Listening to
Type: Making Language
1. What inspired you to write your book?
I
love typography and I want more designers to understand how spoken and written
language are connected. Listening to Type: Making Language Visible
connects spoken and written language so typography becomes more logical
and perhaps a little less intuitive.
2. What is it about?
This
book is about typography, the one element that separates graphic designers from
all other designers. It takes great sensitivity to messages and meanings for
typography to enhance a message rather than merely deliver it.
3. What do you hope will be the everlasting thoughts for readers who finish your book?
“I
see with greater sensitivity, I think more clearly, I spent my time wisely when
I read the book, and I spent my money wisely when I bought the book.”
4. What advice do you have for writers?
To
me, writing is an act of discovery and self-education. It is less an act of
showing off what I already know. My work is both as an author and as a
professor of graphic design and design management. This is my eighth book,
so I have some experience with writing as an activity. Ernest Hemingway is
credited with having said, “The most important attribute for an author to have
is a built in, shock-proof shit detector.” For sure it sounds like
Hemingway. Writing takes time. My writing is done inside four hours a day,
every day I am not at the university. It takes me a while to get the train (a
book, a chapter, a section) moving, and I energetically protect the
momentum I struggle to develop. It is easier to keep the train moving than
it is to get it moving repeatedly. I write and design my books
simultaneously, happily allowing the process of composing books lead me.
That sense of discovery is what motivates me to keep coming up with ideas for
books. One more bit of advice: if you don’t have the self discipline to
force yourself to think every day (because writing is pure thinking),
don’t even start. Though it looks like goofing around to outsiders – and
believe me, I do get easily distracted in my research process,
but that’s me teaching myself new things – writing is the toughest, most
rewarding activity I can engage in.
5. Where do you think the book publishing industry is
heading?
I do
not know, but it may be selling books by the chapter online. Concentration to
read, let alone absorb, a whole book is dwindling. Complex ideas are harder to
sell than simple ideas. That doesn’t mean books should be dumbed down, but
ideas need to be more clearly explained. And greater clarity is a hard
commodity to come by without losing important parts of an idea.
6. What challenges did you have in writing your book?
Preserving
writing time from other parts of life. It has to be a priority for me and
for my wife, who truly appreciates the self-discipline and effort it takes
to spend in the office on off days from the university where I teach and run a
graduate program in design management.
7. If people can only buy one book this month, why should it be yours?
Listening
to Type: Making Language Visible is unlike any other book on typography or design they own. It
explains things so the reader’s thinking will change. It has lots of
pretty pictures of design, like other books on the subject, to inspire (or
copy), but the attending captions and text in this book empower the
designer to adopt new ways of designing. Intentionally trying new ideas – new
design processes – produces new results, and fresh design is every reader’s
goal, isn’t it?
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog 2016 ©.
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