Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann’s Notable Books of 2011
all genres
- filter by:
- all genres (0)
For a friend who is a free-lance designer and has to do everything herself:
We used to have specialist that we could ask for advice, rely on for help and also blame for things that went wrong during the production process. These days, graphic designers have to be their own typesetters, reproduction photographers and print buyers. There are websites, help pages, blogs and numerous articles in trade magazines. But if you only want one reference that explains why things need to be a certain way, this book is all you’ll ever need. From typographic detail to color spaces, from paper types and sizes to image editing, it’s all here. Described in incredible but useful detail (the author is a German compositor) and illustrated in a way that coincides with what you see on your screen as you work.
As the U. S. is one of the very few countries left in the world that still doesn’t use the metric system, the book includes American sizes and measures along with the metric figures, making it also useful as a reference for conversion between the two.
If you only want one reference while you work, this is it.
Full disclosure: the book was translated from German into English by my son, Dylan Spiekermann, who has an English mother and lives in London. I helped with technical consultation for the English-language edition.
For your lawyer friend (we may not like to admit it, but we all have one at least):
As it says on the back cover: Good typography is part of good lawyering. Nobody has ever counted how many arguments or court cases are lost because of bad documents that were difficult to decipher, complicated language notwithstanding. I wonder whether documents are often impenetrable and impossible to understand because the author doesn’t want the other party to know what they’re up to – that is certainly the case with contractual documents. They need an expert to read, creating work for the legal trade. If a book works for lawyers, it’ll work for anybody who writes, edits and produces complex documents.
Matthew Butterick practices civil litigation in Los Angeles but has a background in design and typography. He has just released a typeface designed specially for these types of documents called Equity and has been running the website www.typographyforlawyers.com since 2008.
This is a pleasantly small but comprehensive book, written in a style that betrays Matthew’s background in communication. If your lawyer friend doesn’t go on to produce better documents after reading this book, it may be time for a new friend (released November 2010).
Announcements
New Book Release (U.S.), June 30, 2014: BMW Art Cars
Traces the development of the BMW Art Cars, the so-called “rolling sculptures” designed by artists including Alexander Calder, David Hockney, and Andy Warhol over the last 40 years.
.jpeg)
Thomas Girst, editor
Texts by Carl Magnusson, Phil Patton, et al.
Published by Hatje Cantz
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release: Platform 6, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Platform 6 presents a sampling of the work produced at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) during the past academic year. This work is indicative of the School’s commitment, as a global leader in the field, to exploring and articulating transformative ideas through the power of design.
Rosetta S. Elkin, Editor
Published by Actar
Details
New Book Release, March 31, 2014: Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines
The first comprehensive study of corporate identity design manuals, featuring examples from the 1960s to early 1980s—the golden era of identity design.
Texts by Adrian Shaughnessy, et al.
Published by Unit Editions
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release, April 21, 2014: Drawing and Reinventing Landscape, AD Primer
Explores notions of representation in the discipline of landscape architecture at large and across time.
Diana Balmori
Published by John Wiley & Sons
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release (U.S.), May 20, 2014: The Duchamp Dictionary
More than 200 alphabetical illustrated entries on the most interesting and important artworks, relationships, people, and ideas in influential artist Marcel Duchamp’s life, including chess puns, the fourth dimension, love, genius, ready-mades such as Bicycle Wheel and Fountain, Peggy Guggenheim, Max Ernst, Man Ray, and Arturo Schwarz.
Thomas Girst
Published by Thames & Hudson (distributed in the U.S., by W. W. Norton)
Buy/pre-order and details
New Book Release (U.S.), May 1, 2014: Shape of Sound
Architect Victoria Meyers analyzes the shape of sound; architecture and sound; form; materiality; windows; the urban soundscape, its politics, aesthetics and social character; reflection; virtuality; sound art; and silence.
Victoria Meyers
Published by Artifice Books on Architecture
Buy/pre-order and details
Featured Book Fair Title
Popular NowWeekMonth
- Book List of the Week: Fiona Raby
- 12 Books on Love, Design, and Designers
- Thomas Girst’s Book List: Art and Cars
- 21 Books on Frank Lloyd Wright
- Book List of the Week: Anthony Dunne
Recent Articles
Best-Selling Design Books at Hennessey + Ingalls
Browse by Discipline
Community Book Lists
Add your favorite design books to our
Community Book Lists
CreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 4: Rebelling and Creativity CreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 3: ChildhoodCreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 2: Make The Best Books for Freelance DesignersCreativeMornings Community Booklist No. 1: BraveryFavorite Design Books of 2013Favorite Design Books of All Time More...Calendar
New York
