Design Books

This book is amazing, if a little daunting. It will take some time but I hope to be creating my own patterns some day. Happy folding!

This book is a MUST HAVE for the origami enthusiast - it begins with excellent coverage of the basics and each chapter builds on the last. When you finish this book, you'll be able to fold anything, except maybe time and space ;-)

By far and away the most comprehensive book on origami design and theory that I have every seen. There are thousands of books containing origami models, but few, if any, actually take the time to explain how the models were created in the first place. If Robert Lang didn't already hold a Ph.D., this book could serve as a dissertation. In addition to the theory and concepts of origami model design, this book also contains excellent models that demonstrate the principles covered in each chapter. I have always enjoyed folding Robert Lang's models in the past. They are challenging and extremely rewarding. I am a very good techincal folder but I could never really create my own models. This book has started me on my own path towards creating my own origami models to fold. While this book certainly could be useful to beginning origami folders, it best serves intermediate to advanced enthusiasts.

This is one of the best origami books ever written. Robert Lang is known for producing complex origami models and here he teaches the mathematical thought process behind the creation of these pieces. The book contains a number of chapters covering different methods of producing particular types of origami works and then each chapter ends with a series of advanced origami models for you to make with complete diagrammatical instructions.

The book is a wonderful instruction manual on how to create original origami designs but it also includes many sets of instructions for origami models which have never before been published. The exquisite Koi carp on the front cover (which I have seen in real life) is included as is the frog, and the infamous Black Forest Cuckoo Clock instructions are included at the end of the book. Don't try to make these pieces with ordinary paper - you will want to use very fine bank weight paper, tissue foil or wet folding with Canson or Elephant Hide paper to get good results.

This volume is an essential addition to any paperfolder's bookshelf and will provide many hours of interesting reading and wonderful models to fold.

Dr. Lang delves into the hows and whys of origami design exploring origami the way Alton Brown explores food and cooking.

The instructions for creating beautifully made koi decorating the cover are not included in their entirety, notably excluding the sequence for creating the scales. Instead, Lang describes the principles and techniques for creating textures on paper, leaving the creation of the fish as an exercise for the reader.

If you're looking for a recipe book for cool origami designs, then this is not the book for you. Rather, this book is for anyone curious about just how the heck someone makes a cuckoo clock out of one uncut sheet of paper.

I just picked up the hardcover edition yesterday at the bargain section of my local bookstore. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It's in chronological order of R. Crumb's work broken into chapters. Each chapter starts with a write up by him telling about what was going on in his life at that time, and how some of the drawings came to be. I find him to be a fascinating artist. He bares his soul in his work, not really caring how he appears or what people think.

I have the hardcover edition. I collect Robert Crumb's works and this is a favorite of everyone looking at my collection. It you are an art student this along with his Gotta Have'Em Portraits of Women by R.Crumb is good resource material. I'd give The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book in (hardcover) ten stars if I could. I have not had the opportunity to look at the soft cover version but I would bet it is well done.

Just about every huge page (this book is big!) is filled with inspired color drawings from the legendary underground artist. Crumb gets very personal in this book, it's incredibly honest and, at times, deep. He takes the reader on a nostalgic journey through his childhood, life, and career. It's about growing up, finding the artist within, and adjusting to the insanity of the world. Or, you can simply read it for the edgy, often sexual comics. Either way, this is a big heavy book that is hard to pick up, but harder to put down.

This book is the ultimate Crumb. You won't be disappointed if you love his work.

A generation ago, American poets such as Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Anne Sexton gave birth to a genre that's come to be known as "confessional poetry." Their verse revealed intimate facts about their lives that simply weren't spoken of in polite company: fears, phobias, sexual hang-ups, pettiness, depression, suicidal tendencies. Some of their work wound up being rather pathetic, more confessional than poetic. But when it was good, it invited readers to face their own demons.

Robert Crumb, whom the art critic Robert Hughes has called the "Breughel of the 20th century," is a confessional artist whose chosen genre is comics. For 50-odd years (with the emphasis on "odd"!), R. Crumb has explored his many identities and personae in thousands of sketches, drawings, and paintings. The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book is actually an autobiography put together from a handful of the work Crumb has produced over the years. It's interspersed with essays by Crumb on his childhood, school days, the hippie scene in San Francisco, his marriages, his "personal obsession with big women," his spiritual yearnings, and his love of old music. Taken together, it's a fascinating portrait of a man who's dared to explore some of his deepest and darkest places, and to do so (at least sometimes) publicly.

