Book of Circles: Visualizing Spheres of Knowledge

In the follow-up to his hugely popular The Book of Trees and Visual Complexity, design thought leader Manuel Lima takes readers on a lively tour through millennia of circular information design through illustrations, infographics, and artwork.

The Book of Circles features an eclectic collection of three hundred detailed and colorful illustrations and infographics from around the world, highlighting 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.

Clay trading tokens used by the ancient Sumerians are juxtaposed with 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 also provides readers with 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, information designers, graphic designers, pop culture enthusiasts, and beyond.

Author: Manuel Lima
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 05/02/2017
Pages: 272
Weight: 2.7lbs
Size: 10.70h x 8.80w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781616895280


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/27/2017
Choice 07/01/2017

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.