This last week Cory and I explored the depths of our city’s oldest and largest library, the Multnomah County Library, (in fact, it’s the oldest library west of the Mississippi River) to do some research for an upcoming post. I checked out a couple of books for myself, both written by Paul Rand.

One of the books I picked up was a collection of his writings, Design, Form, and Chaos. It provides insight into the mind of the designer and the marketer, the current state of technology and education, and trends within art forms. I found this excerpt of the book quite fascinating:

The ability to intuit is not reserved to any special class of individuals, although many painters, writers, designers, dancers, or musicians believe that this ability is something special, something God-given. The intuitive faculty does, however, seem more pervasive in matters of aesthetics than in those of daily routine. Except in a most general sense, one cannot prove the validity of color, contrast, texture, or shape. Compliance with all the laws and systems of form, restraint, texture, and proportion will not provide proof of the soundness of a work of art, nor guarantee its coming to fruition. This is one of the reasons it is so difficult to understand or teach art and why countless books on art are mere inventories rather than meaningful explanations. Even the brilliant exposition of historians such as Roger Fry, André Malraux, or Rudolf Wittkauer, however inspirational, however compelling, cannot directly generate great or even good works.

Without regard to available systems (e.g., the Golden Section, DIN proportions, typographic grids), the designer works intuitively. This is something about which one is often confused. No system of proportion, color, or space articulation can possibly insure exceptional results. Very often a system is used merely as a crutch, a kind of rabbit’s foot or a good luck charm, regardless of need. A system can be applied either intuitively or intentionally, interestingly or tediously. There is always the element of choice, sometimes called good judgement, at others good taste.

Aside from practical considerations, in matters of form the typographer must rely on intuition. How else does one select a typeface, decide on its size, line width, leading, and format? The alternatives are to repeat one’s previous performances, to imitate what others have done, or simply to make arbitrary decisions.

Rand, Paul. Design, Form, and Chaos. New Haven: Yale UP, 1993. Print.

This approach requires that designers ask themselves the reasoning behind every decision within a process. What qualifies the use of this tool or property? Is it relevant to the design, or is it implemented out of lack of originality? It also allows one to relax and not depend primarily on the formal systems, but purely on one’s intuition and intellect.

For hundreds of years the pinnacle of the profession – design, typography – was the printed page. Books, leaflets, pamphlets and fliers communicated thought, moved information. This marked a transition in storytelling, from verbal to written. Those who wanted to say something – tell a story and be heard – wrote.

Designers and typographers are in the business of delivering these stories to an audience. And, when they have something to say – knowledge to pass down – they write. Books serve as the primary design educators because designers and typographers uniquely appreciate the art and craft that goes into making a great book.

The Journal compiled several ‘Best of’ lists of design literature and found the most popular selections. What remains is a list of books that cover a range of design topics. While there are countless other volumes of merit, a comprehensive study of the field may be founded on these selected eight volumes.

Editor’s Note: Yesterday, we announced an upcoming series on Ram’s Ten Principles of Good Design. However, we are still planning content and contacting potential designers and writers. The series will take place over the next few weeks; we apologize if there has been confusion.

We are very excited to be coordinating what we feel will be an important educational exploration on design. Readers may track our progress via our Twitter account.

Jim Tierney is an illustrator and designer studying at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His Jules Verne book covers, part of a senior thesis project, have been making the rounds on the internet.

“Being equal parts book-nerd and design-nerd, I naturally decided to re-design some classic Jules Verne novels,” Tierney told Faceout Books, a website devoted to book cover design and process.

Faceout Books features sketches with Tierney’s commentary on the entire process.

His concepts are developed with thought and clear intention. Each illustration has conceptual ties to its novel, adding depth to Tierney’s work.

Interactivity is important. Book jackets are more than protective covers: they are a collaboration with the hardback cover. The results are colorful, playful: true to Jules Verne’s classic stories.

Flaunt is design network UnderConsideration’s first self-published book. It will officially be released February 22, and is currently available for pre-order.

Authors Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit interviewed, photographed, designed and produced the book. It’s objective is to provide a resource for inspiration in conjunction with a reference for those creating a physical design portfolio and entering job interviews. It contains over 40 case studies, almost 20 interviews and over 800 interviewers’ and applicants’ survey responses. The information gathered with these methods have been consolidated in an organized and concise manner. Gomez-Palacio and Vit created useful info-graphics and prepared exhaustive photo-documentation of each portfolio without sacrificing room for descriptions. Some of the information they include regarding individual portfolios are: the dimensions; typefaces used; type of paper; retail stores visited to collect materials; printer used; production time, and, of course; production cost.

Bibliographic: 100 Graphic Design Books by Jason Godfrey

I received a copy of Jason Godfrey’s recently published book Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books, for Christmas. It’s been a fantastic read: Godfrey collected a wonderful range of visual specimens from these famous (and some not so famous) books. It has provided me hours of reading and instilled a desire for me to spend hundreds of dollars on rare books.

I found the book so enthralling that I decided to email Mr. Godfrey and ask him a few questions about it. He has been a wonderful resource and provided us with some great answers. Please take some time to read what he has to say.

The emergence of the eBook has been quite elusive over the past few years. It’s one of those things that seems like it’s becoming quite popular, but neither you nor your friends actually know how popular. The only instance that I’ve ever seen someone reading one has been on a plane trip back from Hawaii. Nonetheless, companies continue to create, produce, and market these now seemingly mainstream items.