5 comments about The Simpsons Handbook: Secret Tips from the Pros (Simpsons (Harper)).

1. Love the Simpsons? Love to draw? Take these two interests and you've got heavenly bliss. If you like only the Simpsons and only drawing, you'd still love this book.
   
   As a how-to-draw book, this books is amazing. The authors provide their thought processes when they draw. For example, Homer's body is like a big light bulb and his feet are in the shape of an iron. These insights are a huge benefit. Even the sections about props and sets are amazing. The book features transparent pages, which aids how layers are used in the drawing process.
   
   I own Jack Hamm, how-to-draw manga and Byrne Hogarth books. And this books is a vital component to any book collection. The reason is that the Simpson characters are based on simple shapes: sausages, cylinders, balls, etc. Once you are able to draw Simpson characters, you can draw other objects with a better grasp of how basic shapes make up a lot of real world objects.
   
   If you are a Simpsons fan and not a drawer, this book is still amazing. You will appreciate the myriad of dynamic poses included in the book. And maybe, just maybe, you'll be motivated to trying drawing--and this book is a good one to start with.



2. The book cover and paper is of good quality - looks and feels fine.
   The content is mainly step by step drawing guides for every (?) person in the Simpsons universe and lots of examples of different moods and situations. Also includes "backgrounds" from many houses and places in Springfield.



3. This is one of the best put together drawing books from a television series I have ever seen. I am an artist and I love the Simpsons. What more could I ask for?!



4. I got this as a gift. It has great coverage of a whole lot of the popular characters. Also has step by step drawings for many of the favorites. If you know someone who is into drawing, and enjoys the Simpsons, it is highly recommended.



5. My husband and I grew up watching the Simpsons, so when this book came out my husband was very interested in it. I got it for Christmas for him. He was very happy to see how many characters they show you how to draw, and how detailed the pictures are.
   This is very good buy for a Simpsons fan, or someone interested in learning to draw.

5 comments about Make It Bigger.

1. I ordered this book late November in 2006. It was not in stock, so expected to ship sometime in February. Every 3 weeks I received another email notifying that the expected ship and delivery dates were pushed back another month or two.
   There's NO reason that this should happen - so I googled the book and eventually found a publisher's site to order from.
   
   Great book, but BOO amazon.



2. A great read for anyone who is ready to make the jump from art school to working clients. Scher goes into excellent detail about working with illustrators, the structure (and politics) of agency work, her strategies/approach to design. She also shares good insight on how to work most effectively with clients who may not know a whole lot about design. I found this very practical, and a very easy read. I am also a big fan of her work, which spans several decades.



3. Paul Scher hit me. No, literally. On a student tour of the Koppel/Scher offices, I was standing by a closet--Paula flung the door open and I provided the rubber stop. Though it's been a struggle, the last 12 years have softened my emotional pain. Make It Bigger provided some very necessary closure.
   Also, trust whatever Randy Silverman (a previous reviewer) says about anything, especially anything concerning design. Frighteningly insightful.



4. I have to say I'm not a big "fan" of Paula Scher's visual style, it's far too "horsey" and "big-boned" for my taste, but I am a fan of what she has to say about the design profession and her experience in it.

   This book is an excellent reference/story book on the frustrations of dealing with clients (which are many, as I can relate) who have poor taste or are just clueless. I agree with everything Paula says here and enjoyed the grain of salt with all that's said. I can feel the frustration and exasperation Paula speaks of as anyone worth their blood has designed something great, only to have a client with tunnel vision ruin it. Sigh.

   Any serious designer should read this book, or already has. I would have no problem calling anyone who hasn't read it a poseur in this profession!




5. Too often designers see their own result(s) and design solutions without the knowledge of the 'client process' . . . a truly remarkable reality in this business. ALL design students should be made aware of this aspect of the profession, possibly even before seriously considering if one wants to be a designer. There is so much more to it than having an 'AHA' on one's own. Ms. Scher has presented this in a manner both pictorially and honestly with examples and explanations . . . and, of course, with much experience in the real world of design (which must also include some humor). I have been a designer for thirty years and would recommend this as part of required reading from the start for future "wannabes" and for all of us who need that reassurance that this is indeed how it works.

5 comments about The Secret Life of Logos: Behind the Design of 80 Great Logos.

1. Stumbled upon this one in a real world bookstore and it jumped out at me right away. This book features various rejected designs for actual logos and the final accepted logo, as well as a story from each designer on what the client wanted, and why the rejected designs got rejected. A great book for helping you understand the design process and hopefully to help you get past those rejections. A surprising thing you'll see is that often the best designs are not chosen as the logo. My only complaint with the book is that is too short, would've loved some more examples.



2. Awesome book! Great for learning and inspiration! I bought a slightly used one, of course, but it is worth every penny! I really admire Leslie Cabarga. I have another one of her books as well.



