Thinking with Type : A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs) (1-10) (Excerpt)

This book is possibly the best design education text I've seen. Everything is kept simple, and clear. Ellen Lupton's categorizing of typeface styles, for example, is logical and all inclusive, yet still a simple breakdown of the vast variety of typefaces. She is easier to understand than Robert Bringhurst in "The Elements of Typographic Style," something crucial to any budding designer. This book will serve you well.

I was inspired by some of the samples of type usage in the book from the first few pages. Ellen Lupton, the author of "Design Culture Now", came up with a book to fill a void where it was much needed. It is hard not to encounter useful elements in it to both, help you enhance existing designs or tackle new territory.

The only downside of the book, and the reason I give it 4.5 and not 5 stars, is that the layout doesn't make it particularly easy to read and follow. Therefore it ends up being a book that you resort to for visual not textual queues of where you are, and for ideas rather than specific content. At least it was that way for me. Still, the number of visual ideas it carries makes it worth your while.

I bought this book because other customers loved it and because it was not expensive. It was so much better than I expected. I was expecting to pick it up and just visually browse then leave it for later but read all the content the first day I had it -even reread parts incase I missed anything. I plan to use this with 17-18year olds within a design programme - as it is consise yet interesting. So: book is great value for money, practical advise offered is clearly presented and taught to the reader through its design! Visual content and extra information is compelling/quirky/humourous/relevant, overview of typographic evolution intereting and fonts useful. Loved the material used for the tables!....check it out.

Thinking With Type is a must have for graphic designers and typography lovers. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about type, you'll learn something- or at the very least be entertained by the witty prose and examples.

This book is well presented, reads well and is an elegant and useful tool for anyone who has anything to do with type. As a professional designer, I enjoyed reviewing what I knew and found a number of things that were helpful in my everyday work. I count this among my favorite references.