Book of Circles

(Hardback)

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Description

In The Book of Circles, his companion volume to the popular Book of Trees, Manuel Lima takes us on a lively tour through millenia of information design. Three hundred detailed and colourful illustrations cover an encyclopedic array of subjects, drawing fascinating parallels across time and culture. The clay tokens used by ancient Sumerians as a system of recording trade are juxtaposed with the logos of modern retailers like Target; Venn diagrams are discussed side by side with symbols of the Christian trinity, the trefoil shape of the biohazard symbol, and the Olympic rings; a diagram revealing the characteristics of 10,000 porn stars displays structural similarities to early celestial charts placing the earth at the centre of the universe.

Reviews

" explores information design in the form of circles from 18th-century musical scores to photographs of Jupiter." * The Guardian *

Author Bio

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, prasied 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 visualisation at Parsons School of Design.