One Thousand Buildings of London and Charles Biederman- Shelby Stockman

Picking out books from the library made me realize what kind of book I am attracted to. Both the books I selected are simple and organized neatly so that the information is easily read and found. The first book I selected was One Thousand Buildings of London By John Reynolds and Gill Davies.

   The cover of the book is only pictures from London. I thought the absence of type and abundance of images described the book well. There is so much history in London it almost doesn't need words. Just to see the buildings explains it. I also like that there are a selection of buildings from many different periods, showing that the history never ends.
    The book is arranged by sections of London, beginning with West London. Then in each section the picture is given for the building then a brief description of what the building is and it's importance.

   I love the organization of the book. With so much information, displaying it where each section of info has its own box and title makes it easy for the reader to handle.
   The choice of typeface I found quite interesting. With all the history of London I expected an old style serif typeface. Instead a san serif was chosen. I think this attributes to the info looking so short and compact. With a serif it would have felt like a lot to read, but with the san serif the information seems less daunting.

The next book I chose was Charles Biederman by Susan C. Larsen and Neil Juhl Larsen. I chose this because of the simplistic use of type on the cover and the bright color.

   The use of Futura throughout this book was a brilliant choice. The subject being Charles Biederman makes it the perfect typeface. Biederman's work is very geometric so being paired with a geometric san serif is appropriate.

   The placement of the text is also a big part of why I chose the book. Being a book on Charles Biederman's life and work, there are large sections of text and lots of information. The separation of the images give the reader's mind a break from all the information and gives emphasis to the work. The large margins also help make the information not seem like a daunting amount to read.

Both of these books are a great reference for organizing information and combining images with text. Being interested in architecture, the organization of One Thousand Buildings of London helps give me ideas for my own exhibition catalog. The main accomplishment of both of the books is that both made a significant amount of information available to an audience without being too bulky and difficult to read.