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January 12, 2009

Stylepedia, my new resource

Unexpectedly receiving a package at work today (as I'd totally forgotten that I'd ordered this book not ten days ago) made this book infinitely more awesome. A present? For Me? From Me?

Steven Heller is man I've only recently heard about, but already he is one of my design idols. He's the "tall tale" of design writers, having written over 105 books on the topic of design, 33 years of experience art directing the NYTimes Book Review, held MFA co-chair at the School for Visual Arts, and avid writer and editor for the AIGA. I stumbled upon him through a 200-word-limit article he wrote for Khoi Vinh's site, A Brief Message.

I haven't gotten past the table of contents yet but I knowingly predict that my ADD is going to wigg out when I start flipping through the alphabetical finger tabs and pages laden with illustrations. Co-written by Heller and Louise Fili, Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits has been [overly] described as a "quirky" piece of literature comprised of over 100 short essays covering key historical impacts on visual culture, from social icons to style periods and their creators. The introduction details the distinction between a fleeting "trend" and a sum of functional parts that make up a "style". Usually I'm the first to fall asleep during a history lesson but I'm hoping that Heller and Fili will be able to cure me of my narcolepsy and fill my brain with some good ol' fashioned design history juice -- I'll let you know how it goes!

1 comment:

  1. Yeah! Steven Heller's pretty accomplished. If you like him, you should probably check these out. http://design.schoolofvisualarts.edu/weblog/paulrand/ A lot of the stuff went past me, but it's still good to learn about it and have an historical opinion.

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