2 comments about American Corporate Identity 2008.

1. I always turn to this when I design new logos.
   L & C Enterprises.



2. A must have for the graphic designer. Good color and tons of nice samples. I work in a design studio and find this is one of the first publications the staff looks at for inspiration when starting a new project. I wanted my own copy but found out it's ....should I say more.

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

4 comments about Design of the 20th Century.

1. As always, this is a beautifully put together book from Taschen. It has a lot of important information, but tends to be more on the short and concise side as opposed to numerous details. Also, the layout of the book can be frustrating at times, as it's in alphabetical order and not chronological. Which is interesting...



2. Whether you're an interior, industrial or other sort of designer, an architect, or simply a design conoisseur, this book will help answer almost all your questions about designers, design houses, movements, etc. In addition to this (definitions, biographies, etc.) you'll find an abundance of very good pictures that go with most of the entries, that illustrate them very well.

   The only reason I give it four stars is because some topics it seems to cover with lots of detail (a good example is "Herman Miller") while others are left with a few lines. Yes: Herman Miller is a huge name in furniture design, but that doesn't make Gaudi, for example, any smaller.




3. A richly illustrated encyclopedia of the most important names, objects and ideas in the history of 20th century design (graphic design, furniture, textile, glass, ceramics and metalware). Featured in its 780 pages are more than 400 one- or two-page articles on design-related styles, individuals, schools, companies and institutions, illustrated by over 700 full-color photographs. (Copyright © by Roy R. Behrens, from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000.)



4. This is an excellent reference book on 20th century design. It has over 700 color photographs and illustrations and is very well organized. The pocketbook size (5.5 x 7.5 in.) makes it very user friendly.The price point makes it a real bargain.

2 comments about The Great Book of Currier and Ives' America (Tiny Folios).

1. I purchased this book for a Christmas present but didn't realize how small it was. My wife has a full size book and I thought it was closer to that size. It is great though for what it is and has the most pictures available by Currier and Ives. It is my fault though that it wasn't what I expected. I didn't pay attention to "Tiny Folios". The recipient liked it though even if it was a little small. I recommend it to true fans of Currier and Ives and art lovers.



2. This is apparently a condensation of and paperback release of a book published by the same author and press in 1979. The original is one of the most mind-boggling and gorgeous books ever published in the United States of America. I'm not overstating the case.

   A limited edition of 1500 hand numbered volumes were published in mission leather by Abbeville Press with gold stenciling on the huge spine and a four color lithograph embossed on the high quality leather cover! Wow! At what seems like 8 or 9 pounds it's enormous. The paper quality and print reproduction are of the highest order. And the large number of lithos, especially in color, make this a must have for anyone interested in lithography. The Peters collection, from which this was drawn (with assistance from the Museum of New York), is the finest collection of Currier and Ives in the world.

   The insights are excellent and provide interesting background on some of Curriers artists and competitors. Currier's work itself gives a terrific peek at 19th century America... The vast majority of the leather edition must be in archival collections by now.

1 comments about Magnificent Molas: The Art of the Kuna Indians.

1. My wife is a fiber artist and I am the webmaster of her site. We own nearly 4.000 books and we have gladly added Magnificent Molas by Michel Perrin to our collection. It is difficult to imagine that anyone could do better than Perrin. His Magnificent Molas is a remarkable book in every sense: illustrations, text, layout and printing are all of highest level and come together in a well documented and passionate praise of the magnificent textile art of the kuna indians and their culture. It is even well written, so it makes pleasure to read. This book is a must for those who are interested primitive and textile arts.
   Gösta & Agostina Zwilling, Verona, Italy

1 comments about Screen Printing (Graphic Communications).

1. The book give a fare look at the printing industry, with many illustrated ex. from the past and the future. The technical side is problamatic due to its complexity, it very hard to make something from the writer experimental way of working with the screen (not allways according to the plan or original sketch.) enjoy.

No comments about Eat. Work. Shop.: New Japanese Design.

