5 comments about LogoLounge 3: 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers (LogoLounge).

1. This is another good book of logo ideas. Great for inspiration. Nicely laid out and the pages are of good quality glossy paper. Very nice book for my collection.



2. This series is a must have for any designer. Not only is it great for ideas, but a nice tool to have when a wishy-washy client just isn't sure what they want. If you are a serious designer, you must own all the Logo Lounge books.



3. Always a fan, the assemblage of brands from every corner is impressive and helpful. The Lounge has always been and continues to be a wonderful resource for jump-starting logo block.



4. Whether you are fresh out of college or a seasoned Senior designer, you will find this book an amazing resource of ideas, trends and just plain good design.
   
   We actually have purchased every volume and they keep getting better and better. Logo Lounge 3 is no different in terms of the unique talent chosen to be showcased in this edition.
   
   If you need a design spark look no further, this is the book of choice.
   
   [...]



5. Great book for inspiration and search for the right ideas. This time RockPub. is making few more pages showing how the logos work in the graphic design environment.
   
   I was excited to see foreign companies using the latest styles in advertisement, like the russian phone company "BeeLine."
   
   Wold highly recoment this book for a graphic design major and advertisement.

5 comments about Forms, Folds, and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Need to Know but Can Never Find.

1. Working in customer service for a print shop, I love the fact this handy reference provides me images and simplified explanations for customers who are oblivious to a myriad of printing issues. Being as the book was published in 2004, some of the information--specifically about postal standards--is now dated, but that information is readily available online at the USPS Web site, so it's easy for anyone to find (even designers)!
   
   That issue aside, the book offers two great quick-reference charts for maximizing yield from a sheet and a terrific summarization of paper types, characteristics and finishes I can use to guide customers in their choices. Diagrams of folder templates are at 1/4 scale. The packaging templates show boxes broken down into flats. Simply scan the page and customize size. Standard package sizing is readily available online or you could just grab a calculator and do the math to calculate for custom fabrication. If you are designing labeling for plastic stock containers, the author recommends contacting specific manufacturers for their product specifications.
   
   For information about standard size envelopes, the measurements are all there. If you need to know what kind of standard envelope you need for a 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" invitation, you can find it. A2, by the way. The process color swatches are a great reference to use in concert with your Pantone swatches. If you don't know what process color is or how it differs from spot color--there are hundreds of Design 101 books out there to help you out.
   
   I agree with the reviewer who said, if you have no clue about design or the print industry, you may not know how to interpret the information this volume contains. If you speak the language, however, it is a great, handy desk reference.



2. This book is a must have for the designer. Although the layout is pretty mundane, the information is necessary. It is a package deal- from correct information about packaging, Pantone colors to envelope and paper sizes- it is everything you NEED to know in the design field.



3. This book has some great resources for any graphic designer, whether you're needing to figure out the right CMYK mixture for a color, or the average envelope size.



4. A great resource for all the little details you don't find in your design school text books. I've tossed my Pocket Pal and this is next to my copy of Bringhurst now.



5. i'm a big design book junky. i have shelves of them. so once you have all that.. you really don't need this one. it has little tidbits of design how-to's.

No comments about Culture and Values, Volume II: A Survey of the Humanities (with CD-ROM) (Culture & Values).

5 comments about Magic Eye Gallery: A Showing Of 88 Images.

1. I really love these books. I am fascinated by the technique used to get the 3-d affect. I have everyone out.



2. This book is packed with more images than any other I own, and more vivid colors. I have a lot of favorite pictures, and I love that there are varying degrees of difficulty and depth so theres something for everyone in this book. My only regret is that I cant frame a couple of them as abstract art on my walls. If your looking for an all inclusive book of Magic Eye visual art, this is definately my top choice and top recommendation.



