No comments about Glam Knits: 25 Designs For Luxe Yarns.

No comments about 2009 Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market.

4 comments about LOGO Design (Midi Series).

1. Not only the selection is good... but what really insterestred me was the case studies. That's what made this book a great choice for me.



2. I thought it's gonna be bit better. Some examples of logos are great but most just average. They could be bit bigger. Nice cover and rounded corners :)



3. I am a Advertising design student and this comes in handy as a reference tool.



4. Hace tiempo que no veía una compilación de trabajos como esta. Un libro bastante completo, fuente de inspiración para los diseñadores en una edición de lujo

1 comments about Modern Masters Volume 18: John Romita Jr. (Modern Masters).

1. Spider-Man, Wolverine, Gambit, Daredevil, are all names and characters well known to Marvel comic fans everywhere. "John Romita Jr." is the eighteenth entry in the Modern Masters series, looks at the art and design of John Romita who has drawn all of these Marvel characters and a great many more. Romita's art has had a major impact on Marvel for the past three decades with his original blend of great art, great storytelling, and great professionalism. JRJR, as he has been dubbed by his fans, is one of the most enduringly popular Marvel artists and storytellers, and "John Romita Jr." is a 'must' for his legion of fans, as well as being a very highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library reference collections.

5 comments about Men's Adventure Magazines: In Postwar America.

1. Definitely worth buying if you are interested in pulp art. Its great that under each cover it gives the date of issue and the name of the artist. This book really overloads the senses. Wonderful stuff.



2. Appearantly Taschen publishes art books. I wasn't familiar with this particular company before recieving this book as a gift, but I found it to be a great little book of... well pulp men's magazine art from the old days. You know, the type where some adventuring Indiana Jones-esque pulp hero gets lost in some exotic locale, fights savage beasts and makes out with sexy native girls. Culled from the covers of mags with titles like 'Man's Life, 'True Danger,' and 'Wildcat Adventures,' this little book is loaded with page after full colour page of muscle bound explorers, soldiers and cowboys going head to head with man-eating tigers and giant octopi, heroically battling the Nazis and Commies alike, and rescuing sexy, overly well endowed (and scantily clad) Polynesian girls from danger!
   
   What's that you say? Sounds like it might be a little... two dimensional? Sexist? Offensive to today's sensibilities? Oh yeah, you bet... and then some! But that's part of the fun, really. These overly testosterone fueled manly fantasies were part of another era, and a fascinating one to look at at that! Besides... what man (or boy) doesn't like this sort of stuff deep down inside? It's shades of Kipling meets the Magnificent Seven and Dirty Harry mixed with D-Day, crammed with more cheap thrills, bloody violence and hot sweaty sex than you can shake a stick at! And it's all so over the top. I mean, who thinks of titles like "Those Slimy Rodents Are Eating My Flesh," "Terror in the Far East: The Wolf-Women of India," or "Aphrodisiac Scandal of the Sex Mad Intermns and the 63 Passionate Student Nurses"?
   
   Divided up into chapters based around common themes such as wild animal attacks (which include everything from panthers to enraged bull elephants to inexplicably flesh-eating swarms of iguanas and flying squirrels!), World War II, pirate adventures and "the Yellow Peril," each chapter includes a brief article (again based on the chapter's theme) in English, French and German. This is nice not only because it provides some idea of context (for instance, Tahitian and Samoan sexuality became a popular subject due to the popularity of Mead's writings), but also because of the descriptions of the stories... which pretty much match what you'd expect from the covers. Like an Old West full of American Indians kidnapping white women, voluptuous hookers/spies fighting against the Nazis, and man-eating anteaters! Again, pretty un-PC stuff, but thats par for the course. The book also includes an introduction, explaining the background, development and eventual falling out of the manly, hair-on-your-chest pulp adventure magazines.
   
   All in all, it turns out to be quite a fun and entertaining romp through the testosterone fueled, hyper-masculine adventure stories of a bygone era. Sure, it's easy to laugh at them, or get offended at the racial (sexual, political, etc) caricatures that they presented. But really, these should be appreciated for providing us with some insight into the psyches of those who read and created these works. And, as my cousin was quick to point out, these magazines were so great! I mean really, what little boy didn't want to be a cowboy, go on safari to Africa, or fight enemy soldiers on the battlefield? So much nostalgia there really... And who could resist a book that says "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" on the back cover? Come on... that ALONE should be enough to make you want to flip through it.



3. While I agree with other reviewers that Feral House's "It's A Man's World" is a vastly superior book, This is still a nice collection of images for the purveyor of unique Americana.
   
