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    Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems
    Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems
    Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems
    Ebook362 pages51 minutes

    Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems

    By Jan V. White

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    About this ebook

    This updated edition of the much-heralded classic of page design offers surefire ideas and inspiration to anyone stuck with the task of designing cutting-edge printed material. This book is a collection of more than 2,000 visual "idea generators"-illustrations and line art-that visualize the various abstract problems that page editors encounter. Previous editions of this book (0-8230-2149-1 and 0-9356-0364-6) have sold more than 57,000 copies "Jan White's are the very best working and how-to and why-to volumes available on the use of graphics in books and publications."--Publishers Weekly

    Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAllworth
    Release dateJun 1, 2004
    ISBN9781621535881
    Graphic Idea Notebook: A Treasury of Solutions to Visual Problems

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    • 5/5
      This book helped me with the project I am working on now and 2 pages later it gave me an idea for a possible solution to a project that I had gotten stuck on months ago…thank you to the creators for sharing your wisdom!

    Book preview

    Graphic Idea Notebook - Jan V. White

    Writers conceive ideas in words. Designers imagine in images. Successful communication-in-print is an indissoluble blend of their skills, despite their traditional rivalry, misunderstanding, and professional prides and prejudices.

    Such blending is not easy, especially when the aim is CREATIVITY—that desperate search for originality. Inventing anything from scratch is hard and, trust me, there ain’t nothing new under the sun. Inspiration comes but rarely. Awaiting the Muse’s kiss can be frustrating.

    What to do? You can cop out, say I’ll sleep on it, and hope the brain will perform its magic as it sometimes does, but that’s a bit risky. It may not oblige by deadline. Settling down and thinking (i.e., working at it) is more reliable but hard. Cool it.

    FESTINA LENTE, hurry slowly. First, find the obvious, then use it as a springboard. Work it up, develop it and what may start as a trite cliché can metamorphose into a fresh and striking visual. Such a caterpillar you turned into a butterfly has a huge advantage: your audience is likely to recognize and understand it.

    Hence this book. Flip through the pages, relax, open your mind, and allow the images to trigger ideas. Examine them in the light of your specific problem. Or look for clues in the words.

    That caterpillar may well be hiding in one of the categories into which the material is organized. If it isn’t, then random page-riffling is perfectly legitimate and probably ultimately more fruitful. This is an ideal cogitating-on-the-john-book.

    If this is all so obvious, why do we do it so seldom in real life?

    Publishing has been considered a risky business: first picture of printing: Death and the Printer La Grant Danse Macabre, Matthias Huss, Lyons, 1499.

    Author presenting Work to Philip the Good? No! Author delivering MS to editor. History of Jason, Haarlem, 1485.

    Carrier pigeons could fly up to 700 miles a day and were the most efficient means of fast long-distance communication in 1481 when this woodcut was made. It shows a town in Syria, from Mandevilie’s Travels in the Orient.

    Entrepreneur and secretary? No! Circulation director and art consultant planning campaign. Thesaurarium artis scriptoriae, Caspar Neff, Cologne, 1549.

    Clip-art is fine. Without it, word-and-picture communication would be even more difficult than it already is. It would certainly be less startling, less decorative, and certainly much less fun.

    Clip-art books and CDs group images by subject to illustrate specific elements. The pictures tend to be literal depictions of physical objects and the collections perform a vital function as storehouses cataloged for optimal retrieval of something you already know about and are looking for. Like a verbal thesaurus, you get lots of alternates. Reject the one that looks most startling. Pick the one that makes the most sense with the message.

    As far as they go, ready-made images are wonderful. Imagine working without such wonderful old woodcuts as these. For instance, any time you see some historical reference made to the publishing and printing trades, you’ll probably see one of the pictures at right. In 1568, Sigmund Feyerabend of Frankfurt-am-Main in what is now Germany, published the Ständebuch or Book of Trades, with 119 woodcuts by Jost Amman and text in rhyming poems by Hans Sachs. They have become part of our visual language. PAPERMAKER, TYPE FOUNDER, WOODBLOCK ENGRAVER, DESIGNER, ILLUMINATOR-ILLUSTRATOR, PRINTER, BOOKBINDER, PARCHMENT MAKER, PAINTER. A few more such jewels are shown on this page, purely for the fun of it. Besides, they are all in the public domain, so you can swipe them, scan them, use them without permission, without a fee, and without worry.

    But this is not a clip-art book…this is a collection of visual ideas

    The pictures are not intended to be realistic illustrations of specific subjects. Instead, they encourage you to go on random fishing expeditions, looking for ideas on how to handle abstract concepts. They are arranged in five groups. Some are logical, others subjective and instinctive, because one thought leads to another, and who knows how minds work?

    Ideas in clichés

    Ideas in mime

    Ideas in time

    Ideas in fact

    Ideas in type

    This is the Table of Contents. It is easier and quicker to flip the pages. Some of the captions identify or describe the images themselves, some are possible interpretations of an abstract concept or a metaphor. All are just stabs at meaning. None claims to be The Right One or The Only One, because there’s no such thing. Interpret them—or twist them—to fit your story. Their only purpose is to trigger a thought and spark an idea, which is the purpose of the book as a whole. For an example, see the next two pages.

    EXAMPLE

    Assume you are trying to find a visual to embody the idea of making a decision.

    These are all images in this book. Each embodies some aspect of decision-making. Choose the one that exemplifies the thrust of your story most clearly. When looking for image ideas, flip the pages to find them, because they can’t be indexed. (Verbal meanings of images depend on context and purpose.) There are no photographs, because drawings can be exaggerated to lay bare the inherent idea—which is what you’re looking for…

    Any time thinking comes up, the image of Rodin’s Le Penseur immediately comes to mind. Sure, it is a cliché, but it communicates so well precisely because it is so obvious. Is an editorial comment justified?

    Does conscience enter into the decision? The angel and the devil fighting for the soul are ancient symbols of bad and good, con and pro, no and yes. Besides they can be dressed in costumes appropriate to the subject and thus telescope

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