3. (3.5 stars) I've always been a huge fan of Magic Eye images, and I wanted to find a large collection that might keep several grandchildren busy and having fun during the winter holidays. This collection of 3D images, however, proved to be something of a disappointment. Though there are several hidden pictures that are clear and very professionally done (an image of football players and one of an eagle hunting, for example), about twenty-five percent of the images are either unclear, ill-defined, or uninteresting as subject matter.
   
   Two "glass" images are simply the 3D version of the flat image. Five pages contain "no image" at all. Two mazes appear, but only one can be solved--the other has two dead ends at the beginning. Other questionable images include two jet planes with a target site superimposed, making the picture appear confused, a chariot race in which the chariot is unclear and the driver looks like a triangle; and Saturn with its rings where the bottom half of the planet is so hard to see, that the image look like a ranger's hat. Some images of little interest include those of yin and yang, a tapestry weave, an ugly cone, a cube, a car driven by a wolf, a ball seen through mesh, op art, symbols for male and female, four puzzle pieces, and penguins (not polar bears) in front of an igloo (?!?).
   
   I really enjoy this series, but this selection was not interesting to my audience, who felt that many images were just too much work for an image of little interest. In total, I found fifty-seven of the eighty-eight images to be acceptable to good, and two are excellent. Thirty-one, which I marked in the corner so people could skip them, were inferior and detracted from what could have been a terrific collection. n Mary Whipple



4. Magic Eye Gallery: A Showing Of 88 Images
   by N.E. Thing Enterprises
   
   I am pleasantly surprised that this treasury of eighty-eight colourful random-dot stereograms is still around. The publisher is apparently the leading pioneer in this field. I thought the 'craze' had faded towards the end of the nineties.
   
   Personally, I am also fascinated by random-dot stereograms. My first exposure to them happened when I attended the PhotoReading workshop in 1992 & then reading Andrew Kinsman's wonderful book, 'Random Dot Stereograms', about the same time. Besides books, I have also amassed a large collection of posters & post-cards in the same genre.
   
   My personal stance towards random-dot stereograms is that they help to demonstrate the two specific phenomena of human perception i.e. binocular disparity & stereoscopic vision.
   
   Although they are great fun to play with, I find them very educational in understanding - & appreciating - how the brain really works! In actuality, each of your two eye balls take in sensory data independently from each other. To see a random dot stereogram, your two eye balls must work together as a coordinated team to sustain a soft focus (or unfocused gaze). In other words, it takes two eye balls to tango!
   
   For some people, random dot stereograms may be difficult to see (especially during the first attempt) when compared to conventional visual illusions found in 'Can You Believe Your Eyes' & 'Seeing Double' by J Richard Block respectively.
   
   I often notice that many people can see the colourful random dot stereograms more readily than the black & white ones!
   
   For your further visual entertainment, I would like to suggest the following collections, also published by N E Thing Enterprises:
   
   - Magic Eye: A New Way of Looking at the World;
   - Magic Eye Vol 2;
   - Magic Eye Vol 3;
   - Magic Eye: A New Bag of Tricks;
   
   To conclude this review, I can only say that when you can readily see random dot stereograms, irrespective whether they are in colour or black & white, you will be able to understand & appreciate the power of 'splatter vision' practised by secret service agents, army snipers, fighter pilots, martial artists, fast readers, animal hunters & nature observers.



5. This book it TOTTALLY amazing. it has a hidden 3-d image inside a 3-d backaround. I do not even no how they do it without 3-d glasses. It is so easy to use to when you get used to it. later on you will just start starring into random pictures. You may think that is stupid but even though it sounds boring it, you will be sitting down starring at one picture for so long. You will love the stunning 3-d effects. I started getting into this by buying a 3-d spongebob book. It didn't include 3-d glasses so I borroed them. Then I tyhought myswell have some fun wlile I have the 3-d glasses so I searched the internet for pictures that need 3-d glasses. I found so much. Then I learned the cross eyed one. I get that one. Then i learned the parrelell trick. That was o.k. Then I found a wierd site in my search results. It said "magic eye". I looked at it. Then the next day I hatdto give the glasses back. I was sad. I looked at that site again [...] I noticed it did not need 3-d glasses and there was only one image of it instead of 2. I looked into it. I did not believe it at first. I thought it was fake. To see if i was right I printed one out. I looked at the directions. I got fustratted because I couldn't see it(it was saturn). right befor I was about to put it down I saw a big 3-d circle made of stars. Then a ring sorrounded it. I was amazed

5 comments about The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern.

