Interesting, colourful, easily understood and quite well structured. This book can be used as an overall reference material on visual communication, but has absolutely no use as an academic/theoretical/research source.
So if you just started your studies in media, visual communication, advertising, etc. - this one is for you. As it will give you a broader understanding of the subject area with nice visual references and easy explanations.
If, like me, you need a book to use in theoretical research - this one is no much use.
This is a great book about the absolute basics of visual communication. It goes through subjects about design that even a newbie could understand. As a student, picking up this book was very reassuring, since it taught me a lot basics that I then later used during my school year.
The book is a little dated - showing examples of the internet from the 2000-era, that are no longer relevant. Even though the author predicted the expontential growth of internet and its' visual communication, there is no such information to be found about it here (understandably). However, this a great book to read for insights in human psychology about how and where advertisements are best interpreted and why. Also it goes in depth on how the entire designp production works - how an idea becomes a printable product. This, althought out-dated, is still somewhat accurate and good to read up on.
This book helped me a lot, and I enjoy reading the insights and intricacies the author has written about in this book about specific advertisments. Remember, this book focuses on NORDIC AUDIENCES. I read it in swedish.