Signs and Symbols: Their Design and Meaning

by Adrian Frutiger

Book Overview

This classic study shows how humans express thought through graphic means and why certain shapes and configurations of dot and line are perceived and remembered more easily than others.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0442239181
• ISBN13: 9780442239183
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 2.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Graphic Signs and Visual Literacy

Signs and Symbols: their design and meaning is a rare book in the realm of graphic design texts. It is one of the few that I have ever read that offers an expert practitioner's meditations and speculations on the roots of the visual symbol.It is also about the only graphic design book with which I have ever found it worthwhile to argue. In the early 1920's Paul Renner laid out fourteen rules for typography, the first of which is that non-conformation to the rules is acceptable as long as they are considered. Frutiger's book is similar in that he doesn't offer formulae or recipes. Instead, Frutiger posits first causes-some of which I disagree with-and builds an argument for intelligent understanding and practice, something virtually absent from the discussion of all applied design. This book provides a singular contribution by a world renowned practitioner of the discipline of a personal, highly informed perspective of the origins and visual parameters of written language.

Excellent source for knowledge

This book contains a wealth of information on the history and evolution of symbols. And it has the widest range and depth of symbols and their variations. With my degree in neuroscience and psychology, I also appreciated the insights and reminders about the deepest aspects of sybol/sign recognition. The type and layout may need to be refined, but this is a real book, about real design--not just another portfolio piece by some design firm/publisher coalition that makes glossy books.I have been a professional designer for a few years without having gone to design school. This is one of the most valuable books I used to gain the knowledge I use in my profession.

a must-read title

A book all about form: the essence of design. This is definitely something every real designer should read at least once and by the time I finish it I'll probably have learned as much about typography/design/marks/form as a year's worth of my design program.

great book

This has to be one of the greatest design books ever written.