Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide For Designers, Writers, Editors & Students (2nd Edition) [Book Review]

What kind of typeface should I use? How big do I set it? How should those letters, words and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered and shaped? Thinking With Type answers these questions and more, providing clear guidelines for Designers, Writers, Editors and Students on how best to arrange their written content.

The author of Thinking With Type, Ellen Lupton, is one of America’s preeminent design writers and educators. She calls upon her years of experience in the design, publishing and education fields to assemble a book packed full of helpful tips on working with typography.

The first edition of Thinking With Type was released in 2004. Reviewed here is the second, revised and expanded edition (2010). This edition includes 48 pages of new content and dozens of additional illustrations and helpful exercises.

True to the subject at hand, the book’s cover is meticulously set out. The masthead is bold, the rest of the content on the cover is easy to read and you get a fairly good idea of what the book will contain as soon as you pick it up. The book has also been printed on some nice stock and feels trim and tightly bound.

Lupton practises what she preaches and has shaped the content and presentation of this book very carefully. With an abundance of text and imagery to work with, she has utilised a flexible grid, chosen some great fonts and styling, and has presented each chapter superbly. Large images that deserve their own pages get them, captions accompany examples and footnotes are there if you want further reading.

Thinking With Type is broken up into three main sections. “Letter” covers the basics of the letterform: Size, Scale, Type Families, Capitals, Punctuation and more. The second section, “Text”, is concerned more with the massing of these letters into larger bodies. This includes Kerning, Tracking, Spacing, Alignment and Hierarchy. The third section, titled “Grids”, is all about the invention and programmatic thinking behind grid-based design. You will see examples on Dividing Space, learn about the infamous “Golden Section” rule and find instructions for using Single, Multi-column and Modular grids.

Lupton’s relaxed approach to writing is entertaining and even amusing at times. Various “Type Crimes” are highlighted throughout the book and become good models of what one should never do with type.

The end of every example is usually followed by a simple exercise or challenge. These exercises are not incredibly difficult; they just test you on what you’ve been reading so far. Whether you are new to typography or a seasoned professional with years of experience, I would recommend completing these quick exercises. You might surprise yourself at how much of the book you’ve taken in so far!

An official web site is set up as a classroom companion to Thinking With Type. Lupton has provided a syllabus, sample chapters, exercises and handouts for download in high-res PDF format. If you’re still not convinced about the quality of this title yet, I would suggest you head over to the site to download the sample pages and judge for yourself.

Compared to the more common encyclopaedic approach to design theory books, Thinking With Type is easy to understand, engaging and fun to read. The tone of this book is what really makes it special and is why I can’t recommend it enough.

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About The Reviewer

James Santilli is a Digital Designer from Sydney, Australia. Designer's Bookshelf was born from his passion for design books. By curating books on the Bookshelf, he hopes to help fellow designers fill their collections with the best quality titles.