Beware Wet Paint

by Fletcher, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780714843780
• ISBN10: 0714843784
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-03-01
• Publisher: Phaidon Press

Summary

Surveying thirty-five years of Alan Fletcher's work, this book is an essaypon the design process as undertaken by a tireless and hugely giftedndividual. The thinking behind his solutions and methods are illustrated by range of examples, each accompanied by a full commentary from Jeremyyerson. Four essays give further critical and biographical insight into theork, and the man. With a penchant for standing ideas on their head and ataggering ability to make colours do his bidding, Alan Fletcher is one ofhe most immediately recognizable graphic designers working in the fieldoday. His innovative knack of playing with letters until they threaten toopple into abstracted signs, his remarkable redeployment of establishedesign languages in new formations and his ability to create striking graphichorthand with a minimum of elements are all demonstrated in Beware Wet Paint.Far more than a monograph, this book provides Fletcher with a platform fromhich to explore and describe his philosophy and approach to design, tellitty anecdotes, recount successes (as well as failures) and give a

Author Biography

Jeremy Myerson is Professor of Design Studies and Co-Director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art in London, and former Editor of Design Week and of Creative Review.

Rick Poynor writes on design and the visual arts. He is founder and Editor of Eye magazine, the acclaimed international review of graphic communication, from 1990-7. His books include Typographica, Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World, Profile and No More Rules.

David Gibbs has been editorial consultant to Pentagram since the 1970s. He is the editor of Pentagram: The Compendium, also published by Phaidon.

Table of Contents

Beware wet paint	p. 9
Ideas take shape	p. 15
Colourways	p. 29
Pidgin graphics	p. 45
In conversation	p. 61
Body language	p. 69
Making marks	p. 85
Nothing wasted	p. 103
Manipulating the eye	p. 113
A graphic excursion	p. 125
Letterwriting	p. 141
Wayfinding	p. 155
Recycling materials	p. 163
The man who looked around	p. 177
Weather report	p. 183
Purloining	p. 195
Exploiting uniformity	p. 205
Negative is positive	p. 217
Star gazing	p. 229
The alphabet at work	p. 239
Background is foreground	p. 253
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