The Art of Looking Sideways

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Alan Fletcher

Phaidon Press, London, 2001, English

Nonfiction, Graphic Design

9 5/8 x 8 1/4 inches, hardcover, 1,064 pages, 295 color illustrations, 390 black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 9780714834498

Suggested Retail Price: $49.00

Describing himself as a visual jackdaw, designer Alan Fletcher (1931–2006), one of the most highly regarded graphic designers of his generation, spent a lifetime collecting images, useless information, quotations and scraps. This work distills this collection into a quirky and entertaining feast for the eyes and the mind.

From the Publisher. A primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination. It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters, all this material is presented in a wonderfully inventive series of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, space, color, and imagery.

On 5 book lists

Coralie Bickford-Smith

On Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Book List

A visual feast for the creative mind.

Wendell Castle

On Wendell Castle’s Book List

This is a great book for useless knowledge that ultimately might prove useful.

Tom Geismar

On Tom Geismar’s Book List

An amazing collection of obscure thoughts and observations. Endlessly entertaining.

Bob Gill

On Bob Gill’s Book List

I think it is the most interesting book of design ephemera ever compiled.

Jennifer Morla

On Jennifer Morla’s Book List

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