Review: Beautiful Evidence    

Beautiful Evidence is Edward Tufte's fourth and latest book and both follows and diverges from the directions established with The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Tufte, 1983), Envisioning Information (Tufte, 1990), and Visual Explanations (Tufte, 1997). Visual Display examined pictures of numbers, Envisioning explored pictures of nouns, and Visual Explanations addressed pictures of verbs. Beautiful Evidence foregoes the 'pictures of' approach and instead establishes the role of evidence as the foundation of reasoning. In some ways, this latest book might have been better positioned as the first book because of its efforts to explain interplays of understanding and reasoning.

Penrose, John M. JBC (2007). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design>Usability

Review: Book of Probes

Combine the probing thoughts of media culture sage Marshall McLuhan with the visual insights of design guru David Carson and the result is the quintessential coffee table book for anyone that works with technology and design. The Book of Probes is an intentional chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter experiment to combine the ideas of McLuhan with the images of Carson in thought provoking ways.

MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Review: The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design  

Bob Gordon and Maggie Gordon, authors of The Complete Guide to Digital Graphic Design, reinforce effective design principles by creating a text that visually inspires and instructs. With its vibrant colors and captivating images, the book demonstrates the capabilities of graphic design through instructive images and text. Each page provides a snapshot into the creativity and power of graphic design.

Craft, Tiffany. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Review: Easy Web Graphics  

Easy Web Graphics would be a good choice for novice or intermediate users of Microsoft FrontPage and Microsoft Photo Editor who want to make better use of those products.

Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design>Web Design

Review: Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image  

As an accomplished photographer of science and engineering research, Felice Frankel knows how to capture her readers' attention—her exquisite images in Envisioning science communicate their amazing power, by her design, and ultimately 'teach us to see' science in a different way. We are witnesses to the excitement of discovery represented in such images as cadmium selenide nanocrystals, self-assembled polyhedra, yeast colonies, and mouse embryo lungs, thereby illustrating the book's educational value.

Winn, Wendy. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design>Scientific Communication

Review: Graphic Designer's Digital Printing and Prepress Handbook  

The Graphic Designer's Digital Printing and Prepress Handbook is not a beginner's manual. Sidles does not walk you step-by-step through the basics of trapping or scanning. Instead, hers is an approach that expands on the knowledge of the graphic design professional. I think her aim is to help you become someone who easily knows how to avoid buying paper that will curl or using overprinted type that is illegible. Sidles, with her print production experience, seems to care about sharing the wisdom she has acquired through decades of haps and mishaps—no small benefit.

Blount Brodersen, Carolyn. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Prepress>Graphic Design

Review: Half the Truth and Something Like the Truth

As an art director, I'm an avowed secret handshake guy from way back. They teach it to us in design school when they make us swear on a stack of Pantone color selectors and old type specimen books that we'll never reveal the secrets of the design world, especially to editors and writers (word people). Early reviews of Type & Layout have been ecstatic, so I had wondered whether someone had finally sold the secret handshake to the enemy. I shouldn't have worried. This is not really a design book, and it is not a book that most designers are going to care for. What worries me is that nondesigners won't know that.

Fleshman, Steven D. Editorial Eye, The (1995). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design

Review: White Graphics: The Power of White in Graphic Design  

Every graphic designer or editor who has been forced to explain to a client why there is nothing—text or image—on a part of a page should have Gail Deibler Finke's newest book. It demonstrates clearly and convincingly 'the power of white in graphic design.'

Hudak-David, Ginny. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design