Now You See It and Other Essays on Design

The quality is very very good, I was pleasantly surprised.

Great writer.

Not into design, but it provides great insight

I always wished there was a Canadian Pentagram Design office. Sadly, it doesn’t exist but the enduring work and legacy left by longtime key partners at the New York branch—Paula Scher & Michael Bierut—continue to be my design heroes. The brand identity work they’ve created over the last 3 decades is consistently strong and continues to exhibit conceptual thinking and strong typography for their clients. Although not always batting 100% when it comes to judgement of the “internets,” they are both very good about sharing their work, and being confidently prolific writers as well, sharing their thinking and experiences about design.Michael Bierut has written for the Design Observer website (of which he is a cofounder) and the very enjoyable “Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design” while running his practice. Last year, he released a stunning retrospective-type book “How To,” that I highly recommend and consider a masterpiece in terms of presentation, subject and scope. I initially thought—like similar designers of his level—that it might end there, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn a collection of his writings for Design Observer was coming out this Fall titled, "Now You See It and other essays on Design"I suppose it’s also timely as everyone has a blog now and can be a published writer without the usual physical channels. However, not one to fall into trends, Bierut has historically always had something intelligent to say and share whether on a stage (where I first learned of him while I was in design school), an online video or in his own writings, so it is most fitting that he exercises his gifts of design thinking and storytelling in constructive (or perhaps cathartic) fashion. Celebrating design legends like Alan Fletcher, Charley Harper, Lou Dorfsman and his own first design mentor, Massimo Vignelli, lesser known creatives are also given their due through Bierut’s humorous at times and engrossing (all the time) insights.Like a mentor in a book (as is another favourite, “The Design Method” by Eric Karjaluoto), Bierut’s book is full of satisfying stories about his own real-world experiences explaining and controlling design process with clients, to design lessons (“…you ever know what might happen with those little jobs.”) and feelings about the power of “The Sell” in the Mad Men TV series. Whether a seasoned designer or green and fresh out of school, any reader of this book will find moments to pause and ponder over a particular passage (the Oprah “aha” moment), to vigorously roll their eyes (good grief, tell me it gets better) or to find themselves nodding, with that knowing “been there, done that” recollection.Words that come to mind about his writing tone and depth range from vulnerable, inspired, humble…to funny, engaging and legacy. And what a delightful legacy he shares with stories (aka Design History lessons) about typographic trailblazer Lou Dorfsman who only designed one way (with integrity), his first freelance gig where his wife Dorothy gleefully bails him out, and what the word “quintessence” means. I found myself feeling more well-informed after reading “Now You See It” and like his previous collection of essays, l look forward to re-reading it again for that same enjoyment. In a single sentence, this is a solid book about working as a designer (vs. a traditional “design greatest hits book”) and good investment if not for the cost of buying it, for the entertaining, smart writing and sage design advice it provides throughout.The last chapter of the book contains an interview with Michael Beirut and he says something which sums up best my feeling after reading “…what I discovered was that design—and this is particularly true with graphic design—is a way to engage with real content, real experience. The key to the whole thing is your ability to learn about that stuff—what I called the ‘outside world’ stuff—and if you can do that, your work will resonate in a way that it can’t if your goal is simply resolving the formal ‘design’ issues.”

It is difficult to call these "essays," as 90% or more were published first as blog posts on the author's website. I would recommend reading (or not reading) them there for free.About the content: You can't make it ten pages without reading another humblebrag about the author's work with Vignelli, Obama, et al. There were roughly three entries in which some topic was explored in a genuine and insightful way. It was disappointing because when I started reading it, I had a notebook ready to go and tried taking notes on each essay. I filled half a page total with the lessons learned from this entire book.Afterwards, I thought, "Perhaps the level of critical thought in graphic design is just lower than for our architectural brethren." The next week, I picked up Kenya Hara's "Designing Japan" and was floored by his thoughtfulness, precision, and thoroughness. I would have rated Now You See It a two or three before reading Designing Japan, but the blinding contrast between the two solidified Now You See It as a one out of five.

excellent

Excellent book

Absolutely brilliant!

El libro ha venido completamente estropeado en su exterior. Puede deberse a que no traía plástico para protegerlo. He solicitado devolución por otro ejemplar en perfecto estado.

Good book