From Lascaux
to Brooklyn

Yale University Press (1996)

Back to basics is Rand’s refrain in this latest volume of his Yale series (e.g., Design, Form and Chaos, 1993; A Designer’s Art, 1985). Visually and verbally arresting, the present title successfully distills major tenets from Rand’s critically acclaimed career in graphic design, advertising, and academia.

The first half is a primer, complete with large type, of fundamental aesthetic and design principles as appropriate for children, according to the author, as it is for adults. The second half connects elements of quality design to real-world problems through conceptual studies of logo designs, a typographic debate, and an appraisal and elaboration of Henry Petroski’s The Evolution of Useful Things (LJ 12/92).

Contents:

• Preface
• Question...
• Answer...
• Ideas, or the Life of Form
• Direction Magazine
• Poster (Art?)
• Corporate Decorum
• The Logo as Illustration
• Four Presentations
• Okasan Securities Company
• EF English First
• Hub TV
• Cummins Engine Company
• Tschichold versus Bill
• Object Lessons
• More about the Grid
• Born in Brooklyn
• Select Bibliography

Discriminating, erudite, and eclectic in its examples, this work clearly and convincingly communicates Rand’s commonsense approach to the pursuit of quality in design theory and process. Highly recommended for all academic libraries.

Russell T. Clement, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.