Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge - Hardcover

Lima, Manuel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616895284 ISBN 13: 9781616895280

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2017

Synopsis

In this follow-up to his hugely popular The Book of Trees and Visual Complexity, Manuel Lima takes us on a lively tour through millennia of circular information design. Three hundred detailed and colorful illustrations from around the world cover an encyclopedic array of subjects--architecture, urban planning, fine art, design, fashion, technology, religion, cartography, biology, astronomy, and physics, all based on the circle, the universal symbol of unity, perfection, movement, and infinity. 
The Book of Circles juxtaposes clay trading tokens used by the ancient Sumerians with the iconic logos of twentieth-century corporations, a chart organizing seven hundred Nintendo offerings with a Victorian board game based on the travels of Nellie Bly, and a visual analysis of Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining with early celestial charts that placed the earth at the center of the universe, among a wealth of other elegant and intriguing methods for displaying information.

Lima provides an authoritative history of the circle as well as a unique taxonomy of twenty-one varieties of circle diagrams, rounding out this visual feast for infographics enthusiasts.

About this title

About the Author

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and praised by Wired Magazine "as the man who turned data into art", Manuel Lima is the founder of VisualComplexity.com, Design Lead at Google, and a regular teacher of data visualization at Parsons School of Design as well as a frequent speaker at universities and events worldwide.

Review

"It's a ravishing tour [...] Puts circular thinking in a whole new light." - Nature

"The Book of Circles is a thorough taxonomy of circular infographics, but it's also a deep dive into the psychology behind the shape's enduring appeal." - WIRED

"images form a compelling argument about just how ingrained the circle is in the human mind and Lima gives some compelling explanations for it." - Fast Company

"Manuel Lima has collected a huge variety of circular artworks, infographics and illustrations from across history." - The Guardian

"A new book of illustrations celebrates the beauty and versatility of circles. [...] Lima explains why we're so attracted to this most simple of shapes." - BBC Focus Magazine

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1616895284
• ISBN 13: 9781616895280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 272