1. This is a wonderful book, I am studying for the Art praxis and found this book very helpful. Good crash course in art history.



2. I bought this book to review for the Art Content Praxis. It's been about 20 years since my art history classes so I definitely needed a refresher. Although, I did remember a lot and reviewed other books, this book put me over the top.
   
   It's fast paced and easy to read! Short highlights to remind you of things you may have forgot and adds what you may have missed.



3. This book is just what is says it is: "a crash course in Art History" and it is great! Carol Strickland is a top flight writer and art historian. She covers the most important artists and movements in a concise and readable manner. Her side-bars that appear throughout the text add interesting anecdotal material that is always worthwhile. There are plenty of art reproductions, many in color, that illustrate the text.
   
   I have used this book (1st edition) for several years in a one semester high school Art History course and it is perfect. It is also makes for very pleasant and informative personal reading. I recommend it very highly.



4. This book is well worth the price! I feel like I need to memorize every word written! Full of relevant information!



5. This is a valuable companion to the standard college text for the art history student. It is short yet complete, and makes art history entirely accessible. It is clearly written, entertaining, and is a great overview for the novice or serious student of art history.

4 comments about Mies Van Der Rohe: 1886-1969 (Basic Architecture Series).

1. it' nice to have it in your colection or a travelling pack. you can starts to explore his works and get a idea about him. its ideal for the students, but if your looking for more minimalist details and plans you better find a another.



2. this books introduce lots of important works of Mies Van Der Rohe
   If you're his fan or like the art works of the Bauhaus
   this book is a good option to know the artist



3. I wish I had more floor plans and pictures and also more buildings.
   Not bad though for the price.



4. Mies Van Der Rohe is one of the father's of Modern Architecture. He began his career in Germany before the Great War and ended it in the United States in the late 1960's. Not only did he design some of the most iconic buildings and furniture of the Twentieth Century, Mies was also a teacher who deeply influenced generations of architects. We see his influence in cities throughout the world.
   
   The volumes in Taschen's Basic Architecture Series are a must for anyone interested in the history of architecture. At $9.99 a volume, they are an affordable and attractive introduction to the works of the most influential architects of the past century. The sole hesitation I have with this volume is Claire Zimmerman's writing style. She writes in a flowery academic style that is off putting. However, at $9.99 a volume, you cannot go wrong. Recommended.

5 comments about Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing.

1. A very good book with great pictures that demonstrate key vision concepts. Near the end of the book, however, I started to skim the chapters because it became too tedious to read - very technical book overall.
   
   I bought a used copy and noticed "student underling" in the first chapter, but an abrupt end to underlining in the second chapter. You know what that means: "This course is not what I expected; I'm dropping out!"
   The student and I feel the same way, but I got a lot further.
   
   Buy it, but I found Robert L. Solso's book The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain to be a far more exciting read. That one is a five star easily.
   
   Another more engaging book covers many of the same things as Livingstone's but in a more readable style: Visual Intelligence by Donald D. Hoffman.
   
   So, if your interested in vision, etc. I'd start with Solso, then move to Hoffman, and lastly to Livingstone.



2. This is a book that every teacher of photography and serious photographer should read and study and re-read. Although the book contains no photographic examples, there are plenty of examples in famous paintings to support the visual research Dr. Livingtson so clearly writes about. The examples in paintings are easily transferable
   to a number of familiar and famous photographs.
   Ever wonder what Ansel Adams and Edward Weston were so successful with the black-and-white photographs but not with their color photographs? I have, and her book has provided me with insights into this and other photographic practices.



