How Design Makes Us Think PB - by Sean Adams (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"... thought provoking, beautiful, and superbly created." --Paula Scher, Partner, Pentagram

"Insightful and accessible, Sean Adams tackles design from every angle and every medium."--Jennifer Morla, President and Creative Director, Morla Design

AIGA medalist and former AIGA National President Sean Adams visually explores design principles and theory that affect the way we think and how we behave.

Design is everywhere. It's visceral. It's intellectual. It's emotional. While we often discuss the aesthetics of design, we don't always dig deeper into the ways design can overtly, or covertly, influence how we feel and act.

In How Design Makes Us Think, AIGA award-winning graphic designer Sean Adams walks us through the power of design to attract attention and convey meaning. Through hundreds of examples across design principles, from graphic design to industrial design to architecture, Adams illustrates how design can inspire, provoke, amuse, anger, or reassure us, or subtly or consciously influence our thoughts and behavior.

The book also delves into the sociological, psychological, and historical reasons for our responses to design, offering practitioners and clients alike a new appreciation of their responsibility to create design with the best intentions. How Design Makes Us Think is an essential read for designers, educators, advertisers, psychology enthusiasts, marketing professionals, and anyone who wants to understand how the design around us makes us think, feel, and do things.

Review Quotes

"From posters to cars, design is everywhere. While we often discuss the aesthetics of design, we don't always dig deeper to unearth the ways design can overtly, and covertly, convince us of a certain way of thinking. How Design Makes Us Think collects hundreds of examples across graphic design, product design, industrial design, and architecture to illustrate how design can inspire, provoke, amuse, anger, or reassure us."
- Dexigner

"Sean Adams strips off the blinders to deconstruct the design process with clear, clean visuals and snappy prose....A playful, edifying addition to any design bookshelf, How Design Makes Us Think is an inspirational resource for beginning designers or graphic design firms. Reading it is like donning a pair of magic spectacles that empower nondesigners to decode and critique the hidden messages that surround us."
- Foreword Reviews

About the Author

Sean Adams is the chair of graduate and undergraduate graphic design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California. An AIGA Medalist and former AIGA National President, he is coauthor of Graphic Design Rules and the author of The Designer's Dictionary of Type and The Designer's Dictionary of Color.