Thinking with Type:
A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
Ellen Lupton

The organization of letters on a blank sheet—or screen—is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills.

Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no's to avoid).

Thinking with Type has an accompanying website, www.thinkingwithtype.com.

Thinking with Type follows the best-selling titles Geometry of Design and Elements of Design in our highly successful Design Briefs series.


The following website has additional material or information related to this title: www.thinkingwithtype.com

Ellen Lupton is one of America's preeminent design educators. Her books include Skin, Inside Design Now, and Mixing Messages, among others. She is currently director of the design program at Maryland Institute of Art and Design.
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Editorial Reviews

Florida Inside Out:
"If you've ever wondered why you 'instinctively' buy one cake mix over the other, find out here." (4/2005)

Technical Communication:
"Worthy of adding to your library; it's essential if you salivate when you look at well-designed and well-chosen type." (August 2005)

Step Inside Design:
"THINKING WITH TYPE is dense enough to cover all vital type subjects for various creative professionals, but condensed enough to fit into a handbook for easy referencing." (12/2004)

Azure:
"Lupton is at her best communicating visually - as when she repeats words and phrases in a variety of fonts and point sizes to illustrate what type can do. Lupton also makes good use of old and new examples, ranging from 13th-century manuscripts to concert posters from present day. The stars of graphic design are amply represented (Abbott Miller, Bruce Mau, Stefan Sagmeister), but so are dozens of typographic designers, both well known (John Baskerville) and long-forgotten (Louis Simonneau)." (11/2005)

Azure :
"Ellen Lupton, one of Americas best-known design educators, is director of the design program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, as well as curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt in New York. The author of several books, Lupton... use(s) her latest, Thinking With Type as a primer for her students." — Alan G. Brake (January, 2005)

Print:
"Thinking with Type is written with warmth and clarity. Together with its compact size and affordable price, the book is destined to become an essential part of many typographers' and designers' librairies." (4/2005)

Sketchee.com Arts & Design Blog:
"Design isnt just about how things look, the answer to a design challenge is more about discovering why certain things work. In steering projects toward visual solutions that deliver clear messages, we have to look at the very building blocks of design. Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students aims to get at the heart of this issue." — Brian E. Young (March 2, 2009)

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