After reading a few more pages, I turned to the front of the book to see if it had a table of contents. It does, and the self-explanatory chapter titles ("Front Door," "Kitchen," "Dining Room," etc.) are each followed by a page number. Ah ha! I had caught an inconsistency in the book's design, or so I thought. If the pages are unnumbered, why should the table of contents tell me on what page a new chapter begins?
On returning to the place my finger marked, I held the book open at arm's length and admired the proportions of the typeset text. How neat and clean the pages looked without the clutter of numbers, headers, or footers. Just blocks of text. This was a daring but effective design, I thought.
But as the airplane left a gray cloudy sky behind and flew into the sunlight, the book's pages began to morph before my eyes. What under the dim overhead lighting looked like a minimalist design proved to be much more subtle. There actually were page numbers -- centered at the top of each page -- but they were screened, a printing technique that produces an image that can be so faint as to be virtually invisible. Flipping through the book I also found that breaks in the text that I had thought were just blank lines were in fact punctuated with discreet decorative flourishes and swirls known loosely in the printing trade as dingbats.
Looking further into the book, I discovered that pages on which a chapter began were indeed not numbered, but this is not uncommon in a well-designed book. After all, the surrounding pages do bear numbers, and so it is not difficult to go from the table of contents to a specific chapter. In Geography of Home, however, the chapter-opening pages have decorations that are unusual. A screened printer's device precedes the chapter title set in display type, and the entire right edge of the page is decorated with a string of screened devices.
When the book is flexed front-to-back to spread out its fore edge, these screened designs produce a light gray decorative pattern suggestive of Morse code and reminiscent of old books that revealed a painted scene related to the book's content. Geography of Home proved to be a geography of design!
Steve Jobs wanted Apple products to be as neat looking on the inside as they were on the outside. Even if the owner and user of a Mac notebook never looked under the hood, Jobs felt that inside there should be as orderly an arrangement of parts as was suggested by the laptop's sleek exterior. Jobs would have liked Geography. You can tell this book by its cover.
Thanks for a thoughtful post, and one mentioning what used to be a favorite subject of mine: book design. I think SparkyWatt's comments on CAD are unfortunately true, at least for some objects we live and work with. And I see the same trend in book publishing, if you can call it that anymore, due to the proliferation of electronic "books" and e-readers. I think Apple has been a leader for exterior consumer electronics design, at least. Too bad that other areas are not benefiting from their leadership. I wonder if 3D printing could be that new, more intuitive design method.
I have always been involved with manufacturing a product, consequently designing jigs, fixtures, conveyors, robotic equipment to automate processes etc.As a result, getting the job accomplished trumps getting the job accomplished—with flair and style.I certainly do appreciate the work of Jobs and the Apple folks but then again, all of the Apple products are consumer products.I never expect the buying public to see the conveyors necessary to expedite production and handling.When I think about all of the "pains" and effort put into the i-Pad, i-Phone, i-Book designs I conclude I'm on the right side of the commercialization equation.
It's all the same to me, Ann. But from a materials point of view, I'm quite amazed at the adheisive on the back of these little hearts. Once they're on, you really can't get them off.
Yes, that will do it, Ann. My daughter asked whether I minded that the dumbphone she swapped with me (for her smartphone) had bling on it. I told her the bling looks great. The phone has hearts with colorful dots. And you can't get them off.
Yep, it's a big trend. You can accessorize your iPod and iPhone to match what you're wearing. Apple and other suppliers are doing a big business in brightly colored sparkling covers for iPods and iPhones. Additional bling includes little items of colorful shapes. I bought my daughter a smartphone and inherited her dumbophone with has two sparkly hearts on the front.
It wasn't Jobs that brought beauty to the Mac. It was Jef Raskin. Search out his books & papers if you really want to know about form & function.
In an earlier age, L F Herroshoff's advice to a budding yacht designer was to ".. draw as much as possible (particularly freehand drawing)". Herroshoff was the son of an outstanding yacht designer and was himself one.
Both him & his father made significant advances to the technology of ship engineering for which, ".. it is very necessary to serve your time in a boat shop, where boats are really built, as this is the only practical way to learn."
I think his advice is just as valid to the budding engineer today.
An engineer's eye should be always looking to function. But in the greatest designs, form & function are one. Witness Mitchell's Spitfire or Sayer's E-type
Rob, my kids are a little older than yours, so I'm embarrassed to admit I don't know what it means to customize Apple products with bling. Are we taping jewelry to our iPads? Is this a trend?
I agree with you about engineering deisgn, Sparky Watt. Even today we see it. The Apple products are sleek and clean, engineering simplicity. Of course that changes quite a bit when my 16-year-old daughter customizes the products with bling.
An analysis of what’s needed to implement Design for Disassembly and Design for Recycling results in eight strategies engineers can use to design an intentional end-of-life stage into their products.
Government regulations, coupled with growing consumer sensitivity about data and identity theft, require that data storage organizations demonstrate proper protection and due diligence in protecting sensitive information stored inside datacenter enclosures.
When a crane doesn't have a monitoring system, crane owners schedule service every six months and simply scrap the parts they replace, even if a part has had little use and doesn't need replacing. This can cost thousands.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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