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Over the last two decades I’ve written quite a few words about visual communication. Some of them have been published in books and magazines (I was Contributing Editor for Critique magazine in the US and had several pieces published in eye and elsewhere in the UK). But many more were dashed off in the course of conversations and correspondence on the Internet. Transforming Communication gathers up many of these words into a book (and e-book).

Here’s what some correspondents have said about my writing:

“I was just browsing through the graphics mailing list archives and became mesmerised, drawn in and snared by your many posts. All i can say is that your words are inspiring and human, and i only wish your voice (or one like it) was as prominent in the more readily available media (i mean the press, for better or worse) as those whose persistent twatting on seems to be defining by default the terms with which design is discussed.”

Graham Wood  Tomato

“By the way, I don’t know if you know Lou Danziger. (I was glad to see the AIGA recognize him with their medal last year. In addition to a long career of design, he was a friend of Herbert Bayer, one of Paul Rand’s closest friends, and knew most of the big boys of Modernism. I regret not having found the time more than once to sneak into his history classes he used to teach at art center. Lou is also a mensch. His respect is a valuable thing.) Even though we only see each other about once a year, I bet he has mentioned to me three or four times how impressed he is by your writing on the graphics list.”

Gunnar Swanson

Incidentally, I did indeed have the good fortune to have lunch with Lou Danziger at Art Center in Pasadena, on the very day he heard about the AIGA award. Not only was he a friend of Bayer and Rand, but he had studied with Alvin Lustig and trained with the legendary Alexei Brodovitch. What I remember most about the time we spent together, however, was the way this seventy year old man thrilled his students by suggesting creative uses of the computer they had never thought of. There is an excellent tribute to him by Steven Heller here .

Transforming Communication explores ways of looking at visual communication as a human, and humane, activity.

It also, one way or another, articulates what I have learned in more than twenty years as a practitioner.

Download the e-book!

Transforming Communication is available here as a free e-book download. Click on the icon below to open a PDF version that can be saved to your computer.

“If you can’t explain the idea in one sentence over the telephone, it won’t work.”

Lou Danziger

2008 James Souttar