the philosophy of typography book

Please give me a nudge when you find out where we can purchase the book. Thanks!

Will do.

Hah! I never expected such a response! Thanks for tweeting/blogging about my project, I’ve received a few other emails with inquiries as to purchasing TPOT (love that acronym!) I’m currently looking into possible production of the book (as well as cost) and how many people want to purchase a copy. If I do end up, the book may be a little pricey but I’ll try to keep costs down… I will also go through all the books once they’re printed to make sure there aren’t any production errors etc. I’ll post a little blurb about it tomorrow and try to get an idea of how many people will want a copy. Talk to you soon!

I’ve also emailed Steve about buying a copy – fingers and toes crossed!

Looks great. Time to save money..

Steven,

Thanks for your reply and comment. I’m sure many of us wouldn’t mind paying a pretty penny for it (I know I wouldn’t). Keep us posted and I’ll try to help spread the word to push your beautifully designed book via Twitter (@behoff) and this site.

I’d gladly pay up for it as well. Please do tell should you get it published!

Also, I’m curious, the filigree on the first picture.. Is that done by you or found somewhere? I’ve been hunting some for quite some time for stock use and can not find any… Help?

Alright well, I’m still getting things in order (and going through the book again to check for errors!) and planning on doing a small run of the book. This book is by no means a comprehensive study of typography, it was a class project. It’s not really suggested for those looking for a book to use as a reference in class or anything. That being said, there is some nice (though limited) information in the book: the key here (for me) was designing the book appropriately and timely. I’m glad you guys are showing interest in the book though. As for the filigree (and the rest of the illustrations): I always collect Renaissance/Victorian/Elizabethan style prints, images, etc., and I usually just file them away in their according folder on my computer or wherever, therefore I have no clue where I got the image. Some of them are from other people’s scans, compilations, and some of them I scanned and bitmapped myself from miscellaneous antiquated books I’ve found at libraries. I’d just say do a search on Renaissance hand-drawn designs and you’ll find some. I did this book on strict time requirements so I had no time to do actual sketches myself.

To those of you who do want to order the book (and those who have already emailed me), the cost will be $140 per book. If you want to order one (or do some sort of trade) email me your address and appropriate info and we’ll discuss payment, whether it be check or paypal.

PS: Sorry to do this on your blog! I can move it elsewhere if you want, just say the word!

Also, my email is steve[at]studioimbrue.com

Count me in !

I have been getting a few emails about the price… yes it is steep, but this is a very small press run and the book is over 60 pages… plus it’s not your run-of-the-mill book, it’s more considered an “artist book.” These are the reasons the price is steeper. If you do want the book but can’t afford the price above, email me and we can negotiate/work something out. Thanks and keep supporting the design/typography community!

This book reminds me a lot of Robert Bringhurst’s “The Elements of Typographic Style” – it’s like Strunk & White for typographers.

I am going to email Steve. I want to buy a copy and have the Creative team here read it!
I am glad I found this.
Rock

Update:

I been getting more emails recently about the book. I have found a company that will print at a lower price, so I can now sell the books at $80 (which includes shipping to the US. for all other countries we’ll have to figure out the cost.) Thanks.

I would like to remind Steven Acres, and inform the rest of you interested in buying his beautifully designed book because you would like to read its content, that Mr. Acres has signed and agreement at the time of enrolling in the course Typography Studio I in 2009 at SCAD that states:
“I understand that the content of Professor Belic’s lectures is copyrighted material and that I cannot publish (in print, via Internet, or in/by any other media) or otherwise disseminate my notes based on these lectures.
I can only use this material to meet the course requirements, i.e. include it in the course design projects, and/or partially in my portfolio design examples.
Should I ever intend to publish any design project containing all or any part of Professor Belic’s lectures, I declare herein that I will strictly adhere to copyright regulations and laws, i.e. I MUST acquire an explicit written permission from either Zoran Belic or his heirs in order to publish and disseminate in any media, form or format the above said materials.”

