I'm drawing up my order list of new books for the Design section in the college library, and top of my list is 'Negative Space', by Noma Bar, which was published back in September.
Bar is one of the best illustrators at work today, and is renowned for his visually stunning yet minimal designs that have appeared in the likes of Time Out, Wired, The Guardian, The Economist and Esquire.
His stuff deals with many of the most pressing, emotive and complex issues of our times, and its all done with simple shapes, nice vector-based lines, and a huge amount of dazzling wit.
The term "negative space" refers to the space that surrounds the subject, and how it can provide shape and meaning. Bar's work uses this idea brilliantly and it all seems so effortless. From a practical design viewpoint, its great for students to see good examples of how less can be more, how comples messages don't always need typography, and that Adobe Illustrator is still the daddy :)
See also:
Dutch Uncle Agency - Noma Bar
Creative Review review
Creative Bits article
Examples from the book:
