The Art of Looking Sideways is for people who are insatiably curious about the intricacies of the brain. A quirky exploration into the inner workings of the eye, hand, brain and imagination, this is a book you’ll treasure for years.
Through anecdotes, quotations, images, kooky facts and a fair amount of “useless information”, the interplay between the verbal and the visual is examined through oddities, serious science, jokes and memories.
Each of the loosely arranged 72 chapters is presented in a visually stimulating and humorous way, inventively using the pages of the book as masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, colours, space and imagery.
This book doesn’t set out to teach lessons, but it’s full of wisdom and insight collected from all over the world.
Describing himself as a “visual jackdaw”, master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, colour, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value.
The Art of Looking Sideways is the ultimate guide to visual awareness – a magical compilation that will entertain and inspire all those who enjoy the interplay between word and image, and who relish the odd and the unexpected.
The Art of Looking Sideways is published by Phaidon and sells for R470.
More information: www.phaidon.com
