19 December 2023

Work cited: 

Nelson, George. How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment. Little, Brown and Company, 1977.

Note: many editions of this book have a cover designed by Pentagram.

Description:

George Nelson’s How to See is a visual compendium of black and white photographs of the urban environment. The photographs serve as a visual proxy for Nelson’s eyes, demonstrating what he sees as he moves through the world’s cities. The images are categorized into groups based on shapes or types such as circles, hydrants, or bridges. Sometimes the groups are more conceptual or thematic, such as sections devoted to "reinforced messages" (shop signs and billboards with layered visual puns) or "transformations" (a crushed aluminum can, a crumbling statue, junkyards). These groupings are not meant to be encyclopedic or prescriptive. Rather, they are examples of the type of categories the reader may employ in their own visual jaunts.

Nelson’s objective, as expressed in the book’s forward, is to improve mass visual literacy, a skill he finds generally deficient in the modern world. An ability to read our surroundings is important for navigating daily life, he explains. Not just looking, but actually seeing is a form of thinking. Given that world culture has only become more visually dependent since this book was created, it is safe to assume that Nelson’s cry would only be louder were he still alive today. 

While Nelson asserts that it is the meaning - the information that we interpret from what we see - that is most important, his particular talent - and the importance of the book - seems to be less in deduction or critical analysis but more as a general guide to the act of seeing. 

How is this relevant to contemporary students studying stage design?

By and large, the most important aspect of this book for design students is that it urges them to pay attention, look around and develop their individual artistic eye. Our physical environment, with all its colors, textures, shape, light and movement, is a primary stimulus to creation. A carefully observed outer life is critical for cultivating an inner artistic one.

Another important aspect is that this book demonstrates a method of collecting and categorizing visual information. It is not enough just to take it in. Instead, one must develop an individual system of grouping images while noting their histories, similarities and differences. I know from my own personal experience as a designer and teacher that categorization is an important way to develop memory. Memory is an important first step toward depth and knowledge. It can also help design students discover their own natural modes of interpretation and ultimately develop a personal style.

It is interesting to think of the many changes to American mass media since 1977 when this book was written, particularly the widespread prominence of computer and phone screens, and how this pertains to Nelson’s message which is expressly interested only in the physical, not virtual, world. (I imagine Nelson would not ignore these developments but simply widen his scope given the physical prevalence of screens in daily life). Also, through technology, color has become a much more available and expressive visual tool and it seems that an entire book How to See in Color might someday be written.