No comments about The Production Manual: A Graphic Design Handbook (Advanced Level).

No comments about Happy Halloween CD-ROM and Book (Electronic Clip Art).

5 comments about Handbook of Ornament.

1. Originally published in 1888, this book is the real deal. Honestly, this book renders so many others I have on the shelf useless. It goes through EVERYTHING ornamental from furniture, to alphabets, to architecture, to tracery, plain design, cutlery, and everything else you can think of. At first, I scoffed when I got this book because it covered such a wide range of ornamentation. I mean, what book have you ever seen that does a GOOD job covering a range? Then, when I got into it, I realized that it DOES go into detail in each section. Having 3000 images makes this possible, but what I like too, is there is a substantial amount of text explainig where the design comes from.
   
   I think its nearly impossible to find a book this rich in resources for less than $20 USD.



2. This book is a terrific reference. It presents copious examples along with very thorough identification for sources. It allows me to quickly pick a style that fits the need and also provides enough information to allow me to dig a little deeper and investigate a particular style through other reference material. Just perfect for what I need and wonderful for my uses.



3. This is an indispensable resource for the novice or serious designer/painter. Some designs are very small, and others are so ornate that they would be difficult to reproduce without spending considerable time and effort. However, I found most to be easy to scan, print on a transparency, and enlarge with an overhead projector. The section called "bands" has beautiful designs that could be handpainted or made into border stencils. Chapters include geometric designs, natural forms such as foliage, fruit and flowers, mythical creatures, individual ornaments, capitals and bases for columns, decorative panels, vases, several lettering styles, and much more.



4. This book has been in print since 1888! Yes, it's that good! It's a bound version of an earlier work that was a folio. Forty years ago, my art teacher showed me his copy. I went out and got one. It's still on the shelves, but price has risen. It a collection of drawings from many sources: Cathedrals, Estates, Chateau, public buildings, museums and their contents! All collected before the Franco-Prussian war. Many things that no longer exist in this world. If you wish to depict life in the dark ages, the renaissance, Atlantis, Troy, the enlightenment, Hyboria, Byzantium, Rome, Carthage, etc., YOU NEED THIS BOOK!!!



5. Not only does this book contain a huge assortment of extremely clean and scannable examples of ornamental designs from different periods and cultures, but also provides diagrams and information you can use to create your own original designs in a given style. This may be the last book I buy (except newer copies of THIS book!) on ornamental design.

No comments about Design: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions).

5 comments about Magazine Design That Works: Secrets for Successful Magazine Design (That Works Series).

1. Briefly looking through this book you can quickly see that it is not a technical design book.
   
   It does a very nice job at praising various popular magazines, and it does highlight fundamental design practices within magazine design.
   
   It is a good overview book. It is also a good book to see many images of successful magazines without having to hunt down various magazines.
   
   However, the problem is the book does not going into the technical process of magazine layout. Magazine layout IS a very technical process that most books don't explain. There is much about the grid - it is extremely important and very under estimated. It is also more simple than most people would think. There is also much about magazine layout and structure this book will not cover. Also about the whole process, from layout to print. There are a MILLION questions and problems that pop-up while designing a magazine. Many considerations and variables that vary. This book does not bring up any of those.
   
   Can you design a magazine after reading this book? No.
   Can you evaluate and understand magazines better after reading this book? Yes.
   Can you get a feeling for what magazine design is about after reading this book? Yes.
   Can you get some great ideas out of this book? Yes. ...you can also get them by looking through quality magazines.



2. Very helpful in what's "hot" in magazine design. Covers differnt genres in mag. design. Extensive reasearch and helps generate different design ideas. Only complaint: Took 2 long to recieve. From my order date, it took over a month.



3. I think a person's appreciation of this book depends on their particular field and learning style. I work as a graphic designer for a number of different hobby magazines, and my learning style is that of a sponge - I see something, I soak it up. This book was PERFECT for me. I like to page through it, soak up the ideas, immerse myself in these various styles of good design before embarking on my own projects. I have a number of design collections, but this is the best one I've seen that's magazine specific. I also found the articles interesting and to the point, but they are more of a supplement to the designs.



