Alex White: Advertising Design and Typography
If it weren't for Alex White, Phil Meggs, and Bill James, I probably wouldn't know nearly as much about typography as I do today. Jan White, Alex's dad was an icon of the design industry, often quoted by all my instructors at VCU -- he was a huge hero of mine! I finally got to meet Alex when I happened to be deployed on the same publication design agenda with Alex. Today, Alex and I are in touch, and I grab up each new book with a fever. Unfortunately his landmark "Type in Use" has gone out of print. That's a shame because the book is one that no graphic designer should be without. However, Alex's newest book falls in the "must have" category too!
Advertising Design and Typography
There's a lot of 'me too-ism' in advertising. Why? Probably because too few graphic designers actually know how to build a good ad. In Advertising Design and Typography Alex writes:
"When I finish skimming a magazine, I typically try to recall the single outstanding ad I've seen. With rare exceptions, I cannot. How can it be that not one of a very finite group, maybe fifty ads, has broken through with a message and presentation that made an impace? And I'm looking for impact where most readers are trying to avoid advertising's increasing noise."I would have to agree. And, I would also have to agree that there's a lot of money being spent on advertising that is not cutting through the noise to deliver a solid and memorable message.
The publisher writes: "This comprehensive overview of advertising design strategies helps students and professionals understand how to create ads that cut through the clutter." But to me, that's a gross understatement!
Advertising Design and Typography gets to the very root of design principles such as unity, contrast, hierarchy, dominance, scale, abstraction, and type and image relationships. More importantly, Alex takes you through the thought process of arriving at good, solid design -- and then shows you examples of the best that drive home his point. If you are a graphic designer -- particularly working on advertising -- you need this book.
Essential knowledge for designers:
Researching your client and your audience
What makes an ad successful
Getting the audience's attention in a crowded marketplace
The importance of branding and identity
The difference between print design and billboards, television, the Web, and radio
Advertising design versus editorial design
Using typography to define personality and convey the message
How to make type inviting, set perfect text, and relate type to image
Also included is an extensive section on typography with essential information on how type is perceived by readers, typographic history, principles, and practice.
Complete with examples and illustrations of outstanding advertising design from around the world, Advertising Design and Typography will change the way you develop visual ideas and train you to see in a more critical and accurate way.
1,500 full-color illustrations showcase outstanding advertising design from around the world
Unique comparisons of print, web, TV, and other campaigns--which techniques work best?
Ideas for forging corporate identity through advertising
As in these examples, (sample #1, sample #2, sample #3) Alex takes you by the hand and leads you through an extensive journey into typography and how readers perceive type. You get a little typographic history and lots of principles, and practices. Advertising Design and Typography is a groundbreaking book that will help you see more accurately and more critically -- and allow you to develop hard-hitting graphic design that actually does what it's supposed to do; sell.
Advertising Design and Typography
by Alex White
List Price: $50.00; click here price: $31.50; You Save: $18.50 (37%)
Hardcover: 224 pages Publisher: Allworth Press; Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 1 inches; Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
Alex W. White, an award-winning graphic designer, has shaped the visual personalities of advertising campaigns, identity programs, and magazines. Vice president of the Type Directors Club, he has taught design at the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford for 15 years. The author of Thinking in Type
and The Elements of Graphic Design, he lives in New York City.
SEE this excerpt: Design's Function & Typography
Return to the DT&G Type Department
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