1 comments about Masterpieces of Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

1. Unexpected earnings from the Great Exhibition of 1851 (at the Crystal Palace in London) were used to establish the following year the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world's largest collection of applied art and design. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry made his famous expedition to Japan, which had been isolated for 250 years, and set up trade agreements. Examples of Western technology (locomotive, telegraph, camera) were given to the Japanese, and Japanese artifacts to Westerners. Of particular impact were Japanese woodcuts of the 17th through 19th centuries, called ukiyo-e or images of "the floating world," tens of thousands of which ended up in museum collections throughout the world. Many (perhaps most) American and European artists and designers were influenced by the then-strange stylistic traits of these prints (crisp black outlines, bold flat areas of color, asymmetrical arrangements, and dramatic cropping), among them such people as Whistler, Manet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Aubrey Beardsley, and Frank Lloyd Wright. "All my work," wrote Vincent van Gogh to his brother, "is in a way founded on Japanese art." This stunning volume is a full-color treasury of 130 of those woodcuts (introduced and annotated by scholars) from the many now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. (Copyright © by Roy R. Behrens from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 14 No. 3, Spring 1999.)

2 comments about Designers' Self Promotion: How Designers and Design Companies Attract Attention to Themselves.

1. By contrast to the previous review, I found this book full of inspirational ideas. It clearly says in the title "over 150 examples of work" and that's what it delivers. If you're looking for visual references to help bust the "block", then purchase this book. Some visual pieces are strange, others clearly master the principals of design such as grids, composition, flow, etc. More experienced designers will benefit most from this title, as the work shown is more "out there" and experimental. If you're interested in expanding your graphic design horizons, this is a must have.



2. I think the title is a bit misleading ... I bought the book thinking it was going to give tips or answer the question "how designers and design companies attract attention to themselves." It does, but only in the form of giving visual examples of what others have done in terms of designing brochures and posters and really just one out of the ordinary method. It was a bit of a let down and not that helpful. I found that one could get the same information from the AIGA web site by scrolling through their design archives.
   
   It would have been nice for it to have shown more variety ... perhaps pens, stationary, gifts, shirts, out of the ordinary branding and such. Here, it's just a collection of images of what others have done, which was nice to look at but to me wasn't really worth the price.

5 comments about Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative (VOICES).

1. Pause & Effect is a beautiful book. Definitely the most visual work on the subject of interactive narrative I have ever encountered. From its almost baroque design it immediately becomes clear that Meadows has a multidisciplinary background that among other things has seen him working as a game-designer, photographer, portrait painter and writer. Clearly, this multifaceted approach is the book biggest asset, as Meadows, rightly so, positions interactive narrative on the intersection of literature, visual art and interaction design. In his view, a successful interactive narrative finds a way to transfer some of the traditional control of the author over the story to the reader who must be able to "affect, choose or change the plot". Control over the perspective and time are important to evolve normal stories with its fixed chains of cause and effect, to a new level. And with a new underlying temporal structure of 'pause and effect'.
   
   We should be patient, however, the new art-form of interactive narrative will not blossom over night. It took literature several millennia to evolve from its epic (with its base and violent interaction between characters) beginnings to the current intricate form, with all its depth and reflections. Most video games (the most popular example of interactive narratives) are still in the initial cycle of development, although some games hint at the next step in the is evolution after only thirty years of development.
   
   To me the best parts of the book are the first 'dimension' (or chapter) which explains Meadow's theory of interactive narrative and the interviews that conclude the second and third dimensions. Meadows interviews the creators of some very good and important examples of existing interactive narratives. These people have many profound things to say, and it becomes clear that they were a main source of inspiration to the general theoretical framework of Pause & Effect. But close inspection of these interviews also highlights what I think is a weakness in Meadow's work.
   
