The Art of Looking Sideways

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Overview

Master designer Alan Fletcher has spent a lifetime collecting images, ideas, quotations, anecdotes, jokes, memories, reflections and scraps of useless information that take his fancy. In The Art of Looking Sideways, all this stuff is distilled into a quirky and highly entertaining feast for the eye and the mind. Loosely arranged in 72 'chapters', this book explores the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination in a wonderfully inventive sequence of pages that are themselves masterly ...
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Overview

Master designer Alan Fletcher has spent a lifetime collecting images, ideas, quotations, anecdotes, jokes, memories, reflections and scraps of useless information that take his fancy. In The Art of Looking Sideways, all this stuff is distilled into a quirky and highly entertaining feast for the eye and the mind. Loosely arranged in 72 'chapters', this book explores the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination in a wonderfully inventive sequence of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the art of design. This book does not set out to teach lessons, but everybody who opens it will be captivated by Alan Fletcher's witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, colour, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value. The Art of Looking Sideways is the ultimate guide to visual awareness, a magical compilation that will entertain and inspire all those who enjoy the interplay of word and image, who relish the odd and the unexpected, and who don't like to take the visual world – or themselves – too seriously.
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Editorial Reviews

Library Journal
This vast collection of assorted visual and verbal content is loosely strung together by the common thread of whatever captures the attention of celebrated designer Fletcher best known for his founding roles in the English design firm Fletcher Forbes Gill and the internationally recognized design group Pentagram. A table of contents (with headings such as "Learning," "Noise," and "Imagination") provides a loose structure for what is an otherwise unfettered stream-of-consciousness outpouring. In the author's own words, the book is "a journey without a destination." The book is tailor-made for those with short attention spans, since any given thought or narrative rarely runs for more than a spread. A worthy companion to other large, contemporary, designer-orchestrated explorations of visual culture, such as Bruce Mau's Life Style (Phaidon, 2000) or John Maeda's Maeda @ Media (Rizzoli, 2000), this book will delight anyone who enjoys unexpected visual and verbal play, cultural and historical observations and insights, and staggering amounts of trivia and anecdotes. Best suited for larger public libraries or libraries with extensive liberal arts, fine arts, or art history sections. Phil Hamlett, Turner & Associates, San Francisco Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780714834498
  • Publisher: Phaidon Press, Incorporated
  • Publication date: 8/30/2001
  • Edition description: Reprint
  • Pages: 534
  • Sales rank: 184,778
  • Product dimensions: 8.62 (w) x 10.00 (h) x 2.63 (d)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 8 )
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Sort by: Showing all of 8 Customer Reviews
  • Posted January 2, 2010

    Pound for Pound: This is the best book on the thought process of a great graphic designer

    Fletcher is an excellent example of the eclectic interests of a designer. In this huge volume, he vacuum cleans the universe for ideas. He synthesizes ideas and turns them into something new. This book occupies a special place on my bookshelf. I quote from it from time-to-time on my blog.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted June 26, 2002

    This book is a conversational gem!

    For those of you looking to read something truly witty and intelligent. Read this! Full of wisdom, worldly ideas, theories and artful suprises. This book is a conversational gem. Read it for yourself, buy it as a precious gift. Learn, laugh, think and above all-enjoy!

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    Posted December 16, 2009

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    Posted February 14, 2010

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