Type Rules!

New introductory text by Ilene Strizver combines clear, accessable writing with solid design, well-chosen illustrations, and tips and tricks for an apt into for the designing typographer

Ilene Strizver has an impressive résumé; creative director at U&lc, director of typeface development at ITC, worked with Eric Speikermann and Sumner Stone, amongst others, studied type under Benguiat. If ever anyone wondered what sort of introductory text that such a type student would produce, we have the answer in the book Type Rules! The Designer’s Guide to Professional Typography, whose second edition was recently released by Wiley.

Intro texts have several bases they must cover: the history of type, type and technology, what comprises type, how to compose it, how to use it. This book does this in a gradient–starting from pictorgrams, stopping by Gutenberg and the Linotype, passing by the Arts and Crafts movement through the great 20th Century typographers and then taking us into the present day; computers, font technology, and eventually ending at making your own up.

On the whole, it’s an effective trip. Strizver visits each of the stations of the typographic ride with clear, accessable writing which brings interest to even the most familiar topics. The text in general is supported with appropriately-chosen illustrations and past student projects, and is enhanced by what are termed Techtips–how to achieve some of the effects in the current software–and Typetips–which call out some of the points in the text and dig deeper. On top of this are the Exercises, appropriate for classroom use or self-study; they touch on font content, weight, expression, all the high-points the educated typeographer ought to be aware of.

We also give the book high points for solid design. Combining Scala and ITC Blair for chapter heads, subheads, and body text renders a comfortable reading experience with attractive headings for easy references. There is ample white space which supports and brings forward the text by framing it in effective shapes. Serious students’ eyes will not get tired reading this.

The Upshot

We notice a trend toward more insightful introductory books on type, from the adventurous and fun (Stop Stealing Sheep) to the encylopaedic (A Typographic Workbook). Type Rules! enhances this trend with an approach that is focused, clear, and inspiring, with an emphasis on the nuts’n'bolts for the designer, and is a quality addition to the typography student’s bookshelf.

By The Numbers:

• Title: Type Rules!, The Designers Guide to Professional Typography, 2nd Edition
• Author: Ilene Strizver
• Publisher: Wiley, March 2006, pb, 224pp incl. index
• ISBN:0-471-72114-X
• Street Price: USD$ 45
• Availability: Purchase from Amazon, Direct from Publisher