3. Mr Carbaga, a very talented graphic artist, describes the logo-creation process with humor & useful insight. The text gets right to the point & avoids the long-winded pretensions of many such books.
   
   The downside of the book: many of the exhibited logos are, to me, uninteresting & trite, therefore, not very worthy of elucidation.



4. I really wanted to see the pencil- or pen sketched beginnings, quotes from clients and designers on how they felt at each step, and stuff about the creative process. I'd rather have much fewer projects (like 5) and many more details (like 10 pages about each project). 1 page for each company is not enough. I wanted to get inside the heads of the individual designers, not the owner of the dang firm or the art director or something, who didn't even think any of the ideas up! I wanted to use it to explain the design process to clients and potential clients.
   
   However, this is a useful book, in its own right. I enjoy reading it.



5. This book is not only fun to read, but very informative. The author did great interviews with each designer and I got a pretty good idea of how each logo was created. The book is very organized and each logo got one full page with alternative ideas for the final product. It is a great coffee table book as well.

No comments about Knitting -The Complete Guide.

5 comments about Exploring InDesign CS3 (Design Exploration Series).

1. Admittedly I'm not a computer geek. However, I am conversant with most Microsoft and some Adobe programs. I purchased a copy of InDesign the other day and ordered a copy of this book to help me jump start use of the program. It's been quite a letdown. Exercises are difficult to follow, directions are omitted (apparently because they were covered in earlier chapters), and consequently I'm finding this to be a rather poor teaching tool for the novice. If you are at that position on the learning curve, I suggest you look for another reference. Frankly, the help tab on InDesign is frequently of more assistance.



2. This book is the best book if you want to learn InDesign CS3 thoroughly. Its written so anyone can learn! Its written by a smart woman who understands how students and at home learners need to learn. I love how the chapters are broken up and the projects provided are integrated well with the chapters. I found this text very helpful while learning Ms.Terry's course, I think this book is so well written because she's such a great teacher with so much experience and she knows what she's talking about. There are a lot of authors out there that write a book just to make money, but Ms.Terry wrote the book because she enjoys sharing her knowledge of the program and teaching others easy ways to use it. If you want an InDesign book that's easy to learn and written by an author that knows what she's talking about this is the best one to choose.



3. This book is an invaluable resource for all knowledge levels. Although it's meant for a classroom, there are a lot of very informative lessons that can help improve productivity. With all of Terry's real world knowledge and respect for printers and typography, your local printer will notice a difference in your files and thank you for a worry-free print job. Terry's style of writing is very easy to follow. Exploring InDesign CS3 is very memorable and I would recommend it to any designer that is looking to boost their knowledge of this wonderful Adobe software.



4. I had never used Adobe InDesign before I purchased this book. I found the book to be extremely helpful in my learning process for this program. It's an excellent learning resource! I plan on keeping this book as a reference for all of the InDesign functions that I've learned.



5. Their are a lot of horribly written software textbooks where it gets confusing and it's hard to read. This book is so clear and easy to understand that it unbeliveable that it's about InDesign! I give it five stars not only because the author is my teacher but because it deserves it!

2 comments about Swedish Style: Creating the Look.

1. This is a lovely book with beautiful color pictures from what I think is authentic interiors. The author walks us through the essence of swedish style via colors, fabrics, accessories and furniture. I miss not having typical interiors and suggestions of how to decorate individual rooms such as hallways and kitchens etc. The main focus is on livingrooms and bedrooms. I still think it's a good purchase and this book gives me a lot of inspiration.



2. This is a good and basic introduction to the elements of Swedish style in interior design.

   There is a simple historical summary that captures the background to Swedish design without making erudite comments on the style itself, other than to list the fundamental principles.

   The asthetic choices are very tuille and English in flavour; something that a middle-class London matron may aspire to. The lack of real recourse to original Swedish design and then imaginative and tasteful modern alternatives makes this book disappointing.

   "The Swedish Room" is far more inspiring and authentic.

2 comments about Easy Reversible Vests.

1. I bought this book to use in a class on paper piecing. It's a good intro to paper piecing and the vests are great. There are three major pattern styles--but endless possibilities. I made my Mom's birthday vest from the pattern in this book, and I made a sewing vest for myself out of quilt scraps. These are art vests and if you don't wear vests--they look great hung on the wall too. Carol Doak is clear and accurrate and she doesn't leave out any of the steps. Vests, paper piecing, a creative jumpstart--are all here--what more could you want? Mary Z. Cox the accidental quilter



2. Another of my cherished Foundation piecing books - my second Carol Doak one. What a lovely selection to choose from. I hope vests don't go out of fashion too soon. These are all very special. Vest patterns in a number of sizings and styles are included but the techniques can be used on any pattern you have. Well worth having.

