No comments about Full-Color Art Nouveau Designs and Motifs CD-ROM and Book (Dover Pictorial Archives).

2 comments about Film Posters of the 80s: The Essential Movies of the Decade (Film Posters).

1. No solamente la musica fue victima de la cultura POP, sino tambien el cine y es en este libro con los posters mas relevantes de le época en donde el arte POP se ve a la perfeccion. Desde los poster clasicos hasta lo posters mas extraños. Ya que esta recopilacion no solamente tiene los artes que conocimos pegados en los carteles del cine, sino que ademas contiene artes muy extraños. Destaca la recopilacion de artes de las cintas de David Cronenberg. Muy REcomendable.



2. This is by far the greatest collection of the essential movies of the decade series. The 80's created blockbusters like The Terminator, Friday the 13th, Poltergeist, Fletch, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Rainman, The Breakfast Club, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Beverly Hills Cop, Robo Cop and Rambo to name but a few. They're all inside just begging to go up on your wall and be admired along with heaps of others.

   You could either keep this intact as a collection of posters in a book to show and discuss with friends, or cut the book up and actually have a vast number of posters up on your wall. This book is about a third the size of your standard film poster and most movies are full page colour. Any of them would look great up on the wall. If there's a better poster collection out there then it must be really good as this is sensational!

1 comments about Bentley's Snowflakes CD-ROM and Book (Electronic Clip Art).

1. Was very disappointed in the book, Prints were hard to see and not very clean. Even with a lot of print shop work the snowflaks were not worth the book at all. I would not recomend this book to anyone and felt like I wasted a lot of money for a large book on black and white snow flakes that showed no imagination.

No comments about Emotionally Durable Design: Objects, Experiences and Empathy.

5 comments about Collectible Beads: A Universal Aesthetic (Beadwork Books).

1. This book is really great, I enjoy each page of it. It is informative, and contents breathtaking photos. I love beads and want to learn more about my hobby, this book is a great resource, for interested people like me, jewelry making persons and the collector. I would buy it again. Together with "The History of Beads" I have a complete guide and learned a lot.



2. A wonderful and very desciptive history of beads. Excellent quality photos, this book can used to help the novice or the serious bead collector.



3. Although the photos of beads are excellent, I found this book far too much like a PhD dissertation, with the feel of a synthesis, having substance but written in a format which was difficult to read. Bibliographic references imbedded in the text just add to the unreadable style. The text is painfully lacking in the kind of information I appreciate, such as dating, geography, and clear references to the individual beads presented in the photos. And references to values of beads in dollars has no relevant meaning unless there is a time reference. As a reference book I would rate it of minimal worth. As a coffee table amusement it is acceptable, but would need far more photos to make it useful for that purpose.



4. This is a beautifully written, beautifully illustrated book, however, it is definitely for the advanced bead collector. Its main focus is on beads the average person could not find or afford. I am a beginner in the bead collecting world and needed a book that was more of an identifying guide. The chances of me running across a bead that was illegally excavated from an archeological dig in a foreign country are slim..and I wouldn't know what to do with it anyway. I'm returning the book and continuing the search.



5. This is a work of immense proportions. Robert Liu is both a scholar and an artist. This is a work which draws on both sets of skills, and the result is wonderful. For bead lovers it's a definative work. As a scholarly piece, it likely has material of interest to those interested in art history and world culture as well. It's an important book and one that would be sorely missed if it ever went out of print--I say this as one who's passed on books like this, only to search the world over for them when they were no longer available...get this one now. You won't regret it.

1 comments about 1000 Decorated Initials (Agile Rabbit Editions S.).

1. The book has very good graphics of decorated initials in various design styles. Some are very elaborate while others are highly decorative and whimsical. This is a great ideas book. The images are available for purchase, however I read other reviews where the individuals said that it was difficult to reach anyone or to get an cooperation. I find it interesting that many of these designs are old world, before copyright laws began. Why the need to purchase the right to use them. This is a downer. I will buy more of these books to get inspiration. It is worth the purchase for a designers library.

3 comments about Typographie: A Manual of Design.

1. Typographie is a good starter read and example book for beginning typographers and designers. Many of it's exercises are the basis for most first level typography courses and the book's basic exercises are repeated in newer books like Ellen Lupton's Thinking With Type and other books on typography.
   
   I got this book well after my base knowledge was covered, but it was refreshing that some things never change in terms of the fundamentals.
   
   As far as being an inspirational book for cutting edge typography it's not, but one has to crawl before they walk, run or break into an all out sprint.



2. This is a great analytical work by a master of modern typography. This book is meant to be read. The visuals by themselves are not very informative: they accompany the text, like the final premises of very simple yet profound arguments on good typography. I would recommend it to anyone interested in penetrating the craft of typography.
   As a native French speaker, I have to say that the French translation is far less than satisfactory. Continual poor syntax, bad use of key words and use of foreign words make it incomprehensible in many instances. I finally resorted to the English translation.



3. This book may be a classic, but I was "mislead" to think this was a book with good examples of typography, but no. Many examples, but extremely worthless if you ask me. Get a new book instead of this classic.

5 comments about The Acme Novelty Datebook.

1. beautiful drawings...no matter how self critical mr. ware was back in the day. the book really allows the reader into the head of a master illustrator. if you're looking more for a graphic novel, don't start with this one (try his first real freshman work jimmy c, or his ACME novelty library, probably my favorite - you get a real sense of what ware is all about - clean lines, insane, or better put, anal details). anyway, back to this one...great book, if you're a fan of ware, there's no reason not to get this one, and if you're not yet convinced, this is a nice piece just to have - these same drawings and doodles that once inspired ware himself, now get me thinking. love it.



2. I didn't think I would like this one. But after owning everything else the man ever made, I asked for this one for x-mas. Wow! I love it! There are spontaneous portraits of people on the bus, views from friend's rooftops, the rudiments of strips like: God, Jimmy the robot etc...
   If you are a Chris Ware fan YOU WILL LOVE THIS BOOK! If you are not familiar with Chris, best to start somewhere else.



3. The book is a record of an absolute monster drawing talent!
   It collects tentative investigations, as a scrapbook of ideas and odds and ends. The amazing thing about it is its vitality.
   Anything and everything becomes a source of inspiration and investigation into the nature of drawing. A coffee cup, a telephone in a waiting room, a washing machine, such mundane things seem to begin as notations but are transformed by Ware's observation of line and tone into their inner vitality - much like Van Gogh's peasant shoes. There are beautiful portraits. And beyond the observed notes, the book is positively brimming with characters, mutations, and cartoons from his eccentric imagination. The fantastical musings and the observed notations blend, merge together, separate like DNA strands through the book, adding up to a rich record of creativity



4. I just finished reading this, and it's a real treat. Fans of Jimmy Corrigan or Acme Novelty Library will enjoy drafts of these but expect differences in style. This gives a better look at Chris Ware than his other publications that I've read. You can really feel his frustrations in this work. I reccommend this to both fans and non-fans.



5. If you want to see inside Chris Ware's head, this is the book. There's next to no Jimmy Corrigan or Acme Novelty, just raw sketches of inspiration and internal struggle spanning 9 years of Ware's life (1986-1995). As an illustrator/designer, I found this book to be the most inspirational book I own, and I own many inspirational books. I definately recommend it.

No comments about The Rise and Fall of Art Needlework.

No comments about Mehndi Designs CD-ROM and Book (Electronic Clip Art).