3. After reading it, you'll want to keep it close to you. That way, you'll never forget how important art and science are in your life.



4. Margaret Livingstone has produced a book so very useful to visual artists that it may, in its density of ideas, seem definitive rather than evocative. But evocative it is. As we learn from studying it, Livingstone's book offers implications that may be developed by any artist who reads it in almost any direction. One might take as an example the very rich Chapter 8, with its notions of luminance as a balance for the salience, or pushiness of certain colors - how Leonardo handled it, how Ingres handled it, and how today's painter or digital image maker might go even further. The size and shape of the book allow for illustrations that work on the eye at the right scale. And there is an overall visual loudness to the book that is jarring and satisfying.

   The author gets to the structure of our visual systems, makes them very clear, and tells us things that are lasting and verifiable. Her spirit of personal experimentation shows in the book, and makes us think that looking inquisitively at the world will pay off.




5. Some teasers on the back cover:

   "Why do Claude Monet's fields of flowers seem to wave in the breeze?"

   "What is the secret of Mona Lisa's smile?"

   The first two chapters cover some scientific fundamentals- how light and the human vision works. While this is all very scientific, every effort is made to make it understandable, with plenty of full-color diagrams illustrating the concepts. While these 2 chapters are not the easiest to read, they're not rocket science either, and provide a valuable foundation for the rest of the book. Not essential but VERY useful.

   Things start to get interesting toward the end of the 2nd chapter, when we start to understand what a red/green colorblind person sees. But the best stuff starts to come in the third chapter ("Luminance and Night Vision"). Plenty of interesting illustrations are provided in this chapter (like red cherries in a blue bowl, where the cherries appear brighter or darker than the bowl depending on the ambient light, or flickering polkadots), and continues until the rest of a book, making it a truly fascinating read.

   Oh, and the explanation on Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile is very convincing.

   I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in both visual art and science.
   I also recommend it to anyone who's interested in science and how things work- you'll appreciate some art pieces a lot more after reading this book.

1 comments about Art & Today.

1. Art is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide diversity of formats in which men and women work to create items of beauty that range from the simple to the complex and are in an continual state of evolving discovery as new techniques and mediums for artistic expression are developed with each new generation of artists. "Art & Today" is a massive, coffee-table compendium of contemporary artworks; the one common aspect of the 400 emerging artists surveyed is that they all engage in a postmodern willingness to transcend traditional boundaries. Full-color illustrations on almost every page introduce the reader to a vast variety of artistic creations, from painting to sculpture to photography and much more, while extensive essays offer insights into the backgrounds, themes, and messages of the individual artists. Organized around a set of sixteen themes ranging from "Art & Popular Culture" to "Art & Nature and Technology" to "Art & Globalism" and "Art & Politics", Art & Today lives up to its self-appointed Herculean labor of surveying what today's art as a whole has to say about humans and the world we live in. Highly recommended especially for public library and art book collections.

5 comments about Drawing on the Artist Within.

1. This book is not a substitute for Betty Edwards' basic book on drawing, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This book is about the creative process. So it applies to more than drawing or even visual art.
   
   For me, the part on analog drawing opened up a whole new way to develop my work. I've used it in dream interpretation and personal growth as well as for my artwork. As an artist-blacksmith, analog drawing with sumi brush and India ink has enabled me to express very specific feelings and states of being with bars of iron.
   
   You may find parts of the book unnecessarily complicated. I don't use everything in the book. But it's worth buying for the chapter on analog drawing. If you've ever had any doubts about your ability to express yourself in art, this book can dispel them completely.



2. This book has some good information regarding different styles and techniques for drawing. The author is a little self absorbed throughout the book, and talks about herself and a class she teaches at a college. It goes fairly in depth on the thought process and workings of the brain.
   
   There are sections on drawing different emotions, once again using herself and her students as examples. I wouldn't really suggest that anyone buy or check out this book in a library unless there was absolutely nothing else that related to what they were looking for...that's why I got this book.



