In the follow-up to his hugely popular The Book of Trees and Visual Complexity, design thought leader Manuel Lima takes readers on a lively tour through millennia of circular information design through illustrations, infographics, and artwork.The Book of Circles features an eclectic collection of three hundred detailed and colorful illustrations and infographics from around the world, highlighting an encyclopedic array of subjects—architecture, urban planning, fine art, design, fashion, technology, religion, cartography, biology, astronomy, and physics—all based on the circle, the universal symbol of unity, perfection, movement, and infinity. Clay trading tokens used by the ancient Sumerians are juxtaposed with iconic logos of twentieth-century corporations, a chart organizing seven hundred Nintendo offerings with a Victorian board game based on the travels of Nellie Bly, and a visual analysis of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining with early celestial charts that placed the earth at the center of the universe, among a wealth of other elegant and intriguing methods for displaying information. Lima also provides readers with an authoritative history of the circle, as well as a unique taxonomy of twenty-one varieties of circle diagrams, rounding out this visual feast for infographics enthusiasts, information designers, graphic designers, pop culture enthusiasts, and beyond.
