Dot Font Talking About Design

Mark Batty Publisher proudly commences the dot-font series, about design in the world around us, with two titles: dot-font: Talking About Design and dot-font: Talking About Fonts. Both books offer a selection of direct, opinionated, authoritative and often witty essays selected from the “dot-font” column that John Berry has written since 2000 for the website for creative professionals. In these essays, Berry, who is both an editor and designer himself, assesses practitioners, ideas, successes and failures with regard to the fields of design and fonts.
Similarly, the formula of reproducing web essays as a printed book is quite successful. The original pages contained web links: those are missing here, but the structure remains, as well as illustrative graphics in the form of marginal thumbnails.
We get a lively introductions to design theorist Rick Poyner, then French book designer Massin, and a comparison of the signage in the underground rail systems of New York, Paris, and London.
There are a couple of chapters on the design and typography of American government ballot papers. These are offered as examples of bad design which have led to several disputed elections. So design really does have very practical consequences in the real world.
The central section of this collection comprises three chapters on book design and typography – from the shape and layout of the printed page, through the many choices that confront designers for presenting body text, even through to such details as the manner in which titles can appear on the spine of a book.
It’s a beautifully designed and illustrated production in its own right. The text is set in MVB Verdigris, the display in HTF Whitney, and there are generous page margins. Yet it’s not just a glamorous design portfolio: John Berry digs into some fundamental issues of design theory. It’s a book that is pleasing to the eye – but also one that will make you think.