An interesting book though I'm not quite sure who it's aimed at.The back cover says '...the perfect book for the ever-growing group of non-designers who want some graphic design guidance', yet so much of the contents is very specific and technical to the graphic design profession. On the other hand the sort of breezy way the book is laid out suggests it's aimed at those just starting out on a graphic design career. The 365 rules in the book do provide a ton of information in these chapters: Type and typography; Layout and design; Colour; Imagery and graphics; Production and print; The practice of design. Rule 338 sort of sums it up: Thou shall learn the rules before you break them.
I expect most professionals will argue about some of these rules, I certainly would. Rule 74: 'Thou shall not hyphenate text that is ragged right', mostly correct but for a more even column of ragged type it's is worth hyphenating, especially if the copy relates to a technical subject with lots of long words. Rule 61: 'Thou shall not use negative letter spacing', just tell that to Herb Lubalin (during his lifetime one of the world's greatest graphic designers). I would add a rule or two, put a .05 keyline box on all squared up photos, it gives a crisp edge and avoids white areas in the photo merging into the whiteness of the paper or screen. Avoid using an ampersand if there is room for 'and', the book's cover uses one for no good reason. Consider deleting punctuation in non-narrative copy, use weights of type instead. Avoid using initial caps for each word in a title if it's in u/lc (it mostly applies to book titles)
The book is certainly worth a read (and usefully there is an index) if you have recently started a graphic design career.
At last a book of Large Letter postcards and as far as I'm aware this is the only title that shows off these fascinating cards. There is another book with hundreds and hundreds reduced to postage stamp size but that is for collectors so it can't really be compared to this new book.
What is really good about this title is that the LL cards are reproduced same size as the originals so it's possible to appreciate the amazing variety of background designs and the crazy typography for the names of places and states. There are just over four hundred postcards included and they were all printed and published by Tichnor Brothers in Boston, all their LL cards are here. The company was the second largest printers of postcards in the US after Curt Teich of Chicago.
The forty-eight states are included though for some there is just one card, others like popular tourist states get several, Florida has thirty-seven or New Jersey with fifty-one. Considering that these LL cards have, more or less, a common look with illustrations inside the letters yet each one has a different background with colorful airbrush art in bright colors to catch the eye of a buyer. A nice touch is some detail at the start of each state: capitol; flower; year it joined the Union and on other pages bits of background information about individual cards.
Graphic designers, in particular, will enjoy this book and others will be reminded of receiving, through the mail, greetings from family and friends in the forties and fifties of the last century.
This certainly was a clever idea, to produce a fake house magazine for Anaheim Electronics to celebrate their hundredth anniversary but it does have one glaring fault, it's not multi-language throughout (so four stars). The only English Japanese part is on page one with the CEO's introduction. Other than that the articles have titles and perhaps a few lines in English but then all the editorial throughout the pages is in Japanese. Another quirky thing are the ads which, except for one half-page upright are all in English, some of these are fun: 'Happy meals are here!' the headline for McDaniel hamburgers (and using font very much like McDonald's) maybe you might like to apply for an Anaheim Electronics credit card with an ad spread over three pages.
The articles are about various products produced, by Anaheim and some of them have some very attractive futuristic illustrations. There's nine page lifestyle section with pictures of various products with headings in English but the text is Japanese. There are two additions included with the magazine. A mini-poster with an illustration of a Gundam prototype that Anaheim manufacture. The poster's reverse has thumbnails of all the magazine's spreads and forty-two company logos, some of which are really quite cleverly thought out. The other is an eighteen page Visitor's Guide in flight magazine devoted to Von Braun space colony with text in Japanese except for two ads, one for Luna Coffee and the, on the back cover, for Moorgarten, which looks like a whiskey drink.
The magazine and additions are enclosed in a stiff blue plastic sleeve so you can look after this fake Anaheim keepsake but I thought it was shame that the designers didn't get some professional magazine design advice to really make this a 'authentic' publication look real.
