Today I report on three recent graphic design books. I'll be covering a great modern theory book, a collection of found typography, and a portfolio of New Zealand batik artwork.
Book 1:
Universal principles of design (third edition). 2023. William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler
This book lays out 200 principles of design, encyclopedia-style.
Text
This was one of the best books I read this year. The writing has an exceptional clarity at the sentence level and in its flow from one proposition to the next. Much of it is quite idea-dense and abstract, necessitating reading slowly to absorb the text.
The authors phrase things precisely and confidently. "Sound design is not the exclusive purview of a talented few" (Introduction). They expect an educated reader. "They are combined here because they are invariably combined in practice." (#151, Prototyping) If the writing has a fault, it's the occasional American-specific sports metaphor.
This is one of the only design books I've read that's not riddled with typos! Where most of the books I've been reviewing have errors on every page, I noticed just four across 400 pages, to wit: "shouild" in #107 (Legibility); "crticial" and "four-steps" in #142 (Poka-Yoke); "i.e." for "e.g." (#156, Redundancy).
Book design
Universal principles of design is very professionally put together. The consistency of the layout lends it power, and each section is furnished with see-alsos, references, and links. There are two tables of contents with different orderings, and an index. I've died and gone to book design heaven.
If I have any complaint it's that the text is somewhat small, near the border of legibility. A typography example suggests it may be Trade Gothic set at 9 pt.
Content
The book covers 200 high-level design principles across many domains. Each concept is given with visual examples to discuss. These are elegant and minimalist, with a slight bias towards aerospace examples (one author is a NASA "human factors guru").
Some of the principles are interestingly specific, e.g., #093 (Icarus Matrix), which I could find very little outside information about, and #111 (Magic Triangle), which only applies to Muppet design(!)
I'm not a fan of changing the meanings of existing terms. #128 (Ockham's Razor) presents a concept in the design space which is analogous to, but different from, the established meaning of "Ockham's razor". Conversely, Clarke's Laws are given as a design principle, where they would have benefitted from being rephrased in a more design-specific way.
There is necessarily some overlap in the principles. The sentiment "not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted" might appear half a dozen times in support of as many different-but-related concepts.
The authors have strong opinions and an evidence-based lean (although I could have done without the occasional flimsy evo-psych). They discuss how the foundational priming experiments (#144, Priming) mostly failed to replicate (albeit springing that disclaimer only after giving lots of details about it in the visual example).
They also pour cold water on the Golden Ratio and the rule of thirds, which "plays, at best, a minor role in creating aesthetic compositions but a valuable role in focusing attention." (#160, Rule of Thirds) I found the guidance useful enough to write it down:
1. If there is a strong primary element, centre it. Don't use the Rule of Thirds.
2. If there are two strong elements, balance them: position them at (especially diagonally) opposing intersections with the Rule of Thirds.
3. When there is a strong vertical or horizontal element, align it along one of the grid lines of the Rule of Thirds.
4. When there are many elements with similar visual weight, don't use the Rule of Thirds.
I particularly enjoyed learning about Conway's Law (#040), Inverted Pyramid (#099), Poka-Yoke (#142), Visuospatial Resonance (#193), and some of the more philosophical discussion in e.g. Causal Reductionism (#023) and Root Cause (#158). The use of the Vasa warship to illustrate Feature Creep (#063) was very funny.
I'm reading design books this year because of my renewed interest in visual design, making the sections on Consistency (#035), Figure-Ground (#067), Highlighting (#091), and the von Restorff Effect (#194) interesting too.
In summary
Universal principles of design is an absolute delight. The first time in a while that I'd like to own a shiny new copy of a book.
Book 2:
Look & see. 2018. Anthony Burrill
In this book, Burrill curates some of his collection of typography examples. These are reproduced reduced to black and white, with resulting grunge/distress effects. The typography is always black, never inverted or coloured, but there is simple, tasteful use of overprinted block colours for contrast.
Burrill has selected the "found typography" both for its characteristics and for its interesting provenances, which are described. The writing is somewhat amateurish, with its share of errors. It's somewhere in the triangle of poetic, banal, and twee, which I found made for a very easy read. I think it succeeds as a coffee table book, and could serve as inspiration for someone working closely with type.
The book's layout uses a fascinatingly wide typeface for body text, and is prolific with its arrows in a multiplicity of styles. Sometimes these design books have quite experimental features and I wish they'd explain them as they went!
In summary
Look & see is a fairly lightweight and relaxing read. I got a few ideas and laughed at a few curiosities, which is probably what you hope for out of a book like this.
Book 3:
An eccentric history in batik. 2025. Dinah Priestley
This new 242-page book showcases the art of Dinah Priestley and the late Tony Burton.
The text
After a rather stuffy guest foreword, the book is quite approachable.
Priestley describes her experiences with batik (traditional patterned dyeing using wax resist), as well as offering a sort of biography of her artistic life with Burton. I found myself wanting more details on the batik side.
A lot of Priestley's and Burton's art depicts parts of New Zealand history from older times into the early 21st Century, covering for example the Land Wars. With Priestley explaining the artworks, the textual content ends up comprising a mostly-unflinching look at New Zealand history.
Priestley's writing is rough and ready, but not bad. The authorial tone does sometimes dip into a sort of prim self-righteousness, e.g., trying to recast being a bad speller into an unalloyed good. But it's vivid and easy to follow. There are a few grammatical mistakes that unfortunately jump out at the most serious points (e.g., 'burnt alive' for 'burned alive').
Art
I wasn't familiar with Priestley or Burton, and enjoyed seeing their work. This book showcases hundreds of pieces, almost all in batik, but supplemented with cartoons and masks.
The art itself is wonderful. The unusual style of the artists, reminiscent of children's book illustrations newspaper cartoons and old woodcuts, is really set off by the choice of medium.
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| 18th Century French Explorers Collecting Fauna |
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| Annie Burnell Beauchamp |
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| The fabulous Sir Edmund Halley 1986 |
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| 1980s Wellington Stock Exchange |
Layout
The book's chapters are casual, and their structure not too ordered: 'Blokes', 'Nightclubs', 'Sporty Types', 'Mistresses', etc. 'Blokes' comprises "fathers, gardeners, musicians, poets, wharfies, artists, kayak instructors, cricketers" and has the distinctive quirk of listing the ethnicity of almost every portrait subject, perhaps because the writer is from a certain time.
I liked the visual formatting. The book is laid out on a simple grid but doesn't keep to it strictly, as the batiks come in a variety of shapes and sizes (and the designer tries to set many of them to full pages). I notice that two minor variations of the 'Nikau and the Botanists' artwork are shown on pages 54 and 159, likely by mistake.
In summary
I read too few New Zealand books. I picked up An eccentric history in batik on a whim and Priestley's distinctive style really sold me. It's a visual treat.