   The possible structures that interactive narratives can use play an important role in both the theory and the interviews. Meadows presents three basic structures (the nodal plot, the modular plot and the open plot) which can all be diagrammed as networks of nodes and connections. I understand that these nodes some how represent story-points, events or scenes and the connections possible routes or reader choices. This reduces interactive narrative to a rather discrete network of possibilities, whereas interviewees stress the fact interactive narrative should move beyond discrete plot trees and to more analogous story worlds or simulations. Such worlds cannot be expressed in these diagrams, rather these are expressed in rules of simulation and rules of interaction. This approach will more easily incorporate procedural or algorithmical production of interactive narrative. This is (and I am confindent that Meadows agrees on this point) where the future of interactive narrative lies.
   
   The second weakness in the book is related to its interdisciplinary quality. Though Meadow's study is informed, it is not always as clear as I would want it to be. The many images are exemplary in this respect. The link with the text is not always apparent. In sometimes they are just illustrations, at other times they could be more integral to the argument of the text. But without captions and direct textual references you can never be sure. Many technical terms that come different art genres are taken for granted, as if Meadow's assumes his reader is as well-versed as he is in the arts of painting, illustration, writing and cinema. Sometimes technical terms have very different meanings in these different areas and I am not always sure which particular connotation is the correct one. Worse, I doubt that technical terms can be as easily transferred between the different media as Meadows does. Especially his discussion of 3D perspective seems to suffer from this a little.
   
   Still, Pause & Effect is an important work. Its discussion on the use of time and perspective as important tools or structures for interactive narrative remain valid. Meadows multidisciplinary, eloquent and intelligent perspective is a valuable contribution to the emerging field of interactive narrative. I do not expect the "holy grail" of interactive narrative to be conquered anytime soon, and will not chastise every knight that does not return with the ultimate prize from his explorations. After all, as with any quest it is the journey that counts more than anything else, and as Meadows reminds us on the last page of his book "This is, as you can see, just the beginning". What fun would remain otherwise?



2. This is a beautiful book, more at place on a coffee table than a bookcase. It benefits not only from its many full-color photos, graphic reproductions, and illustrations, but also from the freedom Meadows had to lay out these images with the text on the page, creating effects more typically seen on complex web pages than in traditional print books. From the Use-Case Scenario flow charts to the flipbook narrative that appears in the upper corners of the book and the related comic cell narrative that runs five panels to a page along the bottom of the book, Meadows is both telling us how interactive narrative "combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity" and showing us how these insights can be implemented in print.
   
   Because Meadows believes that understanding the art of interactive narrative requires familiarity with a wide range of principles, he attempts to cover an ambitious amount of information in Pause & Effect. This would be challenging enough if Pause & Effect was exclusively an introductory "how-to" book for would-be interactive narrative designers, but the book, as Meadows says in his preface, "is designed for anyone interested in narrative art forms" (xiii). Therefore, Meadows is engaging a general audience, and does not assume any pre-existing knowledge in the field. While such a broad approach may be good for sales figures, it is not without its costs. His writing, while always refreshingly clear, is at times overly simplistic, leaving many of the good ideas he puts forth insufficiently fleshed out. Meadows attempts to compensate for this limitation by incorporating interviews and case studies that give the reader alternate viewpoints about the production of interactive narrative. The incorporation of complementary and sometimes conflicting viewpoints from important creators of interactive content adds depth to the work, making it more interesting to the general reader and more credible as a design "how-to" book.
   
   The basic claims of the book are easy to understand. The book assumes that an author can combine narrative and interactivity and claims that the development of imagery in the Western tradition gives us crucial insights into how this process should work. Meadows' approach is to bring together traditional concepts of narrative construction, two-dimensional and three-dimensional art creation, and interactive systems design in a way that defines the role of the author in the new art form of interactive narrative design.
   
   Meadows lays out his arguments very clearly, giving his readers useful background information and examples to illustrate his points. He also, in a style similar to a self-help guru, breaks down complicated concepts into easily remembered components or steps, such as his "Four Steps of Interaction": 1) Observe; 2) Explore; 3) Modify; and 4) Change, or his "Three Different Structures of Interactive Narrative": 1) Nodal Plot Structure; 2) Modulated Plot Structure; and 3) Open Plot Structure. Although this structure overly simplifies complicated processes at times, it is still admittedly useful for a book that is trying to be a practical guide as much as it is an academic exercise.
   