3. LEARN-TO-DRAW: UNTHINKING PERSONS APPLY HERE!
   
   Edwards seems intent on obtaining dominance in the field of "How To Draw" books written by those who cannot teach, employing a fashionable Madison Avenue advertising approach to Drawing-On-The-Cash-In-Your-Wallet.
   
   Edwards seems to falsely presume that Michaelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci and other Renaissance Masters all drew upon knowledge regarding the RIGHT-SIDE of their brain, or ZEN, or even YOGA. It's a nonsense proposition, unsupported by fact. Neither were such "masters" of drawing, interested in selling HOW-TO-DRAW books.
   
   One could examine infinitely the theme of an "Artist Within," a creative self within, or even a Divine Spark within. I myself endorse SPIRITUALITY with whole-hearted enthusiasm. The problem is, it just doesn't matter whether the artist is within/without, internal/external, left-brain/right brain, or just plain WRONG-HEADED; because it amounts to nothing more than coy marketing where Betty Edwards is concerned.
   
   Betty Edwards engages in gross self-promotion, prevailing upon public sentiment to hold forth as art expert, Zen Buddhist, scientist, college professor, and New Age mystic guru.
   
   Authors like Edwards are using two prominent FALLACIES, to lead readers on with promises of artistic empowerment:
   
   (1) The WHOLENESS or WELLNESS FALLACY: which suggests that if I am HEALED, or WHOLE (in a psychological sense) I will be powerful, and produce powerful art.
   
   (2) The KNOW-IT-ALL FALLACY: which suggests that if I KNOW EVERYTHING, such as is suggested by invocations of QUANTUM THEORY, or reading quotes from scientists, writers, poets, philosophers and adopting Eastern Religions such as Yoga and Zen (on a very superficial level) I will embrace a THEORY-OF-EVERYTHING, and as a consequence, I will be powerful, and produce powerful art.
   
   Edwards twists and bends all knowledge into a gooey mass of rhetorical gibberish. Edwards cannot discern the difference between "WITHIN" or "THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN".
   By any stretch of definition, they cannot be the SAME THING at the SAME TIME.
   
   The implication is clear; Edwards believes art is conditional upon maintaining an intellectual act, in short, a KNOW-IT-ALL act, inclusive of Zen Buddhism, New Age Cosmology, Nuclear Physics, Evolutionary Theory, Neurology, and Philosophy. [Just like Gary Zukav]; or, alternatively, it is a WELLNESS act, suggesting that we adopt a qasi-religious philosophy, identifing with a HIGHER SELF that is WITHIN. Whereas that latter statement sounds profoundly true, there is a problem. How can you both tell people that they are "Drawing on the artist within" and also tell them that the "artist" [HIGHER SELF] is "on the right side of the brain"? This is where Edward's ideas come into clear contradiction.
   
   It is clear that those who recommend Edward's books, do not evidence a predominance of Left-Brain analytical functioning, with objective analysis. These are not "great thinkers" and yet Edwards claims require deep analysis. She is very wordy and heavy on text and ideology. It is virtually impossible to credit those who affirm Edward's theories, with an ability to use RIGHT-BRAIN functioning to visualize the OBVERSE/NEGATIVE SPACE, and at the same time actively use LEFT-BRAIN ANALYTICAL FUNCTIONING to analyze or comprehend Edward's outer-galactic star cluster of disconnected theories. Go figure!
   
   Morever, Edwards cannot distinguish between the fundamentally contradictory reasoning inherent to METAPHYSICAL REALISM [the Platonic WORDS-ARE-REAL] as opposed to: METAPHYSICAL NOMINALISM [WORDS-ARE-NOTHING]; but Edwards is just preaching to the choir anyway. Who's kidding who?
   
   This is an overly complex approach, but worse, it is an absolute contradiction in logic; but Edwards manages to both affirm the rational, the scientific, and the non-rational and metaphysical at the same time. Her scientists are "magicians" and perform "magic". Her magicians are scientists who expound profound core theories of physics. Knowledge of both or either of these make you an artist?
   