4. I'm just launching a new magazine, so I have alot to learn. I have read some terrific books; this is not one of them. Basically the pictures are nice, but I honestly cannot think of one thing I learned from this book.



5. I found this book to be a good place to look for inspiration and overall themes. It doesn't get too much into the nitty-gritty, hard-working pages of ads mixed with content, but it does talk about process and consistency of voice. The author lets several editors explain the design choices they made when faced with title relaunches and updates, and how those choices reinforced the type, photography, writing style, and illustrations used. There are rationale breakdowns of section headers, feature articles, grids, typography, photographic styles, etc, for several well-maintained and respected magazines.

2 comments about Fashioning Fabrics: Contemporary Textiles in Fashion.

1. The book itself contains nice layouts, plenty of accompanying text to reflect the designers it features, and nice to impressive photography that also reflects the designers' points of view. Most of the photos' visual impact comes from the (edgy) color and textile combinations used (including make-up affects); however, I wished it would've contained bolder layouts, but I guess this is what's to be expected of a paperback, slightly smaller footprint fashion book as I'm partial to the larger size books that can really wow you with one page full of vibrant color topped with a micro or macro aspect. The models were high fashion, runway model types wearing very creative pieces throughout the book but also expect lots of contextural writing. Note that I didn't actually read the book but scanned through the pics and some representative writings only for a minute because I was buying it as a gift for my high school grad niece who's interested in art school. I was more interested in how the visual impression of the photos would appeal to her. I was excited and thought it'd be good to excellent for her EXCEPT and unfortunately for one darn little but questionable photo! It was a frontal photo of a group of runway models wearing one featured designer's fashion (statement) in which one model was completely nude from the neck down and the other was nude from the waiste down (they were wearing "designer-modified" middle eastern type traditional women's clothing). I'm not a prude, and I probably should've known better via the fashion world perspective on the human body as art, but I certainly don't want my niece's parents to remember me as the aunt who unwittingly gave their daughter a book containing this particular photo. Had it not been a gift and for myself, I probably would've been fine with the book. So I'm returning it and felt the need to FYI other potential buyers. There was another tiny photo of a model's "behind" dressed in ethereal textile but it was done nicely and that I could've lived with.



2. This book shows us how to take a simple fabric and turn it into something more by manipulating or embellishing it into something else. We see the work of skilled designers who specialise in making something more out of a flat piece of material then transform it into something wearable.

4 comments about Art Forms in the Plant World: 120 Full-Page Photographs (Dover Photography Collections).

1. Great, portable reference and inspirational book for the creative photographer or artist. Not as extensive as the original, now out of print, hardcover book by Blossfeldt, but a good alternative.



2. the reproductions are low contrast and not very nice -- i'd rather have photocopies! will look for a better copy...



3. I was expecting crispy photos of professional quality with good levels of contrast to define edges, variation, etc. of the forms photographed. Instead most of the photos were somewhat blurry and of low-contrast, mostly grays, leaving depth to be inferred and not readable. I admit that I'm disappointed.



4. Karl Blossfeldt's imagery conjures up strange imaginary worlds. An absolute must have for artists searching out unusual organic forms as inspiration. Straight forward full frame B and W shots make photo copying or scanning a breeze. Gaudi, and Ernst along with the Brothers Quay come to mind.

5 comments about Bridal Gowns: How to Make the Wedding Dress of Your Dreams.

1. I really like this book! I knew it would be good information because of what I know of the author (extremely talented and accomplished seamstress and owner of the New Hampshire Academy of Sewing), I just didn't expect it to be so jammed packed with not just good information, but great information!
   
   The fully illustrated tissue fitting of real brides, the hints on the most flattering features of gowns for different body types, the information on lace and sewing with lace - it's all just really helpful and completely applicable to real people sewing real bridal gowns. She makes this sometimes scary and intimidating venture approachable and doable.
   
   Highly recommended.



