No comments about The Historiography of Modern Architecture.

No comments about Greece: Modern Architectures in History (Reaktion Books - Modern Architectures in History).

3 comments about America's Best Architecture & Design Schools 2007 (Design Intelligence).

1. Definitely valuable information for anyone looking at design schools, but over-priced for the quantity of information included. I bought this when I was deciding which graduate Interior Design programs to apply to. Essentially what you are purchasing in this book is the top 10 list. I hoped there would be more included about each of the top programs (like their strengths or how many students they admit each year, competitiveness, any other stats) but this is not the case. So, once you read through the list, you're on your own to research each program you may wish to apply to. Though the information that is included is important to reference at the beginning of your search for schools, this is just a cursory jumping off point and you will need to do much more research.



2. The design school section (which is why I bought the book) is a very meager 8 pages in a very expensive 103 pages. I am sure it is useful for anyone interested in architecture--but not Industrial Design



3. The folks at Design Intelligence have done a good job presenting a clean and well-presented book outlining some design professons. Design Intelligence and this annual 'overview' get slammed a lot for being severely overpriced and light -- which I can see.
   
   However, information comes at a price when you really want it. And as a post college grad with some years of non design-work experience, it was quite useful to me as a starting point for exploring further education and a career change. And I would rather have a bound book with all this information collected for me than have to piece it together over several websites.
   
   In addition to essays by actual students and designers (the essays were somewhat helpful, I only skimmed over them) and school rankings (enlightening for me, I had no idea University of Cincinatti had such good design programs and I would not have looked into the Art Center College of Design otherwise) the most helpful part for me were teh SALARY GRAPHS and also the professional surveys given to employers rating new grads/hires.
   
   The book outlines new challenges and boons to respective design fields (tighter immigration controls and rising demand = greater opportunities and better training for American students in _____ field) and really opened my eyes to HOW LITTLE so many designers with 5 years and less work experience get paid.
   
   My father is an architect and he had always said that the pay was bad but I didn't quite believe how bad until I looked at the figures in this book. It definitely gave me food for thought as I contemplate 5 more years of school for an MA (not gonna happen) to get paid much LESS than I was at my last job with just a BA. The essays by design students was also helpful in that many of them seem to highlight the same thing - finding the best 'fit' with a firm is important but getting a fulfilling design job that pays well is hard and most recent design grads are taken for granted (though again, that's changing in some fields).

1 comments about Objects of Design: The Museum of Modern Art.

1. MoMA canonized modern design as it did 20th-century art, and this anthology of pictures and expert texts highlights a collection of 3,708 objects that range in size from microchips to a helicopter. About a tenth of those are illustrated in nine thematic sections. Many are icons, but there are a few surprises, especially among recent acquisitions, where the inventive use of materials supplants functional beauty. Paola Antonelli, MoMA Curator of Architecture and Design, describes the collection as presenting a history of ideas and realizing a part of Alfred Barr's dream of a unity of the arts. She explains how the old selection criteria of truth and beauty have changed while retaining some of their old authority. It's comforting to know that relativism does not yet extend to firearms, making MoMA's collection a gun-free zone. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

No comments about Lighthouses (Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks in Architecture, Design & Engineering).

No comments about General Structures 2008.

No comments about Membrane Structures: The Fifth Building Material.

2 comments about Draw Family & Friends! (Discover Drawing Series).

1. Lee Hammond is the best I have ever seen (in book form). She goes into such detail to teach you how draw everything from eyes to noses to hair. She tells you what paper to use, what pencils, and how important it is to use good products. She is super! I believe that I now have every one of her books, with the exception of the animal ones, which I will get in the future! I HIGHLY recommend this book!



2. Another great Lee Hammond art book! If you have always wanted to do lifelike drawings from family photos, get this book and get started! If you are timid about your drawing, Lee's books will encourage you tremendously. A great place to start with your graphite portraits!

No comments about Building with Vision : Optimizing and Finding Alternatives to Wood (Wood Reduction Trilogy).

No comments about Neon World.