1 comments about Exploring Visual Design: The Elements and Principles.

1. Joseph A. Gatto has published one of the most comprehensive tomes on modern visual art and the utility of the space around us, the products we use, and indeed, man's design of his environment and the world. Fascinating theories, a good read, for beginner and pro alike.

3 comments about Otl Aicher.

1. Otl Aicher
   
   Otl Aicher and his collegues has created among the most modern but still timeless graphic design ever. Many of his design programmes are still in use even if they where created 50, 40 or 30 years ago. I think this is due to his method; a palette of few graphic elements, strong grids, well balanced color schemes, combined with an artistic hand and a twinkle in the eye. The art of reduction without losing the soul.



2. As one connected with the Ulm School for much of its tenure, I find that this book is full of historical misinformation. I am not referring to opinion or interpretation. The reader might fear that the rest of the text can have much misinformation as well.



3. hard to go wrong when showcasing the work of such an innovative and strategic designer.

1 comments about Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture (Bard Graduate Centre for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture).

1. I just saw the last weekend of this show in New York at the Bard Center and it was inspired, to say the least. The book is the next best thing to being there if you are a Marimekko fan. It is a more thorough look at the company than the older title "marimekko phenomenon". The editor of this book, Marianne Aav (also the show's curator) was responsible for the 1998 show/book from the Bard Center on Finnish Modern Design. Marimekko's brave colors, shapes, and graphics are made more powerful, in my mind, by the fact that the final result appears so simple. While I mourn the lack of this in much of today's clothing/textile design, I think that the renewed excitement about Marimekko, and design in general, indicates that this is changing. There is a lot of exciting material coming out of Scandanavia and Finland by young designers right now, but Marimekko's influence on modern design cannot be underestimated. Their vision ranged beyond textiles into architecture as well, which the book illustrates. This exhibit & accompanying book have done a fine job at giving credit where it's due.

1 comments about The Styles of Ornament.

1. I have had this book in my reference/design library for nearly 40 years and it has never let me down. Whether I wanted to find tiny elements or sweeping gestures to help push a design foreword, I've always found the inspiration I hoped for. In addition, it's just plain fun to browse through!
   About a zillion fantastic drawings make me think about the early archaeologists recording sights unimaginable to share with the rest of their world. Stone arches, iron gateways, tapestries, stained glass, furniture, it's all represented here.
   I highly recomment adding this collection to your collection ASAP!
   Don't forget to have fun! - Tod

5 comments about The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour.

1. Nice book. Gives us an indepth knowledge of how fashion took place and evolved. Nice to read how the many common articles of fashion we see today were styled and how the entire process of style took place



2. Fantastique! As entertaining as it is enlightening! Authoress Joan DeJean's delightful and witty style of writing will make you feel as if you too are partaking of all the lavish indulgences and gossip of King Louis the Fourteenth's court!



3. This is not really a book, but more of a collection of essays examining the origin of various modern concepts of style: hair, culture, fashion, marketing/tourism, footwear, fine dining, coffee, champagne, diamonds, mirrors, nightlife, umbrellas, shopping, perfumes, and entertaining.
   
   As a scholar of French history and culture, the unifying theme of Joan DeJean's work is that the origins of these parts of our modern society came in the reign of Loius XIV of France, and fairly amazing are largly unchanged since their implementation.
   
   By this I mean not the specifics of style, but in the way they function in the greater culture.
   
   DeJean speaks well to the technology being developed at the time as well as the reasons that the late 1600's were the first time these aspects of life could be mass consumed, instead of say, the 1200's.



4. I wasted an hour searching for something of substantive interest in this work. It was time spent in vain. A frivolous book about frivolous things.



5. Topic Selection: B+ Although the book may seem a little all over the place to some, focusing on such diverse aspects of culture as food, clothing, champagne, perfume, parties, and even umbrellas, DeJean does a good job of relating the different parts of the book to one another. She ties them all to a very specific period of history and especially to Louis XIV.
   
   Scholarship: C- DeJean seems to rely fairly heavily on a rather small number of sources, despite the fact that the total number of sources is pretty good. Also, at least some footnotes would help the book.
   
   Readability: A- This book was obviously written to be consumed by a general audience. DeJean's style is very easy to read, although some of the chapters seem repetitive, as she often comes to the same conclusion.
   
   Impartiality: C I detected a definite "France is great" tone to this book that could sometimes be a little distracting. One also gets the impression that DeJean thinks that the move towards rapidly changing fashions was inevitably a good thing, for which she does not give a reason. She was not biased in an overbearing way, but there is definitely a bias there.
   
   Overall: B- I really enjoyed the book and for beginners to this area of history, I think it is ideal. You learn a lot of those little things that you always wondered about, such as where the concept of dessert comes from. DeJean's style is readable and she is obviously passionate about the subject. Serious scholars should stay away, as the book does not always adequately cite it's sources and does not prove its argument as adequately as it could.

1 comments about Design Now!.

1. é um tesão de livro... perfect! sem comentarios pra quem quer uma boa referência de design essa é a pedida!

5 comments about The Color Star.

1. The color star is a great tool for anyone wanting to understand color and various color schemes



2. Itten's COLOR STAR is a wonderful and useful tool. I wish the price were a bit lower to make it more affordable for students - I would definitely consider adopting it as a tool for my Color courses. Itten's work with color is at once practical, accessible, and sophisticated. The COLOR STAR is a vehicle to experiment with color chords and color schemes, and a means to investigate new color relationships - easy to use, beautifully packaged too. A nice companion to his ART OF COLOR and ELEMENTS OF COLOR.



3. I purchased this with university money - and along with $100 of other Itten books. This has no literature, just the color wheel. Don't expect anything more.
   
   If I were using my personal money for this...forget it, not worth it - google image and print at Kinko's if you just have to have it.



4. Johannes Ittens is unarguably recognized as the master of color from the Bauhaus school of art. The color star is a valuable asset to any artist or designer that wants to become better with making color choices. However, as any good tool goes the color star by itself won't be much use to you unless you've studied the material presented in one of his books.



5. Very disappointed by the "book", which actually consists of a set of wheels,
   with a 4-page booklet which does not explain much. I returned the book.

4 comments about M.C. Escher : 29 Master prints.

1. This book is ammazing just as I expected and arrived on time. Though it was a little overpriced.



2. This book is excellent. I used it in a college level art project and it helped a lot. The pictures are big and the detail is wonderful. Plus since it is written by Escher, the comments are great for understanding the contextualist side of each of his works. I would recommend this book to anyone.



3. Nearly everyone will have seen some of the work of Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1970). His woodcuts and lithographs are largely based in mathematics and geometry, and provide endless fascination. Many of the two dimensional images Escher created simply could not exist in the three dimenional world, yet on paper they LOOK entirely plausible at first glance (for instance, "Ascending and Descending" and "Belvedere"), and this alone gives the mind of the viewer plenty to ponder. Escher also incorporated tessellations - images composed of repeating, interlocking shapes - into many of his pieces (such as in "Reptiles" or "Fish"), and he played with the idea of having different figures in the same composition existing on different planes, despite sharing the same space. For instance, a surface which is the floor for one figure may be a wall for another (see "Relativity").
   
   This particular book is a very nice collection of some of Escher's most well-known pieces, and is very afordable. There are certainly more detailed books on Escher's life and work available, such as J.L. Locker's 200-page "The Magic of M.C. Escher," but "29 Master Prints" is a great alternative for those who simply want something visually stimulating to put on their coffee table, without too much text. Each print covers a full page (and these are large pages - approximately 14.5 x 10.5 inches), and is accompanied by a small amount of text on the facing page, giving the piece's title, date of completion, medium, dimensions, and a short blurb offering insights about the print, written by either Escher himself or one of several other authors. The explanations written by the artist are often delightfully witty. At the beginning of the book there is a short essay by Escher, "On Being a Graphic Artist."
   
   One disappointment I found was that the print of "Metamorphosis III" is broken up into pieces to fit it all on one page, so you can't see it end-to-end. I would rather have seen this done as some sort of fold-out. Also, unfortunately, this book does not appear to be available in hardcover, so it is slightly less durable. Nevertheless, I would certainly recommend "29 Master Prints" to any fan of Escher's work.
   
   Following is a list of the particular twenty-nine prints included:
   
   "Rind" - on front cover
   "Other World"
   "Smaller and Smaller"
   "Circle Limit III"
   "Knots"
   "Hand with Reflecting Sphere (Self-Portrait in Spherical Mirror)"
   "Balcony"
   "Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell)"
   "Ascending and Descending"
   "Day and Night"
   "Regular Division of the Plane III"
   "Sky and Water I"
   "Cycle"
   "Metamorphosis III"
   "Belvedere"
   "Reptiles"
   "Relativity"
   "Fish" - 1942 woodcut
   "Mobius Strip II (Red Ants)"
   "Snakes"
   "Fish" - 1941 woodcut
   "Drawing Hands"
   "Three Spheres I"
   "Stars"
   "Waterfall"
   "Double Planetoid (Double Planet)"
   "Dream (Mantis Religiosa)"
   "Concentric Rinds (Concentric Space Filling / Regular Sphere Division)"
   "Dragon"



4. This is a great "coffee table" picture book - full page prints of 29 of M.C. Escher's works. Not much text. The main drawback is that it is a paperback, so you can't use it too well as a "lap table" for other projects. And hey, the price is right, now! Just under 15 bucks, wow! We got our copy 15-20 years ago when the price was quite a bit higher! You can count on Amazon.Com to deliver it fast and cheap. Great book...

5 comments about The Education of a Typographer.

1. Awesome book whether you're a type geek or not . I just started getting interested in learning about tyopography but this book is about more than just type , its about art and why we learn it the way we do
   and how that affects how we both view and interact with the world.



2. good theory for teachers, useful articles from other lecturers and useful type theory that works. No colorful and amazing samples on pages. It's totally theory! worth it.