   Even keeping Meadows' aims in mind, however, Meadows warrants some criticism about just how broad and introductory he sometimes is in the text. While a general reader, new to concepts of narrative and interactivity, will appreciate Meadows' approach, those well versed in the debates surrounding the contentious and provocative term interactive narrative will be surprised and disappointed by the fact that Meadows does not address the term as problematic at all. Although, to be fair, a great deal of the debate that continues to rage about the term "interactive narrative" has taken place after Meadows wrote his book. Still, his bibliography is missing some key figures. Perhaps this omission is because Meadows does not want to get bogged down in academic debates over ontology and taxonomy, which he may deem worthless and unproductive. It is a forgivable move considering the breadth of his work and how much he must leave out as it is. Nonetheless, these omissions are frustrating to those of us who would very much like to know how Meadows would answer the criticism levied against the term interactive narrative and some of the practices Meadows preaches.



3. I've used this book to teach interative narrative to both media arts and computer science students. It clearly (and dynamically) covers issues such as narrative, point of view, interactivity, and design in a way that students find compelling. By threading these issues throughout the book, Meadows reinforces how all are intertwined and equally important. My students love it, I suspect, because of the high image to text ratio... but the style gets them to see and think differently. Students are inspired by both the book's layout and the interviews with media artists. This book pushes them both to understand the multiple variables that go into creating interactivity and to take creative risks. You couldn't find a better text.



4. The value of a book depends upon what the reader brings; as such, the author must write to the state of mind of the audience. The reader who is contextually sympatico with the author will derive greater benefits than the reader who is coming from another place.
   
   This book has strong context: readers who come from the media theory context will find powerful resonances with their existing intellectual framework. Other readers will scrape and scratch to find anything of merit.
   
   My context is interactive storytelling. Truth in advertising: I recently published a book on the subject, and so might be considered a competitor. I do not, however, consider this book to be competitive with mine, not in the sense that it is inferior, but rather in the sense that it is from another planet. From my planet, this book appears to have plenty of interesting things to say about iamge and narrative, but when it comes to interactivity, I maintain that this book has absolutely nothing useful to say.
   
   Consider the description of interactivity offered in these pages:
   
   "Interaction can be described as many things. Catchwords abound: 'Engaging', 'Immersive', 'Participatory', 'Responsive', and 'Reactive'.
   "Interactivity is a continuing increase in participation. It's a bidirectional communication conduit. It's a reponse to a response. It's 'full-duplex'. Interaction is a relationship. It's good sex. It's bad conversation. It's indeterminant behavior, and it's redundant result. It's many things, none of which can be done alone. Interaction is a process that dictates communication. It can also be a commication that dictates process. It provides options, necessitates a change in pace, and changes you as you change it."
   
   I consider this to be high-falutin' drivel. Poetic drivel, perhaps, but drivel in the sense that it simply doesn't say anything that you can put to use. Take these ideas and put them into your mental thought-grinder and nothing comes out. They're Madison Avenue fluff, nothingburger sentences, full of verbal flourishes and pirouettes and signifying nothing.
   
   The author is clearly a master of imagery, and has much that is useful to say about graphic design and the role of the image. If the author had the discipline to confine himself to those areas in which his expertise commands respect, he could have produced a fine book; indeed, when the book doesn't mention interactivity, it has much to offer. But the frequent poorly-considered discussions of interactivity ruin this book the way a burned sauce ruins an otherwise excellent entre.



5. There are no new concepts put forth in this book, and worse, it's filled with painful stabs at humor, practically worthless information (most of which seemingly to get the reader from one picture to the next). I just don't think many people realize that Meadows has rewritten existing ideas as little "revelations" he has had himself, and so, I advise any prospective shoppers to move on, look toward online journals or monthly magazines in this field (like Speculative Reviews of Narrative, etc). There's nothing to see here.