Crumb believes that the pivotal moment in his personal and artistic life was the period in the mid-60s to the early 70s when he dropped acid on a regular basis. Although he sometimes worries that he might've fried his brain, he also thinks that the LSD trips liberated his psyche and helped him break through to new and deeper levels of creativity. The LSD was, he tells us, his "road to Damascus."

Perhaps. It's true that Crumb's work has changed over the years--it's become more brutally honest, more introspective, darker and at the same time funnier. Perhaps the LSD had something to do with it (although, personally, I quite dislike some of the work that comes from that period, finding it rather flat and silly). But I suspect that the single greatest influence on Crumb was his childhood and his family, especially his brother Charlie, who seems to have been just as much a genius as Robert. Crumb the man really is the child of Crumb the boy. The LSD may've helped Crumb get in touch with the raw energy generated from those days.

Crumb has become notorious for the sexuality of some of his comics, and has taken his share of political correct knocks. But The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book makes clear that the bottom line of much of his art is his existential need to explore and expose the shallowness and absurdity of much of modern life. Above all, as he tells us (p. 247), he wants to tell the truth, not only about himself but about us as well. Whether it's in the pages of "Zap" or "Weirdo" comics, or in panels featuring Shuman the Human or Mr. Natural, Crumb continuously questions racial, sexual, cultural, and artistic conventions, pushing the envelope as far as it can go and frequently causing readers discomfort. There's also a longing on Crumb's part for deep meaning in a universe that appears crazy. This most often reveals itself as nostalgia for bygone days (his love of "old" music, for example), but also more explicitly as a yearning for a god that he can no longer fully believe in and frequently mocks.

Reading R. Crumb is an intense experience. Like all good art, his stuff can make one laugh with joy or send shivers down the spine. The R. Crumb Coffee Table Art Book is a good place to start if you're just discovering Crumb, and an equally good collection to help long-time admirers get some idea of the big picture of Crumb's work and to better appreciate its depth. It's also a good catalyst for getting in touch with one's own multiple identities.

Got the equavalent of what it cost me after about 5 minutes. Great reference and have just recently started at chapter 3 for in-depth how to instructions.

Well written.

This book is fairly comprehensive. There were just a few topics I would have liked to have seen more on. All in all, it really helped me get the job done.

This book was just what I needed. I'm an RPG programmer who has to learn SQL for a new application we're developing. Found most of what I needed here.

I had a vendor in the day this came to work. He asked me if I had a good SQL book and I replied, "Let's find out" and opened the box. It was perfect for what we needed. I have used it several times and it is easy to read. Being new at SQL on the 400, I am a little frustrated with the index. I was trying to figure out how to substring and couldn't find a reference anywhere. Twice I have had to forego the book and ask another person.
It is a great learning tool and I'm very glad I bought it.

SQL the standard for data access is now presented in a AS400/iSeries user format. The differences that exist for the DB2/400 user are minor but significant enough to warrant 500 pages plus.

Conte and Cravitz flood the text with real working examples that hit homeruns with the IBM midrange user. Yet, minus the sprinkling of RPG/ILE & Cobol code any DB2 user would find the text extremely helpful.

Keep this book at the ready since it's a "quick grab" when questions come up regarding triggers, UDF's or Database Modeling and design.

The Book is a great starting point for the AS400/iSeries guru looking to open their database to the outside world. With a solid SQL footing the JDBC mountain is a much easier climb.

Conte & Cravitz keep up the great work!

I bought Transfigurations and Grey's earlier book Sacred Mirrors at the same time. Both are visually amazing and the print quality is excellent. I especially liked reading about Alex Grey's journey as an artist that is part of Transfigurations. It's not a path I would want to tread, but knowing about his life gives good insight and empathy into the aesthetics of his work. I'm very glad he met with Tibetan culture, which obviously has influenced him greatly, and helped him escape the dark trap of Euro-American nihilist existentialism

Transfigurations is a beautiful book that does an excellent job presenting the work of Alex Grey, one of the most important artists of our times. There is no artist quite like Alex Grey. For many years, I have used this book and an earlier Grey book, Sacred Mirrors, as a transformative tool both in my own life and helping others.

I bought this book for my son who'd asked for a coffee table art book
by Alex Grey, and he was happy to have received it. When it was under the tree unwrapped after Christmas, I took a look, and it's an interesting work. I'm not sure if it's in his room or if he took it to college; I'll have to look. If it's home, I can read more of it.

It arrived in beautiful condition.

Truly edifying, powerfully enlightening art of the nervous system (peeled open) and all its glory.

The universe is marvelous, indeed. Grey is a shining star.

