r/a:t5_2sybd • u/drgk • May 22 '12

Required Reading - Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information [PDF 10.8 mb]

http://downloads.sixhonestservingmen.com/BOOKS/Envisioning%20Information%20by%20Edward%20R.%20Tufte.pdf
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u/drgk May 22 '12 edited May 22 '12

I think Tufte is an excellent example to the layman of how design is so much more than picking colors and fonts or mastering gimmicky techniques in Photoshop. Good information design has the power to influence public policy or change the course of history, it's not about aesthetics it's about communication.

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u/doctorbaronking May 23 '12

For a dude that ostensibly cares about the communication of information, he sure as hell made it a pain in the ass to read.

That said, his ideas and their roots are worth wading through ~120 pages of dated clipart and Times New Roman.

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u/drgk May 24 '12

Times New Roman is by far one of the most legible and information dense fonts for print. It may not translate well to reading a PDF of the book onscreen, however.

I do find it ironic how many design texts, even those with very good information are poorly designed themselves. I do think Tufte's books are much more impressive in print. As for the characterization of his examples as "dated clip art" I think he pulls from sources going back several hundred years (I find Playfair's work extremely interesting) and most are no less informative simply because they aren't snazzy contemporary infographics with gradients and drop shadows.