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Amazon.co.uk Review
Alan Fletcher's The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness", a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a renowned designer and art director and the joy of The Art of Looking Sideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with titles like "Colour", "Noise", "Chance", "Camouflage" and "Handedness", Fletcher's book, which he describes as "a journey without a destination", is "a collection of shards" that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled "Civilization", the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a photograph of an anthropomorphic hand bag, Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the moon, drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of "Ireland--as seen from Wales" and a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay and Gandhi's comment, "Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea". Fletcher's mastery of design mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, colour and layout combined with a "jackdaw" eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read, but only experienced. --Jerry Brotton
Customer Reviews:
The solution for creative block
As a full time graphic designer working in a demanding position where I am required to think constantly... I get days where my head just doesn't want to think or days that my mind is overloaded with too many information that I am too distacted to think. This is where The Art of Looking Sideways comes in... after reading a couple of chapters, I find myself able to put the book down and continue to work with a refreshed mind. Now this could be a coincidence and have absolutely nothing to do with the book but more about taking a break from a stressful environment... either way, it works for me and I'm happy to continue using the book as a solution for creative block and hopefully master the art of looking sideways one day.
A Design Festival
So many have written so much.....
Simply, inspirational, educational, stimulating, enlightening, challenging, interesting.
YOU'RE NOT a real designer if this books not in your library
Amazing
Having been interested in graphic design for a couple of years this was the first book I bought to do with the subject, there's no one like Alan Fletcher for one of your first design books.
The amount of "stuff" in the book is astounding, you can really see how much time, energy and thought Fletcher has put into this, it is basically a catalogue of thoughts, wit, ideas and work by Fletcher. From a quote about how good it feels to write on a rubber with a biro to a diagram of every breed of dog! There are some really interesting sketches and diagrams that let you feel what he was feeling or think how he was at the time, so his personality comes through a lot.
It's definately not a book designed to be read cover to cover because there simply is no need, it goes along at it's own pace, amazing and intriguing you along the way. It features great Fletcher hand drawn typoraphy, interesting page textures and amazing colour, so it's a piece of design itself.
So just pick it up, have a flick through whenever you want, because it's definately going to please you if you are at all interested in graphics.
What a radical, experimental thinker he is (not) 
He tries to be outre, radical, paradoxical...but alas, the author's musings on art and creativity feel like one of those awful joke books pre-teens love - there's that same formulaic quality to the endless creative paradoxes he trots out. Hear one, and you've heard them all. Yawn-inducingly old hat.
All these positive reviews...puzzling really.
Not so much a how to as a why to 
This is a bit of a departure for me... as an animation modelmaker who's looking to understand graphics and illustration to enhance my work I normally buy books which explain the mechanics of creating art or animation, what materials to use, what physical principles apply to the medium, those books which are like a recipe book but for art with structured step by step instructions.
This is more like the book you buy if you're training to be the art equivalent of a Mitchelin star chef, which is both a blessing and a curse.
If you expect focused conclusions, you won't find them, it's more a collection of theories and insights designed to get your creative juices flowing in the first place, some of these are quotations culled from other artistic diciplines, magazine cuttings and thought provoking images. The author interjects with his own thoughts at regular intervals, but the presentation is more like a random scrapbook which makes you ask "What do you think about this aesthetic notion?" and "how many different approaches to the problem are there?"
It's categorised into sub-headings such as "style" or "typography" with many other random categories thrown in for good measure.
I found it interesting, occasionally pretentious, often thought-provoking but the focus on the meta-philosophy of everything can become frustrating if you just wanted a simple starting point to get the ball rolling.
If you're new to the medium of design/illustration I'd start with something a little less taxing, as it can be a bit like being a kid in a candy store. If you're naturally unfocused and indecisive like myself it leaves you feeling a little dazed and confused. I looked up typography as someone totally ignorant about typefaces and layout, and there were so many contradictory quotes from graphic designers I didn't know whose opinion to go with.
In general, don't expect one straightforward answer from this book, it's more like having every known theory in the universe thrust under your nose at once and being asked to explore all of them on your own time. If you're simply looking for one technique to get you started, this isn't the book for you!
If you already feel up to the challenge of taking on that amount of theory in one book, then you could do much worse. Maybe more of a book to dip into then to digest in one sitting.
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re: design books
one book i think is an amazing guide to visual awareness is "the art of looking sideways" by alan fletcher - http://www.amazon.com/art-looking-sideways-alan-fletcher/dp/0714834491 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=33854#33854
monday
a new text book to buy as well, but as i found with last semesters "art of looking sideways" by alan fletcher, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0714834491/104-8394041-2279167?v=glance&n=283155. i read it back to front and then some more ...
http://suebaby.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!A65E255933E05654!2538.entry
project book listing with amazon/abebooks links
fletcher, alan the art of looking sideways phaidon press 2001 isbn:0714834491. fontenrose, joseph python: a study of the delphic myth and its origin university of california press 1959 (reprint 1980 isbn:0520040910) ...
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general talk :: help me buy some books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/art-looking-sideways-alan-fletcher/dp/0714834491/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=utf8&coliid=iiutd56oawwju&colid=10oi3r5fhbdbz this one has an insane number of reviews, and from what everyone has said, it seems like the kind of ...
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the art of looking sideways
fletcher, alan (2001). the art of looking sideways. phaidon press. isbn-10: 0714834491. isbn-13: 978-0714834498. o livro, the art of looking sideways, de alan fletcher é um guia absolutamente extraordinário e inesgotável sobre a ...
http://design-ergonomia.blogspot.com/2007/02/art-of-looking-sideways.html
the art of looking sideways
clouseau: just got this as a gift. awesome book. cheap too. http://www.amazon.co.uk/art-looking-sideways-alan-fletcher/dp/0714834491.
http://www.crazyontap.com/topic.php?TopicId=49355&Posts=2
yesterday, i got.......
i got a book called "the art of looking sideways" by by alan fletcher hardcover: 534 pages publisher: phaidon press ltd (jun 2001) language english isbn-10: 0714834491 isbn-13: 978-0714834498 a review @ amazon says:- alan fletcher's the ...
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ISBN-10: 0714834491; Geary, James (2007). O Mundo em uma Frase - Uma Breve História do Aforismo. Ed. Objetiva. ISBN: 9788573028485; Mohallen, Eugênio (2004). Razões Para Bater Num Sujeito de Óculos. Ed. Planeta. ISBN: 8589885194 ...
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