Although my other books reviews are totally sarcastic this one is sincere. Giving TRANSFIGURATIONS five stars tells you nothing, it is my most cherished possession purchased from Amazon. Alex Grey is the most beautiful inspiring artist I know of, disturbing as well. For both reasons I get goosebumps each time I hear his weird kind of slimy sounding voice on the DVD and audio tapes that I also purchased. I find his whole dark side very intimidating and there are a couple of spots where the blur between holy and immoral is way to ominous for my churchy little, reactionary mind to consider but I'm sure that in his genius he is expressing things that, like all of his works, are simply way beyond my comprehension.

Even though I really like Grey's self-portraits as a boy, I usually skip past the first thirty-five or so pages to his more inspiring works of colorful anatomy charged with energy and connected to occult and mystical symbols of the spirit. I've always thought of these symbols as pertaining to aesthetics who live an isolated existence, however, for Grey's works they seem to be intimately associated with love, family, personal growth, and the journey through life.

I find his most beautiful works to be his oil on linen anatomical scenes of his family which include one of him and his wife embracing and another with both of them, eyes shut, in a moment of reverence with their daughter in which all three pineal glands are actively sharing an interwoven and upward spiraling rainbow of purely intelligent energies. Another is of his young daughter, as a toddler, who draws out a sphere from her heart encircled by a rainbow of noble and vital energy containing within it a Tibetan symbol of primal purity.

Alex Grey expresses better than anyone I've found how religious symbols from around the world are spun from the same spiritual desires and aspirations of people everywhere and are all equally divine.

Transfigurations shows Alex Grey's development through his life cycle from the dark cocoon of young manhood through his emergence as a man of tremendous knowledge and beauty expressed in fantastic colors and intricate and intriguing layers and details. He is clearly one who has made an incredible journey in life and easily ranks with all of the most famous and greatest artists in art history.

A very useful book for the home gardener. A quick guide for growing, harvesting and using herbs.

I adore this book! Wow! It has all the things I wanted!
- it's organic
- it very thorougly covers many herbs in different formats, so you know everything from what bugs they attract or repel, how tall they grow, and what zone they can be grown in
- common uses for them: I discovered many herbs I thought were inedible plants that are indeed herbs
- easy to use tables

I wasn't too hip on all the cosmetic and craft uses - I'd rather eat them, but they're short and may come in handy. I know the rest of the book sure will!

This is a great book for a beginning herb gardener. The first half of the book is a general overview of gardening techniques, designs, and uses for herbs. The second half gives specific information on growing and using many herbs. This has been extraordinarily helpful to me as background and reference for me.

However, it is pretty basic and only covers the most commonly used herbs, so I'm not sure that advanced herb gardeners would get much out of this.

Great resource book. Covers all of the basics in clear, simple instructions.

This is a relatively small book at about 150 pages, but it manages to pack in a lot of information very concisely. It's beautifully illustrated with color photographs and drawings.

The first 2/3 of the book includes general herb gardening background and use of herbs tips: how to choose plants, pick the location, general design principles, planting instructions (including some nice tips on extending the growing season), propagation, harvesting, drying, pests and diseases, etc.

It also includes suggestions for common culinary uses, such as salads, herbal vinegars, flavored oils, teas, jellies, honeys, and breads. These are not an extensive set of recipes, but more like master recipes with some suggestions for how you can mix them up with variations.

The book also includes suggestions and recipes for health and beauty products (again, not an extensive collection). This section includes potpourri, sachets, bouquets, dried arrangements and insect repellents.

The last 1/3 of the book has individual pages on about 50 different herbs. These individual pages tell you a description, how to grow, harvesting instructions, suggested uses, tips, cultivars, and also includes a quick key on the level of care required (using a 4 glove rating system), if it attracts beneficial insects, whether or not it is ornamental, whether or not it can be grown in a container, how much yield you can expect to get and how easy it is to grow.

The back of the book contains a few pages of resources for laboratories, vendors, herb associations and other books or literary resources.

There are lots of charts and sidebars and overall I found this book to be very useful and easy to access. It doesn't have the level of information needed to make this anything other than a quick reference book though.

This is my second copy of this book as I lost my first one since I take it everywhere. It is great just to pick up and turn to a random chapter. There is so much in here that I never knew about golf course design, and it really made me appreciate what goes into making a good golf course great. Tom Doak truly is a master of his craft.

I bought this gift for my nephew who is majoring in landscape architecture. From the moment he opened the gift, he began reading it immediately and couldn't put it down. That tells me this is an excellent book and one worth purchasing......

