My Christmas reading this break was "thinking with type" by Ellen Lupton. Sad I know, but a pleasure to read and pick up some new information along the way, John Baskerville had a mistress, well I never!
Anyway, below are some thoughts on the book. I recommend a read if only to disagree with me.
Overall concept of the book.
Using history as a guide, Lupton shows how letters and texts can influence the way we see a piece of design and how we can improve readability by following some basic rules.
The book is also very rich on examples. Fonts familiar to most designers – or anyone in the field – are presented and described throughout the pages.
History or Design Book?
This book is for both the Historians and technicians amongst us. If you are not into history and want to get straight to the technical part you might want to skip the first few pages, but by doing this you’ll miss the best part of the book, like when the author explains the reason of the terms uppercase and lowercase. Historical fact or plain curiosity, at least it helps to make the reader more comfortable with the subject.
Conclusion
From letters to text, grid layout to html, Thinking with Type is a book that explains the use of typography in different media and for different audiences. This may not be the ultimate guide to using type, but it will give you a great start to thinking with type, and I bet, during the first job after you have read it, you will refer back to it at least once.
