Alan Fletcher's The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutelyextraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness," a virtuallyindescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images, and bizarre facts thatoffers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is arenowned designer and art director, and the joy of The Art of LookingSideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters withtitles like "Colour," "Noise," "Chance," "Camouflage," and "Handedness,"Fletcher's book, which he describes as "a journey without a destination," is "acollection of shards" that captures the sensory overload of a world that simplycontains too much information. In one typical section, entitled "Civilization,"the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, aphotograph of an anthropomorphic handbag, Buzz Aldrin's boot print on the moon,drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of "Ireland--as seen from Wales," anda dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wisewords of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay, and Gandhi's comment, "Westerncivilization? I think it would be a good idea." Fletcher's mastery of designmixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, color, and layout combined with a "jackdaw"eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read,but only experienced. --Jerry Brotton, Amazon.co.uk
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Alan Fletcher's The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness", a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a renowned designer and art director and the joy of The Art of Looking Sideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with titles like "Colour", "Noise", "Chance", "Camouflage" and "Handedness", Fletcher's book, which he describes as "a journey without a destination", is "a collection of shards" that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled "Civilization", the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a photograph of an anthropomorphic hand bag, Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the moon, drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of "Ireland--as seen from Wales" and a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay and Gandhi's comment, "Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea". Fletcher's mastery of design mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, colour and layout combined with a "jackdaw" eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read, but only experienced. --Jerry Brotton
From Library Journal
This vast collection of assorted visual and verbal content is loosely strung together by the common thread of whatever captures the attention of celebrated designer Fletcher best known for his founding roles in the English design firm Fletcher Forbes Gill and the internationally recognized design group Pentagram. A table of contents (with headings such as "Learning," "Noise," and "Imagination") provides a loose structure for what is an otherwise unfettered stream-of-consciousness outpouring. In the author's own words, the book is "a journey without a destination." The book is tailor-made for those with short attention spans, since any given thought or narrative rarely runs for more than a spread. A worthy companion to other large, contemporary, designer-orchestrated explorations of visual culture, such as Bruce Mau's Life Style (Phaidon, 2000) or John Maeda's Maeda @ Media (Rizzoli, 2000), this book will delight anyone who enjoys unexpected visual and verbal play, cultural and historical observations and insights, and staggering amounts of trivia and anecdotes. Best suited for larger public libraries or libraries with extensive liberal arts, fine arts, or art history sections. Phil Hamlett, Turner & Associates, San Francisco
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By AMD
Format:Hardcover
I found out about this book of all places while channel surfing one gloomy day. A TV show was doing a profile on the author, his creative process and his book. I was hooked. They showed some of its pages and I special ordered it the next day. That was 2 years ago and every time I've picked it up since, it never fails to awe and inspire. I love so many things about it: its simple yet highly styled layout, the hand drawn graphics, the author's graphical experiments, the quotations (there must be at least a thousand) and the combination of humour and thoughtfulness that permiates the pages. To describe it, I would say it's like a box you kept all your old concert stubs, matchbooks and photographs, keepsakes and anecdotes but that have been organized and displayed and "made sense of". And this is exactly what the author did in compliling this book.
You can read it in the traditional front-to-back way, but my favourite way to approach the book is to just open it at random and start reading - then I usually end up flipping around because parts of the text refer to other parts of text in another section - like little hyperlinks that zoom you to some other connected place. The discovery is seemingly never-ending.
So, to you I would say: Treat your brain. Pick up this book and learn what it means to look sideways!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Krukster
Format:Hardcover
I came across this book in the local bookstore, randomly finding it while buying a gift certificate for christmas. If you're into artistic expression in any way, buy this book. It's full of delightfully random illustrations, quotes, and wisdom. If you're not the artistic type, I'd suspect you'll find this book a bit tedious or perhaps even pointless. If, however, you are a creatively minded person who enjoys some visual delights (some of the pictures are just amazing to experience) and some mental stimulation, go for it! This would make a great book to pick up and open to anywhere, then see what you find. I've paged through a lot of it, looking at things. I'm now attempting to start from the beginning and read through it. This book is incredible. Worth owning without a doubt.
By justin
Format:Hardcover
The Art of Looking Sideways is a gem. Rather it is a bible of gems, notes, quotes and keen perceptions on a wide spectrum of topics relating most frequently to design and communication.
If you are an extremely boring and ininteresting person, buy this book and memorise it, you will soon be drinking cocktails with the best of innovators and visionaries. If you're the best of them you already have this book or are named Alan Fletcher.
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4.7 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
What The?
This book found me one day and now has me totally in it's pages.
Every little thing that was ever said and every problem ever created has some form of simplistic answer within... Read more
Every little thing that was ever said and every problem ever created has some form of simplistic answer within... Read more
Published on Sep 20 2003 by A. J. Cherrington
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you have a creative bone in your body, you need this.
I had never heard of this book before I saw it and no introduction is better than just getting the huge, heavy thing on your lap and looking through it. Read more
Published on May 6 2003 by Adam Cadwell
5.0 out of 5 stars
You can't do without this book.
Stop what you're doing. Buy The Art of Looking Sideways right now. Read it, view it, participate in it. It will change the way you see the world.
Published on Jan 20 2003 by "bibiliophilia"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary book
This book is a celebration of ideas and thought, and illustrates the power of the human mind to synthesize concepts into reality. Read more
Published on Jan 6 2003
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alan's Great Big Book Of Visual Acuity.
Look, I'll make this short, if you have anything to do with visual creativity get this book!
In 532 pages Alan Fletcher presents a cornucopia of visual and semantic ideas,... Read more
Published on Jun 18 2002 by Robin Benson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, thought provoking, brilliant
This book will open your eyes to a world you never knew existed. Superficially it appears to be the Seinfeld of the literary world, that is a book about nothing. Read more
Published on May 9 2002 by obediah
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Art of Looking at The Art of Looking Sideways
It is probably easier to write nebulously about this volume than in very direct and objectively descriptive terms. Read more
Published on May 9 2002 by Iconophoric
4.0 out of 5 stars
Seductive...but I'm not sure what I was seduced into.
Difficult to tell you what this book actually says, except that it's author is a genius. Or at least he quotes lots of other people who are. Read more
Published on May 4 2002 by The Honourable Husband
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Meaning of Life
Not quite. But a 1000+ page brain dump from a graphic designer.
Browsing through the bookstore in NYC's Grand Central Station the other day, this book caught my eye. Read more
Published on May 3 2002 by Bruce Appelbaum
5.0 out of 5 stars
Constantly stimulating
This book is a battery - pick it up anytime, anywhere, any page and you start zooming along with your own creative ideas.
Published on April 11 2002
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