The Dictionary of Graphic Images

by Philip Thompson

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312201087
• ISBN13: 9780312201081
• Release Date: January 1981
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

The ultimate swipe file.

Although published in 1980 I think this lovely book is still relevant in this digital age. The idea was to make a collection of visual cliches (over fifteen hundred included) and I think the authors succeed wonderfully. Each page is divided into three columns and the text is arranged alphabetically, Bullet holes, Bullfighter, Burnt paper, Bus, Bust are the words on page thirty-six. Every word has at least one graphic image, some have several, Heart has eight for instance, and they are all given a designer's credit, date, country of origin plus a few words about what the design is meant to convey. The material covers ads, packaging, magazine covers, logos, posters, brochure covers and most examples of designed printed matter. Many of the graphics are American and mostly date from the mid-Fifties to the mid-Seventies, a period in which graphic and typographic design was unusually creative I think. Look through the index of creative folk and the regulars have plenty of showings, Saul Bass, Seymour Chwast, Lou Dorfsman, Bob Gill, George Lois, Herb Lubalin, Paul Rand (with fifty-five examples) Ben Shahn, Arnold Varga and Henry Wolf, to name just ten. The only disappointment I have is that all this wonderful material is not in color So if you work in the visual creative biz and can't think of something use this book to kick-start your ideas. It's how you present the idea that counts. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.