Archive for category: Book reviews

Book reviews

‘Mad Men Unbuttoned’: Sometimes blogs should stay blogs    (2010.12.08)

Natasha Vargas-Cooper’s Mad Men Unbuttoned worked better as postings on the Awl

Half-fulfilled promises of ‘Half Empty’    (2010.10.08)

Is David Rakoff’s Half Empty an attempt at autobiography? Then why is it a failed attempt?

Design book of the year    (2010.07.17)

100 Years of Menswear by Cally Blackman tells a gripping tale largely through pictures

Graphic design, mishmashed    (2010.03.18)

Not only is Graphic Design, Referenced disorganized, it’s barely written in English sometimes. (But love the hand-sketched illos)

Title as punchline    (2009.09.13)

When you name your book Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, isn’t that conceding defeat right there? (Is “the field” really where you’re gonna find “theory”?)

A ‘wayfinding’ book that doesn’t suck    (2009.09.07)

Finally. Since the rest of them pretty much do. But The Wayfinding Handbook by Gibson does not

‘The Language of Things’    (2009.07.31)

The Language of Things by Deyan Sudjic is all about flow. This is not a criticism

Robert Brownjohn quotes    (2009.07.31)

Quotes from Sex and Typography by Emily King

‘Do Good Design’    (2009.07.17)

Do Good Design by David Berman lays on the ethics a bit thick, I think