Visual Thesaurus: A Quick-Flip Brainstorming Tool for Graphic Designers

Based on the premise that graphic designers are ""image artists"" in the manner that writers are ""word artists,"" this book of brainstorming cluster diagrams claims to mimic the action of the designer's mind in its pictographic organization. Each page offers a single-word concept, which the authors illustrate with icons whose relevance varies between obvious and incomprehensible. Take the entry for ""yearn"": there's a man incubating a baby in his belly, a flat-chested woman in boxer shorts (or a man with a womanly face and legs?), a guy playing guitar, a sad-faced dog and a woman with one hand on her stomach and another on what seems to be a cocktail. (The pictures are tiny, usually less than an inch tall.) Despite its cleverness, the book comes across as a half-baked self-promotion ploy on the part of Hatmaker, a branding company from Boston whose corporate work appears for no reason scattered throughout, including in an ad for itself between the entries for ""tropical"" and ""ugly."" And with only about 600 word-concepts, this thesaurus feels spare and remedial.