Graphic Design in Urban Environments introduces the idea of a category of designed graphic objects that significantly contribute to the functioning of urban systems. These elements, smaller than buildings, are generally understood by urban designers to comprise such phenomena as sculpture, clock towers, banners, signs, large screens, the portrayal of images on buildings through 'smart screens,' and other examples of what urban designers call 'urban objects.' The graphic object as it is defined here also refers to a range of familiar things invariably named in the literature as maps, street numbers, route signs, bus placards, signs, architectural communication, commercial vernacular, outdoor publicity, lettering, banners, screens, traffic and direction signs and street furniture. One can also add markings of a sports pitch, lighting, bollards, even red carpets or well dressings. By looking at the environment, and design and deconstructing form and context relationships, the defining properties and configurational patterns that make up graphic objects are shown in this book to link the smallest graphic detail (e.g. the number 16) to larger symbolic statements (e.g. the Empire State Building). From a professional design practice perspective, a cross section through type, typographic, graphic and urban design will provide a framework for considering the design transition between alphabets, writing systems, images (in the broadest sense) and environments. Rob Harland's welcome, original and ultimately provocative book considerably widens the range of objects deemed to be urban/graphic design and provides some sophisticated analytical and critical tools with which to explain those objects. If they have any sense, it will be welcomed and used by graphic/urban designers, design theorists, urban and cultural geographers, as well as town and city planners. Malcolm Barnard, senior lecturer in visual culture at Loughborough University, UK Robert Harland has done nothing less than redefine graphic design as a spatial practice. He shows how an intricate text of words and images mirrors the flux of people and capital through urban space. Graphic design touches nearly every transaction in the life of a city. Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator at the Smithsonian Design Museum and Director of the MFA Graphic Design Program at Maryland Institute College of Art, USA Graphic Design in Urban Environments shines light into the little-explored areas between architecture, urban design and graphic design. The light reveals tantalising new ways to frame discussions of how cities function, and are designed, conceived and experienced. Its audience is as broad as the subject areas it covers - urban geography, architecture, urban design, graphic design, and it offers a critical lens for reconsidering ideas of legibility and imageability in the built environment. Most interestingly, Graphic Design in Urban Environments challenges prevailing conceptions about how we experience, understand and read cities, architecture and places. The discourse has been enlivened by this engaging book. Neil Stacey, Senior Lecturer in Architecture at Leicester School of Architecture, UK. publiarq.com