   I collect these insane artifacts and there just can't possibly be enough books published on the subject. SO BUY 'EM ALL!
   
   The "normal" Pulps have ignored and hidden away their retarded younger brother for too long. It's time to let him out of the cellar. Try to find a book on the history of "The Pulps" that admits these lurid items were the final incarnation of the format! YOU CAN'T! All those authors are ashamed to admit the legacy that fostered The Shadow, Tarzan and Conan ended brutally with the Men's Adventure Magazines. Now the truth is out. YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!
   
   Anyway, buy Feral House's book first, then buy this one too. It makes a decent addendum to the Feral House book. You can never have too much lurid art to amaze your friends with...



4. This book was a trip down memory lane for me; I got a kick out those lurid men's-magazine covers in my youth, and today I get... well, a surge of nostalgia, if no longer quite the same charge. The volume is beautifully produced, like all Taschen books, though I have to add that I find it no better than a similar compendium of men's-mag art called IT'S A MAN'S WORLD, which came out six months earlier; and IAMW, it should be said, has a more extensive and entertaining text.



5. Although one of my fellow reveiwers points out some valid criticisms of this book, I'd like to point out that if you are a fan of these types of magazines and you have the Feral House book "It's a Man's World: Men's Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps" you'll still want this book, even though it's not as well written. Yes, this book does feature a lot of the lesser cover artists, but it gives me a real jolt to see some of these covers again after all these years. I did not buy these magazines myself but saw them at my uncle's house and so havn't seen them since they were first new. So the more cover reproductions the better I say. I just wish someone would do a book on these mags that would reproduce more of the interior artwork, which often had more nudity and violence then they could get away with on the cover.

5 comments about Digital Creativity: Techniques for Digital Media and the Internet.

1. I've looked at most of the introductory books for digital media, even wrote one a few years ago that was published by Prentice Hall. Some books seem to be written by technicians and some written by artists. I think this book is by an artist, for an artist. The technical info may not have depth but beginners don't need that anyway, the fundamentals of understanding media and creating media are in this book in ways that technical books do not typically include. The chapter on creativity and the creative process are an excellent introduction to a very logical sequence of information for the designer and the technician. The book is dated in some technical information and style but the wealth of insight in this book still make it well worth reading.



2. I was reading the January issue of Yahoo Internet Life magazine and saw that www.sva.edu/mfacad was chosen as one of the "Top 100 Web Sites of 2002" for Best Original Web Art. I was quite surprised that a graduate school department site was chosen over sites like Rhizome, the Whitney, San Franciso MoMA and other high profile Net Art sites. I visited the site and saw that the students did great work and had won over 60 other awards, including the 2001 Leonardo Award of Excellence, the Smithsonian American Art Museum's New Media/New Century Award, Prix Ars Electronica, Sundance Online Festival, SIGGRAPH and others. I saw that Bruce Wands was chair of the department and I bought his book. I found the book to be excellent, easy to read and very helpful on the creative side of new media production. The chapter on creativity was worth the price of the book alone. The book is now required reading in my graduate and undergraduate digital art classes. The interviews are with top people in the field (including Isaac Kerlow) and are really interesting, giving added dimension to Mr. Wands' writing. The book also has an excellent annotated bibliography for those interested in exploring the chapter subjects in depth. I also own the Pocock/Rosebush book and the Kerlow book. Both are highly technical books that are only about computer animation and do not have the breadth or the wealth of practical information the Wands book has. Based on Mr. Wands' superb track record with his students, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more creative and develop quality new media content.



3. Test group rated this book very low: Primary Text = 1, Reference Text = 0, Companion Text = 2.

   We conducted a review of seven recent books on digital media for a large university here in Michigan. The criteria was to review each book as a possible text, reference or companion for pre-college and introductory college classes. We assembled a group of college and high school teachers as well as separate group of students.

   The panel of students responded very negatively to this book. Their expressed concerns were about the lack of structure and that it did not have enough ÒtechnicalÓ information. They did not find the personality sidebars interesting or relevant. Other students found the tone of the book "condescending." It received the lowest scores of all the books reviewed.

   Some of the teachers were more positive but their assessment of this book as a primary text was very low because it Òdoes not present facts or techniques in a way that allows the teacher to either assign specific reading assignments or to test students on the information.Ó Other teachers expressed concern that much of the technical information was not accurate or that it was too vague and not clearly presented. This book was not considered adequate to be a primary text in high school or college.

