Visual language for designers : principles for creating graphics that people understand /

This book by Malamed, a consultant, is both welcome and frustrating. Graphic design, as a discipline, needs books that develop theory. The two most relevant theoretical areas are semiotics and visual perception. Malamed supplies needed background in visual perception, devoting part 1 to basic visual perception and cognition research, and part 2 to application of principles of design. The problem is that both sections lack sufficient detail to give anything but cursory coverage of the subject. Amply illustrated in color, with graphic design that tends to be limited to information graphics, the book is valuable for pointing out important aspects of visual perception; however, the principles drawn from these are too simplistic (e.g., "Reduce Realism" or "Make the Abstract Concrete"). The volume is good as far as it goes, but one wishes for a more in-depth treatment even if removal of some of the lavish illustrated examples were necessary. This book will be extremely valuable for secondary schools and technical colleges, but only marginally effective in four-year undergraduate programs, and of little value to graduate students and researchers. Still, it is one of the few works on the subject and therefore a useful addition. Summing Up: Recommended. Two-year technical program students, lower-level undergraduates, and general readers. S. Skaggs University of Louisville

E-learning, visual communication, and design consultant Malamed sums up the crux of her book: "poor design is a major reason why information is misinterpreted," and all of the graphic imagery and text she includes are committed to trying to distinguish between good and poor design. The dozens of images contributed by designers all over the world are absorbing, but a large percentage is reproduced at a scale that makes reading their text difficult or impossible. Their visual success may be evident, but whether they function well as conveyors of information is sometimes difficult to judge. In the accompanying text, Malamed explores cognitive psychology with jargon like "texture segregation," "preattentive processing," and "primitive features," none of which are defined in the 11-item glossary. If the reader sticks with the text, everything eventually is explained, but this volume is not effortless. Verdict This is much less a how-to than a solid intellectual underpinning of perceptual psychology; although the perceptual psychology is discussed in detail, the actual ideas involved in the graphic imagery are never analyzed. For design students and professionals.-David McClelland, Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.