inspire you to search your own shelves for books you want to find, dust, reread, and maybe put aside in a special place in case no one ever figures out the graphical information system that will allow you to track their coordinates.

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Nonfiction, Graphic Design

title a–z

5 books

Beautiful Evidence

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Edward R. Tufte

. . . this historian of information and disinformation has for more than 25 years been advocating a return to clear, legible graphics that intimately associate numbers, letters, diagrams and drawings in order to inform, instruct and inspire. His system is based on the sound management of complexity. The eye, he says, is an instrument eager for minutiae: sometimes, adding compact details suffices to shed light on what would otherwise be misleading information or statistics. . . . View the complete text

With data visualization now the latest fad, are Edward Tufte’s books losing their relevance? Compared to the jaw-dropping work of computer scientists and Web designers like John Maeda, Yugo Nakamura, or Jonathan Harris, his approach to envisioning information could feel a little dated. But Tufte would probably argue that the stunning interactive infographics that are recently the object of our wonder—and deservingly so—are just eye-and-brain candies, as deceptive as the PowerPoint charts and graphs he so despises. In his books and conferences, Tufte blames the poor quality of the NASA data analysis and PowerPoint graphics for the successive disasters of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles.

Under close inspection, the graphic pyrotechnics now available online function as art installations, scientific curiosities, or sales tools but they do little to help viewers understand problems and issues. Using graphics to embellish information instead of analyzing it is the kind of thing that makes Edward Tufte livid. Professor emeritus of political science, statistics, and computer science at Yale University, author of many best-sellers (all self-published), and a tireless public speaker, this historian of information and disinformation has for more than 25 years been advocating a return to clear, legible graphics that intimately associate numbers, letters, diagrams and drawings in order to inform, instruct and inspire. His system is based on the sound management of complexity. The eye, he says, is an instrument eager for minutiae: sometimes, adding compact details suffices to shed light on what would otherwise be misleading information or statistics.

One important caveat of his theories, often overlooked, is that these all-important details, easily spotted on paper, are hard to read on the screen. Indeed, one of the distinctive characteristics of his books is the quality of their paper and of their printing that allow him to demonstrate what a fine instrument the eye can be. In his chapter on “ChartJunk” in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, he shows that a black speck, the size of a dot on the “i” in six-point Garamond Light, is perfectly visible when extraneous graphic clutter is removed.

This apostle of complexity still has his fans. Among nerds, geeks, mathematicians of every ilk, web designers, programmer-analysts, graph-worshippers, cartographers, statisticians, and contemporary artists, his aphorisms are as cherished as those of Albert Einstein or the Dalai Lama.

Web users share his adages. Various lists of his practical tips circulate on the Net. They include: Do not exaggerate vertical scale . . . on the contrary, emphasize horizontal scale; collect words, numbers and illustrations in one space, as small as possible; avoid grids, or replace them with light grey lines; use an array of very fine lines; avoid thick lines, moiré effects, stripes and bright colors.

But my favorite tip, that applies to more than just charts, could serve as a warning label when dealing with difficult life situations: beware, the desire for conclusion is always suspect.

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The Elements of Style (illustrated)

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William Strunk Jr.

E. B. White

Maira Kalman Illustrator

. . . For those dogged utopians who, like me, still believe that less is more, the humble grammar guidebook turned out to be just as much of a modernist touchtone as the Bauhaus manifesto or Lissitsky’s famous minimalist compositions. Beginning with a stern “Omit needless words!” Strunk spelled out principles that not only fostered clarity of mind but also translated in simple, brief and bold terms the spirit of a new era. . . . View the complete text

In 1919, the same year El Lissitsky and Alexander Rodchenko founded the Constructivist movement and Walter Gropius opened the door of the Bauhaus, an obscure English professor at Cornell University, William Strunk Jr., gave his students a slim, self-published volume titled The Elements of Style. The manual was, in his view, a modest attempt to sum up some of the most glaring mistakes and stylistic faux-pas commonly found in the compositions of his undergraduate pupils.

For those dogged utopians who, like me, still believe that less is more, the humble grammar guidebook turned out to be just as much of a modernist touchtone as the Bauhaus manifesto or Lissitsky’s famous minimalist compositions. Beginning with a stern “Omit needless words!” Strunk spelled out principles that not only fostered clarity of mind but also translated in simple, brief and bold terms the spirit of a new era.

“Why say ‘utilize’ when there is the simple and unpretentious word ‘use’?”

“Statements qualified with unnecessary auxiliaries or conditionals sound irresolute.”

“The surest way to arouse and hold the reader’s attention is by being specific, definite and concrete.”

Arguing that prose is made more vivid when the writer evokes precise images and sensations instead of vague abstractions, Strunk treated sentences the way a typographer treats letterforms: with evident sympathy for the readers. One feels that he was as much of a designer as he was a wordsmith. As far as he was concerned, putting down signs on the page was an activity requiring a love of pure forms.

The original version of The Elements of Style would have been forgotten if one of Strunk’s former students, the American novelist E. B. White, had not been asked to update and revise the booklet in 1957, 13 years after its author had died. A longtime contributor to The New Yorker, White was already known as the author of two classic children books, Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. His revised and augmented version of The Elements of Style was an instant success. Since, more than ten million copies have been sold.

Whether the book did improve the writing style of generations of American and English literature students is arguable. What is sure is that it offers some of the best advice for graphic designers, art directors, creative types—for people whose job is to impart information in a visual manner. In a recent re-edition of the book, in the chapter on “misused words and expressions,” White added a couple of entries. Among them is the verb “personalize.”

“It’s a pretentious word, often carrying bad advice,” he wrote. “Do not personalize your prose; simply make it good and keep it clean.” And as an example he suggested replacing “Personalize your stationery” with a more straightforward “Design a letterhead.”

I’d say: just eliminate the marketing jargon that is now a mainstay of a designer’s vocabulary. Good Design is Good English.

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Envisioning Information

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Edward R. Tufte

See my comments on Beautiful Evidence for an appreciation of Tufte’s work.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

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Edward R. Tufte

In his chapter on “ChartJunk” in The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Tufte shows that a black speck, the size of a dot on the “i” in six-point Garamond Light, is perfectly visible when extraneous graphic clutter is removed.

Also see my comments on Beautiful Evidence for an appreciation of Tufte’s work.

Visual Explanations

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Edward R. Tufte

See my comments on Beautiful Evidence for an appreciation of Tufte’s work.

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