Quite simply the best-written, most useful book on the often confusing world of golf course architecture. Just as with any art, taste is certainly subjective. This book looks objectively at criteria used to appreciate this very exciting aspect of golf. An appreciation of golf course architecture is essential to understanding why certain golf courses appear mundane and even dull or uninspired to the uninitiated eye and yet are revered by connoisseurs. Tom has a very good style of written education that is rooted in his strong opinionation on the subject. He truly believes in himself and what he writes. This book can enrich the appreciation of golf for almost any player.

It's a pity that he doesn't have the ability to update his out-of-print Confidential Guide to Golf courses. Paired with this book one understands an erudite point of view based upon the well-researched and extremely deeply-rooted opinions of perhaps the world's most able golf course architect. Just as in the anatomical sciences of living beings, the golf course is a living being and one can study it. Today, Doak and his team are not afraid to take chances and think outside the box or at least deep into the archives, unlike virtually all other "top architects" of today to create golf courses that are fun to play for nearly all golfers - the ideal of his idol Alister Mackenzie.

Tutored by Pete Dye, he is the pick of the Dye litter and can write well to boot. He gives any golfer literate in the English language a heads-up on this exciting aspect of golf appreciation which escapes perhaps 90% of the American golf public. I was way deep into golf architecture before I got either of Tom's books, but they remain the two I recommend above all others because this book is so concise and the companion volume is so outrageous. Unfortunately you have to dig up a (very expensive used) copy of Confidential Guide if you are unfamiliar with the Doak scale because it isn't in here (10 point scale). Before Doak, everything above a 6 is a "10" to most people. (Basically it's a logarithmic scale in which 3 is average, 5 is "average good" and everything above a "7" is well worth going out of your way to see.) Everyone has favorite golf courses and understanding the theories of architecture and strategies will give a deeper, more meaningful appreciation.

At least this book can teach you what to look for. Your golf-stricken loved one will thank you for it again and again if he or she has not yet read it. Most people I know have read it multiple times after the first read in a single session.

Tom Doak as author and golf course architect never fail to amaze. He's the best when it comes to the game of golf.

I recently purchased this book, and since doing so, I have seen my scores go down. As a recent college grad, I had a lot of time to play golf this summer, and this book, with Doak's insights into how courses are not only set up to penalize the player, but to help them, can assist you into understanding certain aspects of the wonderful game that we refer to as golf. The diagrams and drawings make it easy to understand what is being described in the pages, and he also does a good job by making the book readable for those with little to/no knowledge of the game of golf. If you enjoy golf, and you want to both understand the courses you play on and lower your scores, than this is the book for you.

A fabulous tool for those who want to be a childrens book author. Alot of info about the publishing companies, what they are looking for , if they accept unsolicited work etc... A wonderful and useful book, recommended for anyone trying to break into that genre of work.

What is our obsession in the industry for dead tree? Sure, it is great to hold a book in your hand, but why must I lug around many pounds of books for essential reference when I would happily pay the same amount for locked PDF?

I am mobile right now, moving from Europe to Asia to America. Lugging this book around is not fun.

Pleasseee, get over the obsession with killing trees and provide a PDF option.

This is a great resource. It lists lots of publishers and details about them.

This book is instrumental in providing much needed information regarding the childen's writing and publishing industry. It is a must for all writer's of children's literature. There is a ton of information in it to guide you as the writer/author to submit your manuscript to the appropriate publisher. You can find exactly what you are looking for in this wonderful book.
Cheryl A. Martin, M.A. Author of "Woman Reclining"Woman Reclining

As a writer in the juvenile field, I recommend Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market to all who are beginning children's authors. Writer's Market covers all kinds of publishing from books and magazines to textbooks and contests, including children's books. Most of it is not of interest to someone focused only on juvenile writing.
Children's Writers and Illustrator's Market is invaluable because it not only lists the many worldwide markets for children's books, but it gives specific information on writing for children, lists the types of books each publisher puts out, and includes tips by publishers on what they require and expect at their publishing house.
This is a book every beginning children's writer would do well to study long before they have completed a manuscript. Check it out at the library to see how helpful it is. If the library has no copy, suggest that it would be a great service to the public to add one to the shelves.

This book has wonderful information and photos to inspire any amateur gourd crafter to GREATNESS!

I'm a woodturner who likes to decorate the bowls I make. This book has given me several ideas that I've used successfully. I've gotten several copies for members of my woodturning club and one copy for the club library. We're always looking for new ways to enhance the simple wooden bowl and this book provides many useful ideas. Highly recommended.

Extremely good book, very well written and good art descriptions.

The book was in excellent condition and arrived promptly. I was very pleased with the service, price and book.

What a great book! I took a gourd coiling class and the instructor had this book. I couldn't wait to get my own copy! This book is so thorough. From cover to cover it's filled with information, pictures and ideas, you can't help but be inspired. I was, and now I'm "gourding" like crazy!