No comments about The Botanical Palette: Color for the Botanical Painter.

1 comments about Art Direction and Editorial Design (Abrams Studio).

1. There's an interesting magazine spread reproduced on page sixty of this fascinating book, it arrows only the typographic items like: folio, headlines, byline, body copy, credits, running heads, panel/sidebar copy, intro/second deck text, stand-first, pull quotes, captions/cutlines. Not arrowed are photos, illustrations, cartoons, graphics and other visual elements. I thought it was interesting because it sort of sums up the many items that publication designers work with all the time. Publications seem separate from other areas of print communication because of their regular appearance and they have a dedicated staff handling words and images. Because of this team effort it is not really practical to teach the subject in design college. The best learning curve is to join the editorial department of a title.
   
   The book is essentially concerned with the look of publications and I thought it was impressively thorough in its coverage. Most of the illustration spreads feature magazines but newspapers are considered as well, including their supplements. The five chapters really do cover everything you'll see in a weekly or monthly, explained by text and comprehensive captions. The pages are broken up by some interesting magazine profiles and some dummy pages to further explain editorial concepts: how grids shape design, changing impact with headlines and photos. The back pages feature work from well known magazine designers from the last few decades, a glossary and index.
   
   The book's production is as impressive as the contents, printed on glossy paper in 200 screen with a layout that is easy to follow considering the large amount of information. If I have a criticism it is that most of the illustrations come from publications that are aimed at a design receptive readership. It would have been useful, I think, to have included some publications where design is not so obvious: down-market celebrity magazines or titles for children (like the brilliant Sesame Street Magazine) or trade weeklies. All these need designers to be just as creative as those on many of the titles that have spreads in 'Editorial design'
   
   I think it's worth pointing out that this is not a 'how to do magazine layouts' book but a detailed look at the nuts and bolts of what makes up the visual side of a publications editorial.
   
   ***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

5 comments about Mecha Mania: How to Draw Warrior Robots, Cool Spaceships, and Military Vehicles (Christopher Hart Titles).

1. I bought a book in the Mecha Mania series on how to draw warrior Robots and spaceships for a grandchild for Christmas.This book is wonderful for either an adult or a child who wants to draw the new anamie cartoons. The step by step drawings showing how to use basic shapes to make incredible robots and spaceships allow anyone to explore their creativity.



2. I BOUGHT SEVERAL OF THESE TYPES OF SKETCH BOOKS FOR MY SON. HE IS TAKING ART IN SCHOOL AND HE LOVES THE HELP THE BOOKS GIVE HIM IN HIS DRAWINGS. HE HAS LEARNED ALOT FROM THE BOOKS ALONE. WE ARE VERY PLEASED!!



3. There are lots of "how-to-draw" robots/mecha books. IMHO this book simply follows the formula of breaking down the title subject into component simple shapes and embellishing with more detail. This is the formula of most how-to-draw books. It's fine to include this if your "mecha how-to" book has more about drawing aspects unique to mecha.
   
   An astute earlier reviewer pointed out that Hart drew none of the examples in the book. How can he discuss a thought and design process that he didn't even contribute to in his own book?!? The art in the book is rarely inspired and in many cases rendered by artists who don't appear particularly interested in mecha.
   
   To its credit, it's fun to read some of the text. Younger readers may enjoy the book as it may be helpful to beginning artists. The best pictures are from the Fasa interview in the back.
   
   For those who want something more advanced, I'd recommend the excellent books by Sherard Jackson of Antarctic Press. He briefly covers the beginning steps of drawing mecha, but gives a meatier discussion on the unique aspects of drawing anime machines. The art definitely has a higher "coolness" quotient and he drew his own pictures!



4. I liked it pretty well. But I think it falls into the category "this is how you draw something. period." books. I think it should show you different kinds of guns for mecha, different joint types, head types, torso types, armor types, leg types, weapons in general types, shield types, jet pack/wing types and stuff. I don't think that there is enough things to inspire the mind for drawing original mecha. Instead, it tells you how to draw some limited robot examples.
   So why did I give it a 4 if I'm being so negative?! Because as soon as I had merely READ it, without drawing any of the examples, was a ton better at drawing mecha. It also has some things to think about while drawing mecha that will help your drawings quit a bit. It has a little about special effects, which was nice. It tells you how to draw female cyborgs, which I thought most of which was garbage. It did have an interview with some guy from the creators of MechWarrior, which was pretty good. The book is worth the money, I think.



5. What is the point of this book? Each of the drawings gives just three steps, and the beginning step is very complex--there is no help in figuring out what basic shapes go into it, and it seems like the only thing you can do is copy exactly what the author has done. I wanted something that would teach me to draw this type of character, and instead I just got a book showing off the author's drawings. If it is supposed to be just a showcase, it should be called that--don't try to fool people into thinking it is a way to learn anything.