REVOLUTIONARY TIDES: THE ART OF THE POLITICAL POSTER 1914–1989 by Jeffrey T. Schnapp
In conjunction with an exhibition of the same name (through Dec. 31 at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, as well as Feb. 24– June 25, 2006, at Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami), Revolutionary Tides focuses on the politics of posters in another historic collection of graphic design with societal influence. Rather than including all aspects of the political poster, this book pinpoints the specific art of the political poster calling for assembly of the masses. “Whereas the conventional approach to poster art emphasizes classifications based on artist, period, political ideology, and nationality; patterns of influence; or the development of specific technical practices, Revolutionary Tides is instead concerned with the emergence of a common graphic vernacular for depicting multitudes as political actors on a worldwide scale and in a multiplicity of only loosely interconnected artistic, political, and historical settings. The exhibition proposes a macrohistory of the political poster, high and low, east and west, north and south,” notes Schnapp in his introduction regarding the book’s focal point and subsequent confines. What follows are 120 reproductions of posters on the subject of mass political gatherings, most in color, with specific interest in typography and powerful imagery that calls the masses to action.
$45, hardcover, 160 pages, Skira Editore, distributed by Rizzoli New York

HOW TO BE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL by Adrian Shaughnessy
With an unabashed foreword by Stefan Sagmeister on his journey in the design profession (“So how does a graphic designer avoid losing his or her soul? Having misplaced little pieces of mine, I’m not sure if I’m the right person to answer this question,” he laments), Shaughnessy offers designers a no-holds-barred manual for being a graphic designer. In his introduction, he gets right down to the nitty gritty about what he sees as the purpose of his book—one of many, many graphic design books. To sum it up, “Graphic design books are nearly as common as celebrity diet books or airport blockbusters … And yet there’s something missing in this encyclopedic coverage of design … we rarely get the back-story; we rarely get the grubby bits that go with almost every job touched by a graphic designer … If you want to learn how to be a designer, you need to know about these and other messy matters … In fact, how you deal with the grubby bits is how you learn to be a graphic designer. This is a book about the grubby bits. It is written by a designer for designers.”

But Shaughnessy doesn’t come off as a know-it-all, been-there-done-that source of design information; rather, he tries to attain a balance between giving helpful professional advice and sounding too snobbish, as evidenced by his final introductory paragraph: “You can ignore every piece of advice contained in these pages and still become a successful and fulfilled designer. All my advice comes with an override button: There is no such thing as a set of rules that will turn you into the complete graphic designer. In my vision of how to be a graphic designer there is always room for the maverick, the difficult, and the downright contrary. I’m not trying to create homogenized designers. Far from it: What I want to do is provide the reader with a series of clues, hints, and prompts to help make working life more enjoyable and rewarding. I want to talk about subjects that are not often discussed, and matters that are ‘assumed’ to be understood, but which rarely are. I want to help you avoid making the mistakes that I made. I want to help you become an effective and self-reliant graphic designer—without losing your soul along the way.” How to Be a Graphic Designer is a refreshing take on the populated design book genre, sure to help even the most seasoned professional. And hey, Shaugnessy even offers a section on working with design magazines such as this one.
$19.95, softcover, 160 pages, Princeton Architectural Press

WORDPLAY: THE PHILOSOPHY, ART, AND SCIENCE OF AMBIGRAMS by John Langdon
From his first encounter with the yin/yang symbol, designer/artist John Langdon has been intrigued, even borderline obsessed, with its implications. Through frequent exploration of this symbol and the ideas related to it, he eventually became a self-described ambigram artist. Wordplay is a much more serious exploration of words than its title suggests; it’s also a fun and exciting look at words that have been around seemingly forever, and what can be done to them with a little ingenuity. “Ultimately this is a book of personal philosophy— one inspired by a symbol that originated in the philosophy of a culture from long ago and far away,” concludes Langdon’s introduction. “The ideas contained in Wordplay were developed over a period of about 20 years, paralleling the development of my ambigrams. The ambigrams have not led me to the philosophy. Rather, they are the natural result of the philosophy coming to rest in the mind of an artist who loves words.” Langdon not only plays with words; he also includes detailed commentary on their origins, meaning, literary examples, and more. An interesting read, and as Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, writes in the book’s foreword, “I urge you … rotate this book once again, and dive into John Langdon’s Wordplay—a world where everything is exactly as it seems … and also otherwise.”.
$14.95, softcover, 224 pages, Broadway Books

CRACKING THE WHIP: ESSAYS ON DESIGN AND ITS SIDE EFFECTS by Ralph Caplan
A collection of 63 published essays by design writer Ralph Caplan, Cracking the Whip explores the creation of everything from clothing to hardware to posters to vending machines to cities to bathrooms. He writes about how design is everywhere, how it’s often equated with art, but how it can also be all about purpose. “At a time when designed objects are praised for the statements they make, it is enlightening to be told how much an object can say—and mean—just in the process of doing what it’s supposed to do.”
$40, softcover, 296 pages, Fairchild Books