Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Nearest Book Meme

"There are two alignments on the page centered flush and left. "

From The Non-Designers Design Book:Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice. Robin Williams. Peachpit Press, 1994

Rules (for nearest book meme)

  1. Get the book nearest to you. Right now.
  2. Go to page 56.
  3. Find the 5th sentence.
  4. Write this sentence - either here or on your blog.
  5. Copy these instructions as commentary of your sentence.
  6. Don't look for your favorite book or your coolest but really the nearest.

The Non-Designers Design Book was the nearest book. Okay, it was the second nearest. The nearest was The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Daniel Pink. That manga-style book lacks pagination, so the next was this above yellow cover-covered paperback that I finally bought ten days ago after eyeing it for ages at the Willow Glen Bargain Box Thrift Store.

Looking over my notes on Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, I notice that Pink's taken a design suggestion from graphic designer Williams (who is neither the US actor or the Australian media scientist.) = Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, Contrast. Williams takes up the concepts in this order but suggests the reverse for a memorable acronymn.

Was this selection serendipy or unconscious memory recall?