. Virtual Typography (ISBN 978-2940373994) is a new work by Matthias Hillner, course leader for the BA(Hons) Graphic Design Studies. The book explores the visual arrangement of words and letters in the context of multimedia, where this arrangement is not simply a spatial positioning of text information; it is also bound by time. The increasing use of moving, virtual type can help to harmonise the time-based presentation of words on screen. The book touches on work from a variety of designers, including Channel 4 and Pentagram Design.

Matthias writes: “One cannot deny that typographic information struggles increasingly to compete with image-based information in our information-rich environment. On the other hand there lies an interesting opportunity: If we convert typographic elements into time-based imagery in order to let text messages evolve gradually, then we can combine the aesthetic appeal of image information with the precision of typographic information.”

Matthias’s book uses examples such as Futurism to show that ‘type as art’ has been around for a long time. Virtual Typography, which is part of AVA Books’ Basics Typography Series, has been praised in a recent issue of Creative Review as: “A great guide to this medium…an excellent, intelligent introduction to virtual words.”

Matthias isn’t the only course leader from Amersham & Wycombe College to have published a book recently. A Small Book of Trees (ISBN 978-0-9554095-2-3) by Minna Kantonen, course leader for the Foundation Degree and BA(Hons) Photography & Digital Imaging, is a visual collection of trees uprooted from their traditional habitats and placed in various urban environments. For more information, see www.asmallbookoftrees.co.uk.