How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment

First softcover edition, Little, Brown and Company, 1977, illustrated throughout in b/w, square 4to, 8 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches, 233 pages. Polymath George Nelson made his mark in architecture, industrial design, graphic design, but of his many talents, it is his writing skills that go under appreciated. "How To See" is the perfect primer for the uninitiated; more than a guide to visual appreciation, this is a book about how to recognize, evaluate, and understand the objects and landscape of the man-made world around us.

“George Nelson was an outstanding designer. We all know that. But my hunch is that, in a hundred years, he’ll be even better remembered for his thinking and writing about design. In each chapter Nelson discusses a way to understand and interpret the visual information presented through photographic illustrations - the book is appropriately subtitled “A Guide to Reading our Man Made Environment.”--Stanley Abercrombie, architect and writer.

The text, as well as the photographs, are insightful, inspiring, provocative and Nelson's text is written with an entertaining wit. This book, now considered a classic, can be appreciated by students and design buffs alike.