The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Above: a photograph of my own copy of The Art of Looking Sideways.
This book is a valuable collection of experiences, quotes, designer-gasms, observations and insights into life, the aesthetic, artistic and general human experience, by late master graphic designer Alan Fletcher.
I got it more than a year ago like new (yes, it took me this long to go through its 1000+ pages reading/enjoying on and off) for around €30. Most of that must have been the shipping costs: when it arrived I really couldn’t believe the sheer mass of it. I tried to scan some of it, once; the results: my current profile picture, and a scanner which since then has been occassionally malfunctioning, the book’s weight having left a permanent scar in its life of digitisation. This is actually the only reason I haven’t been lugging it around more often, showing it to each and every one of my friends — artistically inclined or no.
This book is so thick with inspiration it’s almost impossible to deal with: you can’t open it randomly to catch the creative spark (supposedly Alan Fletcher’s point in making it) without wanting to read it all. Though I suppose this mindless and distracted consumption is a personal demon I have to deal with!
Anyway. I’ll make this short and to the point: this treasure chest of a book is one of my most prized and proud possessions — and believe you me, as a rule I don’t take particular pride anymore in owning things.
Bought this book about 4 years ago, at a fabulous discount. It will open your eyes on design, and on how the most mundane objects and events in our lives can be looked at — and given a new life — “sideways”. It’s a bit like De Bono’s Lateral Thinking with our visual senses (and I’m a big fan of De Bono too!)
If you’ve never seen or met a purple cow (and how), you would need this book — more of a kaleidoscopic reference to “lateral imagination of the visual senses”. If you’ve been curious about “seeing sounds and hearing colours” with after-effects of what was described in Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, this book is a perfectly legal way of fulfilment 🙂
It really is something else…