   Betty Edwards, by introducing personal metaphysics into teaching drawing, is essentially dictating to students, that they must accept the philosophical and pseudo-scientific ideology, before they can even begin to learn to draw.
   
   Betty Edwards teaches that THERE ARE THOSE WHO CANNOT DRAW-BUT CAN DRAW- CANNOT DRAW -- BUT CAN DRAW -- CANNOT DRAW-- BUT CAN DRAW ....and having taught this fundamental contradiction in reason, has found an army of ideological "lemmings" who repeat the propaganda slogan as though it were a fundamental, logical, rational, medical diagnosis, a philosophical, and psychological fact.
   
   It's analogous to somebody WALKING down the street with you, and saying, "I CANNOT WALK! I CANNOT WALK!" and of course, you point out to them, "Hey, but you ARE walking!" and they respond, "No, you do not understand, I CANNOT WALK!" Whereupon you insist, "But you ARE walking! So you CAN walk, after all!" and they respond,
   
   "Yes, of course I'm walking, but only because Betty Edwards taught me how to walk within the NEGATIVE SPACE around my feet!That's why!"
   
   It reminds one of the PARADOX OF EPIMENIDES:
   
   "All Greeks are Liars! --by Epimenides, a Greek
   
   Edwards has a following, that much is evident; but merely because a mass of people claim a thing is so, does not make it so. [The Populist Fallacy ] The contradictions and paradoxes do not sum up to simple truth.
   
   An analogy might be like declaring:
   
   EVERYTHING IS TRUE. IF ANYONE SAYS OTHERWISE, IT'S FALSE!
   
   Edwards pulls this off very neatly. You are to both DRAW ON THE ARTIST 'WITHIN' and also DRAW ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN, at the same time. Both are true, and nothing is false.
   Scientists are metaphysicians, and metaphysicians are scientists.
   
   The ultimate irrationality however, is the suggestion that those who "draw", by Edward's miraculous methodologies, are "artists". If you subscribe to Edward's theory, you are drawing on the "ARTIST WITHIN". Isn't that nice? So, if everyone is an "ARTIST" by virtue of the existence of the "ARTIST WITHIN" how do we distinguish between someone who IS and IS-NOT an artist? You cannot. That is the marvelous slight-of-hand that Edwards is pulling off on the general public. Both or either YOU and BETTY EDWARDS and MICHAELANGELO.....are ONE, and not only, but you are "in ZEN" too!
   
   It's a laughable proposition at best.



4. MANY OF THESE BOOKS ARE FOR SALE AND I SEE WHY. IT WAS A HORRIBLE BOOK FOR ANY ARTIST OR FOR SOMEONE TO LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT BEING CREATIVE! HOW DID IT GET PUBLISHED?? TERRIBLE SILLY THINGS WRITTEN DOWN ABOUT MUCH OF NOTHING....DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME PLEASE..



5. NOT ONLY DOES THIS BOOK OVERLAP, I FOUND IT INSULTING TO READ! I WAS SO BORED OF THE DRAWINGS AND OVER AND OVER EXPLANATIONS OF THEM THAT I COULDN'T FINISH THE BOOK. THAT WAS TOO MUCH REALLY!! NO THEORY OR ANY BREAKTHROUGH KNOWLEDGE WHAT SO EVER.

4 comments about History of Modern Art.

1. this textbook of sorts is super informative with great color and black and white pictures of paintings discussed in the readings.



2. Academic reading and art criticism, well suited for undergraduate and graduate coursework. Dry reading for aficionados, on the bombastic side descriptive. This book speaks to art as a critic would describe the sunset.



3. Blah blah blah - Good quality blah blah. You know the drill, just BUY IT already!



4. Having taken art history in college, I wish this was the addition of Arnason I bought. Kalb is a gifted editor. The original text is streamlined and energized with beautiful new plates. I thought the later chapters that Kalb wrote on contemporary art brought this classic to the 21st century. I bought it again.