The Typography Idea Book

This book is a short read, perfectly pitched at those looking to take their first step into the world of typography CreativeBloq

Geared towards helping you evolve different typographic styles, the book [...] is packed with practical techniques and iconic examples - Creative Boom

Playing with typographic puzzle pieces is one of the joys of graphic design and typographers have many entertaining, esoteric, and eccentric options at their disposal. The Typography Idea Book presents 50 of the most inspiring approaches used by masters of the field from across the world, visible in all areas of popular culture. Beautifully illustrated, this book presents images from leading designers who use fonts, lettering, illustrations and digital media in all fields of the visual arts, including web design, logo design and branding.

Geared towards helping you evolve different typographic styles, The Typography Idea Book contains none of the technical jargon or tired old rules found in traditional tutorials but is packed with practical techniques and iconic examples. From type transformation to abstraction, via overlapping, hand-lettering, vectorizing, novelty typefaces, and puns, discover all the brilliant ideas you could be bringing to your own designs.

From the introduction:

Not every designer is a good, much less a great, typographer. Actually, to be a great typographer you have to be a highly skilled graphic designer in the first place. Typography is, arguably, the most important component of graphic design. It requires a distinct ability to make readable messages while expressing, emoting and projecting concepts to audiences, large and small.

Typography can be copied and, therefore, it can be taught. Like the classical painting student learning to perfect the rendering of human form by repeatedly drawing from the same plaster cast, the best way to learn typography is to do it over and over again. Theory is fine, but practice is necessary in order to develop a visceral feeling about the way letters sit on a page or screen. You must know if they are in harmony, or unsuited to marriage. Playing with typographic puzzle pieces is one of the joys of typography. While the end result must be understandable - though please note that doesn't necessarily mean legible, for illegibility is relative and what is illegible can often be deciphered - the process can be intuitive. What you see is more than what you get: playing with type is an opportunity to create typographic personalities both for yourself and for your clients.

This book is geared towards helping you evolve different typographic characters or styles, or perhaps even your specific design signature. What this book is not is a tutorial in typographic basics - kerning, spacing, selecting, and so on. There are many excellent existing volumes that will give you that essential knowledge. Our intention here is to lay out many of the fun, esoteric and eccentric options a typographer has at his or her disposal. These 'commonly uncommon' approaches include type transformation and mutation, as well as puns and metaphors, and typographic pastiche and quotation.

In other words if typographic basics are the 'main course' in your typographic feeding frenzy, the ideas herein are the dessert. It's time to indulge yourself in what is offered on the menu of typographic confections. - Steven Heller and Gail Anderson
About the Author: Steven Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism program at SVA, New York. For 33 years he was an art director at the New York Times. He is editor of AIGA VOICE and contributing editor to Print, Eye, Baseline, and I.D. magazines. He is the recipient of the 1999 AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Gail Anderson is a designer, writer, and educator. Anderson is the recipient of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Medal from the AIGA, the 2009 Richard Gangel art direction award from the Society of Illustrators, and has lectured about design at organizations and conferences around the world.