Please, be aware of copyright infringement or the unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered by copyright law.

Best regards,

Zoran Belic
Professor of Graphic Design
SCAD

Looks like someone is jealous of their student. I’m sure this kid isn’t selling enough copies to warrant this kind of message. Either way, you can’t copyright ideas (not to mention semiotics/linguistics and the things that this book seems to cover are pretty old subjects), and unless he directly quotes you in the book, paraphrasing isn’t illegal, either. And it also seems that he has credited you in the lecture. Whatever you claim he signed, I’m sure it was most likely under the pretext that if they didn’t sign it, you’d either not let them in the class, or their grade would somehow suffer from it.

It’s hard to get noticed these days, so let the kid have his 15 minutes of fame (which was 2 months ago.)

Lawsavvy – It’s easy to make such claims, especially when you don’t know what the assignment was. So having being a student of Zoran’s (and having completed this exact project myself) I will explain:

The text used as body copy in the books we were assigned is two-fold. The first part is a word-for-word summary of 5 weeks of Zoran’s lectures, while the other half of the book is a summary of The Robert Bringhurt’s “Elements of Typographic Style” (which I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone.)

However interesting Seth’s layout is (and it is undoubtedly beautiful) the content does not belong to him. Per the assignment (which is to focus on layout design) neither part of the actual body copy constitutes original thought, but rather the opposite. Therefore reproducing this particular book for monetary gain is essentially profiting off of plagiarism.

This is the reason we were required to sign the aforementioned contracts, not to hinder any future successes on the part of the student.

It looks like the Law-Savvy Reader is not as knowledgeable as s(he) assumes.
Mr. Acres may have as many moments of glory as long as he does not brake his contractual obligations, and Mr. Acres did sign a contract, didn’t he?
Historically, however, many individuals have achieved notoriety by violating contracts, laws, moral and ethical principles.
Should we desire for Mr. Acres to become famous in such a manner?
I assert not.

Best regards,

Zoran Belic

P.S.
On a more cynical note, dear Law-Savvy Reader, many disciplines have been practiced for centuries, including typography and book making, which does not make a few practitioners less authors in their fields of expertise and their ideas less authentic and innovative.
Isn’t this exemplified by your defendant’s historical precedent in the book design realm? Perhaps, you would allow someone else to claim Mr. Acres book as his/her own for the sake of a moment of fame.

Hey may or may not have signed a contract: that I do not know. But if a contract is signed under duress (especially in a school environment) it becomes immaterial.

And as for “allow[ing] someone else to claim Mr. Acres book as his/her own for the sake of a moment of fame”, that’s simply outside the point. First, as I mentioned, Mr. Acres has in fact credited you (see my previous post as well as your name at the top of the page), therefore he isn’t claiming the content as his. And as it seems from his responses, he didn’t do it for the “sake of a moment of fame.” It seems that was merely happenstance.

lol I guess there’s a second response I didn’t quite expect. I just sent Zoran an email, so hopefully all is right in the world now.

As for the content of the book (this is aimed mostly at SCAD grad), the lectures he gave were approximately 4 hours a week over 4 weeks. The amount of information I had in my notes was not comprehensive enough for me to write multiple pages on (some of that due to my poor note-taking skills) so I spent a lot of time doing my own research on the subjects. “Word-for-word summary” is most definitely an oxymoron: his lectures weren’t quite comprehensive (I’m sure Zoran would love to give a comprehensive 10 week course for the subjects we’ve studied, but he gave us more of an overview/crash course) so I ended up supplying much of my own research (which Zoran also suggested we do.)

Interestingly enough, the people I talked to in emails wanted the book due to its design, not the content. But this was many months ago, and that time has passed. Now it’s time to focus on graduating.

PS: (also to SCAD grad): When you said “neither part of the actual body copy constitutes original thought, but rather the opposite. Therefore reproducing this particular book for monetary gain is essentially profiting off of plagiarism,” I meant to note that the word “plagiarism” only applies to academic dishonesty. Copyright is something different. :)