Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (Graphic Design & Visual Communication Courses)

Effortless read, with a playful yet easy on the eyes layout, tons of images and a pinch of humor. This book is everything you should know about typography before you can call yourself a Graphic Designer (on LinkedIn or elsewhere). Wonderfully explained principals, including historic references in a nutshell and type classification. The book displays specific examples of type and makes understanding its characteristics through its anatomy a breeze. You will instantly grasp the handy vocabulary (body, baseline, ascenders, descenders, x-height, cap-height, counter, kern, serif) and become familiar with it in a matter of seconds. You will learn and understand how and why these and other characteristics give different typefaces the personalities used by Graphic Designers to convey a mood, an emotion an attribute. You will quickly realize why some typefaces are more legible than others and become aware of when that matters the most. And there is a lot more. But don't let me bore you any longer with how much I love this book and how much I think that any Graphic Designer should have this in their library. Find out for yourself.

I'm a graphic designer and typographer with 20+ years of experience, a typeface designer, and I teach college level design and typography classes. I highly recommend this book for anyone new to typography, or for new designers who want to learn more about using type well. I use this book as required reading in my Typography 2 courses. This book has been revised every 10 years, to keep up with technology. It is worth your while to pick up the newest edition.

Great resource! Erik is an excellent designer and does a great job articulating the nuances of excellent layout. He is not only practical, he gives the big picture and helps you to understand the "why."

I watched a video series that referenced this book so I bought it. It is a great book that explains and shows you how type works with design. It is a great reference book.

learned a lot from the book, the content is really helpful to the person who want to improve thoughts and skill in graphic design

A fantastic book about type. I've learned so much already. A great read.

Good but not organized in a very instinctual manner. Overall useful information, it just seemed kind of scattered when I went back to try and look something up.

First reading this book I found it to be designed in a way that made it easy and fun to read, but started to realize lots of the history of type was being glossed over or just portrayed outright incorrectly. I don't believe that talking about type should be boring or loaded with dense details and history accompanied by date after date, but let me give an example... In the first chapter it states " some of the most pervasive typographical messages have never really been designed... Some engineer, administrator or accountant in some government department had to decide what the signs of our roadways should look like...you can bet there wasn't one typographer or graphic designer in the group, so the outcome shows no induction of any thought toward legibility, let alone communication or beauty..." This came off as more arrogant than it needed to be, especially since it simply is not true. I read in Just My Type and followed it up with a very small amount of googling on the internet that designers Jock Kinneir and primarily Margaret Calvert (who studied at Chelsea School of Art) created the easier to read (verses all capital) lower case type that we see on highway signs and in airports. Calvert also designed the triangular pictograms in road signs we see today based on memories of her childhood. The team worked in conjunction with the road research laboratory and spoke to them about how white on black letters should be thinner than black on white, recalling classic types like Garamond and Universe to be inspired by simple classics but also create something basic and legible enough to be read by people driving down the highway. There are more examples but in short, Stop Stealing From Sheep seemed to sacrifice facts in order to remain simple enough for a beginner, but in doing so robs readers of much of the foundation and impact of type in the world. It's easy to agree with it being that the design of the book itself is clean and modern, giving us the impression that the content is trustworthy. I suppose that is the game of design itself! I have never written a review for a book on amazon but this stuff really gets me going. Anyway I would recommend Just My Type By Simon Garfield (easy to read, factual, funny) and A Typographic workbook by Katy Clair. (Lots of history and technical aspects of type)

Un libro que debería estar estar en la librería de cualquier tipógrafo, maquetador, editor, diseñador... Con solo conocer a su autor, ya se sabe que va a ser bueno.

As a student currently studying graphic design I have had this book along with many others suggested to me. I have purchased several other design books like Ellen Lupton's thinking with type, and the elements of design. However I have found this book to be the most helpfull with learning and understanding the importance of type design in the 'real world'. Spiekermann makes his book into an example, by changing layouts as well as exposing the bones of his own layout, as a visual learner this is very helpful. I have not found another design book that gives so many examples. This book did come inside of a box without any wrapping so there were a few marks on the cover, although this did not limit my learning and enjoyment.

Love this book. Perfect for all Graphic Designers

For anyone interested in font design and its importance within the spheres of publishing and the electronic media, this book is a must-have. It is written in an engaging and accessible style and is profusely illustrated with striking examples.

Creo que el libro no está a la altura de lo que se puede esperar del autor, salvo que uno solo espere comentarios muy genéricos y alegóricos. De cada dos páginas del libro, la página par es una imagen metafórica a página completa: coches, muebles, personas,... con lo que de entrada ya se va la mitad del libro en ilustraciones. De la página impar, 2/3 consisten en una parrafada explicando la metáfora y por que las fuentes son como automóviles, muebles o personas, con un mensaje repetitivo hasta la náusea: según el uso que le vayas a dar a la fuente necesitarás una fuente u otra (sorpresa, sorpresa). Solo el 1/3 restante contiene consejos prácticos y estos aparecen en una fina columna en rojo y letra pequeña, difícil de leer (¡en un libro sobre tipografía!) con unas cuantas muestras de fuentes en cada página la mayoría solo mostrando la palabra "Handglove" y no líneas o párrafos. Es además "llamativo" el número de fuentes de ejemplo que son "FF algo", es decir, que son de Fontfont, la empresa del autor. Aparte, algunos de sus comentarios son excesivamente parciales. Así desprecia las señales de tráfico, diciendo que han sido elaboradas por técnicos que no tienen ni idea de tipografía y que seguro que no había ningún tipógrafo en las reuniones, despreciando así no solo a Miediger (Helvetica), Frutiger (Univers y Frutiger), Johnston (Johnston) que diseñaron fuentes para autopistas, aeropuertos o el metro de Londres, sino en particular a Calvert y Kinneir, diseñadores de la fuente Transport para las señales del Reino Unido, que posteriormente se ha extendido a gran número de países. En resume, librito muy vistoso, pero poco informativo. Por comparación "Es mi tipo" (Just my type) de Simon Garfield que más que un libro sobre tipografía es sobre tipógrafos y las fuentes que diseñaron, aporta muchísima más información. Así, por ejemplo, cuando está hablando de una fuente, el párrafo aparece escrito en dicha fuente con lo cual la vemos en acción.