Erik Spiekermann
Erik Spiekermann’s Notable Books of 2011
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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).
Featured Book Fair Title
Announcements
New Book Release, June 30, 2014: Supernew Supergraphics
Shows how the current generation of designers and architects are blasting typography and graphic forms across walls—even landscapes. A compendium of graphic excess on a monumental scale, it features new work from around the globe, and interviews with leading practitioners Felice Varini, Sascha Lobe, Sara De Bondt, and Boa Mistura.
Tony Brook, Adrian Shaughnessy, and Sarah Schrauwen, eds.
Published by Unit Editions
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New Book Release, May 27, 2014: Type on Screen
The long awaited follow-up to graphic designer Ellen Lupton’s best-selling Thinking with Type is here. The definitive guide to using classic typographic concepts of form and structure to make dynamic compositions for screen-based applications.
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Ellen Lupton
Published by Princeton Architectural Press
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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.
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Thomas Girst, editor
Texts by Carl Magnusson, Phil Patton, et al.
Published by Hatje Cantz
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New Book Release, July 1, 2014: The Good Life: Perceptions of the Ordinary
Just what is it that catches the eye, and why? What’s the significance of a broken flowerpot, a pair of identical tables side by side, a garden hose wrapped around an old car wheel? In this collection of photo essays, designer Jasper Morrison examines and imagines the life behind a series of seemingly ordinary situations.
By Jasper Morrison
Published by Lars Müller Publishers
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New Book Release, August 5, 2014: What We See When We Read
How we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader.
Peter Mendelsund
Published by Vintage/Random House
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New Book Release, August 5, 2014: Cover
Designer Peter Mendelsund’s completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative method, including jacket sketches, interior art and editorial illustrations, and scores of rejected drafts. These images are punctuated by Mendelsund’s reflections on his work and his process, as well as by texts from writers with whom he has worked and designed.
Peter Mendelsund
Published by powerHouse Books
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