3. Reading this book is difficult, I don't know if I'll be able to get through it.
   
   12 point type gets a 12 point paragraph indent, 14 point type gets a 14 point paragraph indent, this book has paragraph indents of .5 inch, which suggests the type should be 36 points
   
   It's as if the book is trying to hypnotize a person into being a good typesetter, my eyes zigzagged back and forth, and this voice started saying, "you will be a good typesetter, you will be a good typesetter." Something about the excessive white space at the beginning of the paragraphs was putting me to sleep. So any good information about typesetting will be hard to extract.



4. It's important to learn the elements of type before embarking on an exploration of graphic design: that's what makes Steven Heller's The Education Of A Typographer so important. Essays, interviews, and course syllabi explore the basics of teaching and learning typography, with writing by top designers and educators providing insights on the finer points of typography. Discussions cover everything from how to choose type among the hundreds of choices available to common elements of sloppy typographical choices, how to identify and eliminate them, and understanding typographic delivery to different audiences.



5. The right reader teaches typography and wants, at minimum, to know that [s]he is not alone out there. This book offers a number of essays, Q&A with praticing educators, and a few syllabi. This book consists of 40 or so brief pieces. That's way too many for any one voice ot dominate, but certainly covers a wide range of views and practices. There are a few minor gems here, including discussions of the unique needs of Hebrew and Arabic, and about the 'voice' of a printed text. There's no organized bibliography here, but the careful reader will be rewarded with a good long list of titles, some of which are sure to be unfamiliar.
   
   Though by no means unanimous, there was wide agreement that hand-work exercises, using physical media, are helpful or necessary for understanding what computerized systems are doing. I have to agree. If nothing else, computer users have a tendency to treat the quirks and oddities of their chosen software as laws of nature. This inflexibility stands in sharp contrast to most students' use of ink, paper, and all the rest, where their goal is to push the medium to its limit or beyond. Because they have no way to adapt the software tools to their concepts, they constrain their concepts to the tools, sometimes unknowingly. Users of physical media may at least have the vision to see beyond those limits.
   
   The practicing typographer won't find much to relate to here, except a formal statement of what was probably done to her in the classroom. This book is about training educators, not about training the practitioners themselves, so there is very little discussion of the concrete design issues.
   
   This book has a rather narrow intended audience: type educators. Others (like me) can still read it, and still get some measure of insight into typography and typographers.
   
   //wiredweird

4 comments about Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. I am soooo glad I got this book. The designs are superb, and can be used in a zillion ways for design, fine art, etc. Just the inspiration I was looking for, and more. Good flow to the designs in terms of pattern, light and dark, and variety. Good for graphic design basis and logo thinking, too, but I will use it in my paintings and sculpture textures.



2. Unlike the first reviewer who gave this book 1 star, this is actually an excellent book showing designs taken from one of the many complex arts and crafts traditions of Japan. These are actual designs from stencils, which were carefully cut from mulberry paper and used for printing designs on cloth.The stencils are called katagami. Some of these are still being made, and by the fine traditional craftsmen of Japan working with simple, traditional tools to produce amazing patterns. The first reviewer has not bothered to look carefully into Japanese art forms, and so is, I believe speaking from ignorance. Not a book for tatoo designs, granted, but I think most people who would like design references from a somewhat obscure Japanese art tradition would find this book of interest. If you'd like more detail on the art tradition of stencil cutting or carving, you might want to look at
   "Carved Paper: The Art of the Japanese Stencil." You can also see an example with some explanations here: http://www.sohe.wisc.edu/depts/hlatc/pixelsexhibit/katagami.html
   Although these stencils were/are made for the purpose of dyeing cloth, they can be considered artforms in their own right. (I own a couple of these.) The Dover book is a nice reference.



3. As a previous reviewer has noted, Clarence Hornung's "Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs" is not the book to purchase if you are seeking inspiration for tattoos. It is, however, of exceptional value if your interests include Japanese aesthetics in general and textile motifs in particular or if you are seeking sophisticated patterns that can be manipulated and reproduced as graphic designs.

   The stencils included were originally designed for monochromatic printing on cotton textiles but are also typical of the patterns imprinted on deer-skin goods and traditional Japanese wrapping papers. More than any other volume in Dover's generously-sized library of books on Japanese design, Hornung's testifies to the Japanese genius for manipulating a few design elements into subtle and classically beautiful patterns. Some of the patterns are abstract and without specific meaning, but the overwhelming majority are rich in symbolism. Hornung's introduction discusses the most important of these symbolic meanings. However, the usefulness of the introduction is compromised by his failure to number the stencils and then identify for the reader precisely which plates represent each thematic motif.




4. If you are at all trying to find sources for Japanese art, this is NOT the place to do it! Not only are the designs in the book non-Japanese they are worthless if you are using them for illustration or any reference to draw from. If you are looking for a source book for tattooing like I was, this is not it. To say this book was weak is a compliment. The biggest waste of money I've spent in a long time!