Book Reviews

You'd be hard-pressed to find a graphic designer who doesn't know the name Paul Rand. You'd be even harder-pressed to find anyone who lives in the western-world who doesn't recognize the marks he'd made. When ordering Sparkle and Spin and Little 1, I wasn't sure if this was the sole reason I wanted them—a little piece of quirkiness by a great graphic designer and the women he loved. Having received them and enjoyed them several times, I now know the reason why I now love them – they're simply beautiful.

'Understand the rules before you break them.' A mantra we become all too familiar with when studying. Something many of us found bothersome as it implied subjecting ourselves to a rigid framework—and what creative wants that? Then we learn the rules, realise that they actually do work and start to use them well. The rules make it easier to play the game. The Ten Commandments of Typography serves as a reminder of these safe, warm guides. The second half of Paul Felton's fun little book reminds us why performing Type Heresy is so devilishly satisfying.

Pixar is a company we all know, with most of us having a soft-spot for their films and lively characters. Pixar have proven themselves as maestros of pixels, bringing them together in a way that is best described as symphonic. To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios, written and pieced together by Karen Paik, is a beautiful and well designed book that very few won't be able to find some point of interest in. Telling the story of Pixar from their early beginnings through to the merger with Disney, Paik has brought us something hard to put down.