   On the other hand, the teachers that were relatively new to digital technologies were slightly more positive, finding the book "light and a easy to read." This group found the sidebars more interesting because they related to the questions about making the "transition to the digital relm." A subject that the students found to be "dated and boring."

   Our two highest rated books by both groups were far more technical and advanced; the Rosebush/Pocock ÔHandbookÕ and the second edition of KerlowÕs ÔThe Art of 3D Computer Animation.Õ In both instances the perceived value was the blend of scholarship and technical clarity. Students found both books relevant to their concerns and teachers were impressed by the presentation and excellent writing. These are two very valuable books that will be relevant resourses for many years.




4. This book gives a good amount of general information about the computer graphics field to the novice. It introduces concepts and explains job functions in a variety of ways. It is not meant for advanced users, and is certainly not a software manual. It allows a new student to find many important explanations (such as the difference between shaders and maps) in an easy to read format. Despite all the negative reviews here (some being personal attacks) I think the author did a good job.



5. This is the first book I have seen that actually guides the reader through the art of actual production of a project from start to finish. Having produced a number of projects I value to breadth of this work which focusses on the broad range of production options available for true creativity rather than a rework of software manuals and help menus. For any artist that actually wants to produce works using the full range of digital options available this book is invaluable. I know music production very well, but after reading through Wands' book I now can pursue video, photography, film and a number of other media that I would have had to struggle to deal with. In a word, excellent.

4 comments about Business Graphics: 500 Designs that Link Graphic Aesthetic and Business Savvy.

1. Steve Liska has created a gorgeous book - as elegantly designed and rendered as the projects he has chosen to highlight. These carefully selected case studies offer rich examples of the power of design and the importance of aesthetics in developing strong business brands and identntities. This beautifully illustrated book should not only appeal to artists and graphic designers, but to anyone who appreciates the beauty of high quality design. The pages are filled with outstanding examples of design, along with insightful commentary.



2. This book does an extraordinary job of both highlighting and discussing the important subtleties that separate exquisite and effective business graphics from mediocre and unappealing modes of design. The book showcases brilliant work from the portfolios of the best communication design firms out there. Business Graphics is also nicely laid out and employs a clear and insightful writing style.



3. This thing is a freakin' encyclopedia of graphic
   design. I love to run across cool stationery or well
   designed communication stuff. This book is chock full
   of it. I've been going on a bunch of websites that I
   learned about in the book--cool, hip sites I've never
   heard of before. The book itself is beautifully
   designed and it showcases so much good design. If you
   care about this stuff at all, this book is not to be
   missed.



4. I would strongly recommend this book. It's great to see amazing design and understand the thinking behind it. The book is well organized and nicely written.

2 comments about Contemporary Color.

1. This book is packed full of useful information, and is laid out in an easy-to-read interesting way. I actually look forward to reading assignments in the class this textbook is for!



2. I found this to be an ecellent book on the subject of color and it's relationship to the art, graphic, and design world.
   I would have loved to have taken the course which uses this book as their study guide art the Art Institute of Tampa, but they only deal with Degree seeking students.
   You will find it very relative to the use of color in the Art, Graphic, and Design areas, especailly in the practical use of color in the real world.

3 comments about Madame Gres: Sphinx of Fashion.

1. Stunning! Well-written story of Madame Alix Gres in four chapters: 1 life and career, 2 the grecian gown, 3 ethnic influences, 4 sculpting with fabric. Full page (> 12" x 8") photographs of selected works over her entire range of career; the photographs are high-definition. Some fashions have multiple photographs from different angles. Photographs are full page, so they are often not on the page where the text is that describes the fashion, and there is occassional lack of reference to the accompanying photograph(s) (inconsistent use of stating which plate the text is referring to). I wish every fashion and every advertisement described in the text had a photograph.



2. I read about the Madame Gres exhibit at the NY Fashion Institute of Technology in the New York Times recently. Upon finishing the lengthy article I raced over to my laptop and was excited to order this book. For those who love,crave and have to surround yourself with beautiful visual images this is the book for you. To look at the actual photographs of her original pieces along with her photographs made me feel privileged to read about this amazing woman. The thousands of folds,tucks and pleats in her garments were obviously a lifelong labor of love!



3. I only knew a little of Madame Gres and this book brought to my attention that she was one of the major designers of our era--someone who "invented" the use of draping and fabrics, unlike they had ever been used before. Not just a product of its time, Madame Gres' fashions are timeless and have influenced everything since her time. I would highly recommend this book not just for the fashion, but for the very interesting text by the author, as well, who really puts the work in context.

No comments about LogoLounge 3: 2,000 International Identies by Leading Designers (Logolounge).