The roving subjectivity of its aesthetic guidance actually makes a lot more sense if we take them rather as a set markers in an overall design philosophy. (§1.1.2)Presumably even starving horses would pass on stale bread and mutton? Fair enough. Not only is this a detailed, informative, and surpassingly witty survey of typography, but it's simply a beautiful book to hold and to read. recommended this book.
Astounding attention to details.Five stars, if not out of enjoyment, than for sheer quality. Typographers learn to discern these features through years of working first-hand with the forms, and through studying and comparing the work of other designers, past and present.The key word here is “discern,” which conveys an assumption that a typeface’s qualities are preexisting, inherent, always there to be discovered by the attentive designer. (§4.1.1)We end up absorbing this bias without realizing it, perhaps, lulled by neoclassical metaphors.It doesn’t take too close a reading to see which typographic styles are connected to the good and the right in ETS. This flaw is plain in the sequence of chapters as well as the internal development of certain chapters.The editorial logic of ETS displays an inconsistency to such a degree that I wonder if there’s any logic at all.
But it is unlikely to be carrying excess ornament or freight, and unlikely to be indulging in a masquerade.”The fundamental approach to working with type is the old reliable Type 101 approach of considering the text and selecting a face that suits it. This turns out to be incredibly freeing, as it opens up greater creative space for designers. (I have cherry-picked these bits, but I think it’s fair to say they’re representative of the writing style.) Free shipping for many products! Which is an odd status for a book, to be very highly praised while also in some way neglected, and which prompts the question, As they say here on the internet, the answer just might surprise you. Almost a textbook for a professional. Rather, at issue here is restriction versus potential: protect a specific set of choices versus open the field to the exploration of everything. The printing museums in Antwerp and Lyon have both enthralled me.The Elements of Typographic Style is pretty much the bible for its field. I had Within a short time after completing my formal education and entering my profession, I became rather painfully aware that my training in the art and craft of typography had been sorely lacking in many respects. (§3.2.3)Certainly a design can be deceitful by misrepresenting its subject in some graphic way (i.e., the beautifully alluring cigarette pack) — that’s not the kind of dishonesty we’re talking about here.
In fact, the deeper you read, the more you have to wonder just what the book is really about, and what is so wrong about having too many quotation marks? There's not a thing about this book as a book I don't love—the design incorporates so many little touches (marginal notes, a lay-flat spine on a paperback, proper paragraph layout, dead-on perfect justification) that it's a joy just to look at it.Sure, it's simply the best book on print typography out there. The designer’s task is to cast this editorial structure into a corresponding visual system (this is the very point that §1.2.2 makes).
by Hartley & Marks Publishers It almost doesn't matter what this book was about, because it was so thoughtfully laid out and lovely to read, which is in itself a testament to great typography. As a typography focused designer with a couple of decades of experience, I've taken a few courses in Typography, and I've skimmed a small mountain of attractive, yet essentially worthless "design" books.