Typographica Reviews “Just My Type”

Ratings

2 of 5 stars
What’s this?

Simon Garfield’s populist introduction to the world of typography was released last year to good reviews and, for a book of this subject matter, surprisingly strong sales. I haven’t read it, but I really liked the idea of such a book; design has long needed a best-seller on the order of Lynne Truss’ “Eats, Shoots & Leaves,” which popularized punctuation, to help demystify typography for the masses. Unfortunately, designer Patrick Barber doesn’t think much of Garfield’s work. Read the full review here.

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  1. Glenn Fleishman

    I just read it recently and largely agree with Paul Shaw’s review of last year. Garfield tells some good stories, and paints a nice broad picture, but it’s neither a history of type design, typefounding, or typesetting nor a story about why type is meaningful and how it’s evolved.

    The design is also uninspired. The in-line use of typeface names set in their own face was gimmicky. Either show specimens or don’t be cute. Same with the few-page type interludes, which would have done better with a design thought behind them instead of being set as they were.

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