Playing with Type: 50 Graphic Experiments for Exploring Typographic Design Principles

by Lara McCormick

"Playing with Type" is a hands-on, playful approach to learning type application and principles. This engaging guide begins with an introduction to the philosophy of learning through the process of play. Along with a series of experimental design projects with an emphasis on type, the author provides designers with a toolkit of ideas and skills developed through the process of play. The awareness and sensitivity to type styles, forms, and type choices gained through these visual experiments will increase the designers confidence in their personal and professional work. This book can be used in the classroom or independently, and readers can go directly to exercises that appeal to them.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Art

193 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Lara McCormick grew up in Berkeley, California. She has an MFA in Design from SVA, and a post-graduate certificate in typography from Cooper Union. Lara has taught design at the School of Visual Arts and now Chairs the Graphic Design Department at the New Hampshire Institute of Art. She is a member of AIGA’s Design Educator Steering Committee. Lara’s favorite thing is coming up with new and inventive ways to play with, teach, and invent typography. Her book Playing with Type is now available from Rockport Press.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can choose to flip through just to glean ideas or actually work through methodically on each experiment for the fun of it as you cultivate greater creativity and sensitivity to type. This is surely one that I will go back to again and again for both reasons. The wide spectrum of styles chosen to illustrate each principle truly reflects the playful element that the author tries to encapsulate in the title of the book. Inspirational. A valuable art/graphic resource.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great idea book to keeping the thoughts coming, fresh and fun, perfect for encouraging explorations in type. Not just for educators or designers, artists of all sorts can find inspriation from the images, quotes and text.