I have done pysanky for over 10 years, and have been asked where is a good place to begin. This book is my favorite to recommend. It offers a brief description of pysanky technique and uses. It touches on some of the highlights of this art. It gives a very cursory description of history and symbolism. (Most people don't share my interest in the history, so they don't mind how skimpy this section is) This book also gives the reader ideas of where to find inspiration like quilts, lace, etc. Overall, this is an excellent resource for the beginner.

This is a beautiful book. I bought it so that my children and I could get started in this art form. This book provides beautiful inspiration for the beginner, and has thorough instructions. There wasn't much info on dividing up the egg, but that information is easily found online, and not everyone wants a perfectly symetrical egg....especially children :)

I was looking into possibly wanting to take up this craft. But before doing so, I wanted to make sure I conpletely understood the art. This book clearly spelled out step by step and even why it is done so. But the author also gives other options.

This book was also inspiring with all it creative, wonderful pictures. Jane Pollak gives you wonderful ideas to start with and even gives you a focus to find more inspiration.

I just finished the book last night and am ordering a Kistka kit today!

Even if you do not have the patience to create such eggs...this book will give you a better appreciation for those that are able to design such wonderful pieces of art.

This book is absolutely beautiful! The photographs are lovely, and the instructions are very clear. Even if you don't plan on attempting the craft, the pictures are well worth the price of the book!

I am just beginning with pysanky and this book has been a treasure trove! It begins with a brief history of the art, clear explanations and wonderful photos of the tools of the trade, and moves into very easy-to-follow instructions for making decorated eggs. Throughout, the book is filled with wonderful full-color photos of lovely eggs, sparking the imagination with possibilities. The waxing and dying process is documented clearly with photographs and explained fully in detailed step-by-step instructions for making a simple but stunning beginner's egg. Pollak always gives options, not just her preferred method of doing it, explaining the differences between traditional and modern tools, different ways of removing the wax and blowing the egg, etc. There is an entire chapter on playing with color and the effects of one color on top of another color, followed by a chapter on simple two-color designs. She encourages playing with design and color to see what happens! Next are chapters on traditional Ukrainian designs and symbolism, "quilting" on eggshells using patterns inspired by quilts, where to find inspiration for new and original decoration ideas (fabric, cultural images, modern art, etc), and finally, chapters on creating lovely eggshell jewelry and other nontraditional egg designs and uses (like bowls from ostrich eggs!). I would think this book would be as indispensable on the shelf of an experienced egg decorator as I know it is on my beginner's shelf! The only thing to be aware of is that this is NOT a pattern book. It gives clear instructions on how to do pysanky, step-by-step directions for one pattern, shows various design elements used in traditional Ukrainian eggs, and is filled with inspiring photos of finished eggs, but it does not have the patterns for those eggs. I didn't rate it down for this, because it is not designed to be a pattern book, but the buyer should be aware that it doesn't contain patterns. It is, however, filled with education, inspiration, and encouragement!

We purchased this book for our son. He is deeply committed to 'green' projects. This will give him testimonials of others in his field to aid him in his own work for clients who have the desire to lessen their carbon footprint.

Sincerely,
F. Albuquerque

Great book. Very cool practical applications to problems using environmentally sound solutions. Beautiful pictures and I especially liked the $8 tent clip. Brilliant.

I'm not an architect, but I enjoy the craft as a whole. I saw this book on a PBS science show and had to check it out. Once I finish reading it, I'm passing it on to my architect friends to inspire them to think of the more basic level of need for their talents. Living in the US, I have always taken for granted having a place to live, but seeing how many people around the world need homes is staggering. Kudos to those architects that face the problems of these people. They should be recognized for their innovative uses of stuff as simple as PVC pipe and tarp.

This book is an important counterbalance to the plethora of glossy coffee table books about architecture that glorify starchitects and their creations, which usually only benefit their wealthy clients. If only the architectural journals would plaster these projects on their front pages instead of oh-so-chic homes and corporate headquarters. The world is facing a housing crisis, but most architects are not trained to respond to this crisis in massive, innovative ways that go beyond the feel-good student trips to build a couple of houses for people in need. This book should be required reading in all architecture schools, architecture practices, and architectural publishing offices. The profession - as with so many other professions - has lost its way. This book can be one small step toward recovering the reality that architecture is a collaborative endeavor that entails public responsibilities.

This is truly an inspiring book! I originally bought this for architect friends whose humanitarian vision parallels many of those in this book. Even they were thrilled and inspired. I plan to give it to others for Christmas this year..Lets hope soon everyone will have a place to live that will be their own.