2. This book covered the basic Palmer Pletsch pattern fitting techniques (though Fit for Real People is more thorough), and features some tricks for veils and bustling that are wedding gown specific. It would be particularly useful for making a gown for someone with fitting challenges, but it's not a great resource if you're trying to clone an engineered gown from a bridal salon. That's where "Bridal Couture" comes in handy.



3. The book arrived quickly and in great condition. It looks like it has lots of information to help with making my daughter's wedding gown...I'll begin sewing in September.



4. Very informative I will use the book alot



5. I am in the Bridal Alterations business and also sew weddings on the side. I am just starting out and wanted to learn more about the insides of wedding gowns. I have used other books by these women (Fit for Real People) to teach sewing classes in local fabric stores and knew they'd put out a great product. Inside they tell you what fabrics to use for interlining, interfacing, step by step construction, patern fitting, and more. There's even a checklist for constructing a wedding gown and yardage and instructions for making petticoats. I REALLY recommend this book!

3 comments about Art and Design of Gama-Go (Gama Go).

1. I was dissapointed in the size of the book. It's only a little over 6x6. It does have alot of pages tho. If you like their tee shirt art then this book is for you. That is all that's in it.



2. purchased as a gift and was so entertaining almost kept it for myself. disigns incredable.



3. The art of Gama go is super cool, i have bought it because of the tim biskup art work which i knew more about, but the design studio has lots of other cool stuff, a must see!

1 comments about Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946.

1. The 1940's weren't just the golden age for comic books they were also the golden age for newspapers. Still several years before television would become prevalent, newspapers would be the primary way American's got their daily news as millions of copies were sold each day. And of course, inside those millions of newspapers were comic strips of all kinds. Today, the episodic comic is almost dead. With dwindling circulations for most newspapers, people just don't have the time or patience to pickup their daily paper and read the adventures of their favorite characters.
   
   One of the comic's most famous characters was adapted into strip format when Batman & Robin debuted in both daily and Sunday color strips in 1943. This was right smack in the middle of World War II when paper drives reduced the circulation of many newspapers and Batman's debut actually represents a pretty rare spot in the annals of comic strips because of this. The Sunday strips are even more rare as many papers who carried the daily strips opted to not carry the full-color Sundays.
   
   This landmark hardcover edition from Sterling Publishing reprints all of the Batman & Robin Sunday strips from November 1943 to October 1946 and includes 26 different chapters, or story arcs if you modernists prefer. While Batman creator Bob Kane gets the sole credit on each and everyone of the Sunday strips, the fact is that Kane was only involved in a handful of the chapters. Jack Burnley, who just passed away in December of 2006 at the ripe old age of 95, provided the art on most of the strips while the writing chores were handled by longtime Batman writer Bill Finger and also Al Schwartz. While various parts of this era's Sunday strips have been reprinted previously, this is the first time the run has been reprinted in full.
   
   The Sunday colors were given enormous space by today's standards, as each consisted of eleven panels. You had to be a popular character to command that kind of space on a comic page! Each chapter generally ran from four to six weeks and were untitled. Titles have been given to each chapter, usually based on a phrase used in the strip or based on the plot. Thankfully there is an index to each chapter, otherwise there's no way to really tell visually when one chapter ends and another begins.
   
   Batman encounters some of his most famous villains within these pages including The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman, and Two-Face, although most of the encounters are with garden variety criminals. In "Gotham's Cleverest Criminal" the Joker uses a trick football to escape prison--not to go after Batman, but rather a rival female criminal called the Sparrow who is stealing the Joker's limelight.
   
   In addition to the strips themselves, the book features background notes, including full story credits on each of the chapters, often relating where the story fits in terms of continuity with the regular Batman and Detective Comics issues. This historical information alone is worth the price of the book. You also get detailed biographies on all of the writers, artists, letterers, and editors who were involved in the Batman & Robin strips. The color had been re-mastered and looks stunning...probably even better than it looked when originally published over 60 years ago. These strips are great fun and serve to maintain the legacy of a great character and a bygone era!
   
   REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON