Design Books

I bought this book for my brother as a gift and he was thrilled! He loves the artwork of Roger Dean and owns another book of his art, which is falling apart. Thanks for the great service and good condition of the book!

great collection of Roger Dean's artwork... if yer a Roger Dean art fan this book is a must have if you can still find one for sale.

I met artist Roger Dean after being invited to an exhibition of his art in San Francisco, 1991. I had long admired, no, worshipped his art in the release of "VIEWS", the 1st collected work devoted solely to the Dean brothers, Roger and Martyn. The color schemes combined with the visions of alternate landscapes of exploded planets and truly wondrous terrains have become iconic landmarks in the art world. It is a vision so deep, it is often hard to fathom, and evokes the seldom used Japanese phrase, Yugen! The work is unmatched anywhere else. The artist is as warm and human as anyone I've ever met, and one hopes for their continued success. He is currently designing communities in his vision in the UK named "Willowwater", and has done much art for the Prog scene in Penn; "Nearfest", if you are looking for other printed examples of his work.

Magnetic Strom continues the record started in "Views," documenting the ongoing work of Roger and Martyn Dean. There's lots of Roger's famous artwork, album covers for Yes, Asia, and others. This also features the stage sets for Yes tours - amazing fantasy constructions, even more amazing for the rigorous demands imposed by the need for easy transportation and setup. It even shows some of the Deans' experiments in biomorphic architecture. There are also some covers from books that the Deans' Paper Tiger published, including some that I still enjoy.

This collection appeals to anyone who remembers those times, who enjoys fantasy art, or who likes to see the breadth that creative minds can span. Enjoy!

//wiredweird

The Dean brothers are 2 of the most innovative artists of the 20th century. Roger has designed many of Yes and Asia's album covers (Drama, Yesshows, Asia, and Alpha are all featured in this book!), designed tour posters and booklets for other major rock bands and contributed on the Album Cover Album books. His brother Martyn has designed many of Yes' stage sets (Topographic Oceans, Drama, and Relayer) and has acted as Yes' photographer both for album shots and on tour. Together and seperately, Roger and Martyn have also worked on animation, video games, architecture, and an invention of Martyn's which is called a retreat pod (sort of like a futuristic sleeping bag with the options of an entertainment center!). I'd like to see this gem back in print and see a 3rd volume where Roger and Martyn have left off since this was published.

A catalog of processes is essentially what this book is. It's broken into 7 process sections: Cut from Solid, Sheet, Continuous, Thin & Hollow, Into Solid, Complex and Advanced. Each section has from 6-20 subset processes, eg, 'Cut From Solid' includes CNC machining, Turning, etc., 'Into Solid' has Forging, Sintering, 'Thin and Hollow' processes such as Blow Molding, Filament Winding, etc. The range of processes seems quite comprehensive and includes some I'd never heard of before such as Inflating Metal under the Sheet section, which is basically using air to inflate sheets of metal in a mold.

Each process is typically described in 2-3 pages and follows a common layout. There's a picture of a typical item produced, some text describing the process, and an information section which includes economic production volume, type of surface and finish, and the typical sizes and tolerances of parts produced. This is followed by a '+' and '-' list of advantages and disadvantages of the particular process.

A Further Information section on each process lists web addresses of manufacturers who supply the process and/or provide more information on it. This is a great resource, but you do wonder--given the fluidity of the web--how long some of these addresses will be viable.

For the price this book is a great catalog of many of the manufacturing processes available. It doesn't go into any detail on how to design for the process (as a designer) or make it function (as a machinist/manufacturer), but it's a great reference as an overview of available processes, their benefits and limitations, and where to go to get more information.

I am a 1st year student in an industrial design dept. the book really gives a wide review over production methods and in a very elegant non-exhaustive way. It maps the methods of production and gives cross-refrences that describes a reliable picture of the industrial processes and their characteristics. In conclusion - analitic and kind. highly recomended.

Very readable & understandable review of various materials specifications & materials techniques including both traditional and the unconventional.

A good catalogue of one of the elementary and fundamental drivers for new product design.

I've bought many books about industrial and product design over the years and this one by far is well worth the money. It's an absolutly excellent resource and the layout and style is perfect whether you're already familiar with the techniques or just learning.

This is a great book for someone like me, a product design student. As my institution doesn't really cover manufacturing processes I need a book like this to break it down for me. It is categorised well and the crudely drawn process diagrams are great at putting the procedures into perspective. This book is great for those who already have a basic knowledge of manufacturing and design process terminology as it assumes the reader is familiar with terms such as draft, tooling, die, section, profile and other phrases specific to manufacture and design, although it does have a rather limited glossary at the rear. I would highly reccommend it to students who struggle with the ins and outs of manufacturing as it has common items listed that are produced by a specific process, giving the info a tangible basis of understanding, as well as providing many "Oh, THAT's how they make that..." moments. I think this will be a great handy reference for me, enabling me to short list viable processes that I can then investigate further. Definitley worth the money.

This is an awesome book for any Marilyn Monroe fan - hundreds of amazing art images, most rarely seen. There was a time in the 20s and 30s when movie stars were not photographed for magazine covers but drawn by artists. MM missed that period during her life but she is now probably the subject of the work of more artists than any movie star before or since - many of these art works are to be found in this lavishly illustrated volume. Highly recommended!

Anyone who loves the image of Marylin Monroe will enjoy its rendition by various artists in this book.

I am an artist in this book and recommend it to the fullest! Check out page 164.

Marilyn Monroe was an icon of our time. It is hard to believe that if she had lived she would have just had her eightieth birthday. And it's hard to believe that she has been dead for forty four years. She was only 36 when she died.

This book, MARILYN IN ART is a beautiful collection of drawings made of her by a wide variety of artists. In some cases she is cartoon like, others more like classical photographs. Each seems to manage to capture some essense of the woman. The art is combined with short quotes from a wide range of people who knew her, worked with her, photographed her or had some kind of relationship with her.

The book doesn't attempt to answer any of the questions about her death, it doesn't go into a psychological analysis of the likelihood of suicide. Instead it is a tribute to her, to her work, to the times she helped to create. And in this it is a great book. Perhaps the art shows more of the inside of Marilyn than photographs could. It's a book hard to put down, even after you've been through it once.

The book has finally reached me and waiting for it was well worth it. What a great feeling to see some of my art work in it! A lot of the art works published in it is truly beautiful and there is everything to fit all tastes! What a pleasure it is to see some friends' paintings: William Davies, Albert Leonard, Mary Belzunce, Frederic Cabanas... Thank you to Roger Taylor for compiling such a superb book.A must for all fans!
Marc Gélis

This book is a great resource for understanding the terminology and building process for constructing a more energy efficient home. I liked that Mascord expresses in the book that the idea of "going green" doesn't mean that we have to give up all of our comforts, but that we can all participate by taking small steps to improve our efficient living quotient.

I loved the home designs in Mascord's book. Seeing that you can have utility along with attractive design is something that gets me excited about the process of "going green". It's a process of growth & discovery for me, and reading this book has shed some light on the process of efficient living. As an individual, I realize that what I do now and what I do in the future will make a definite impact on the earth and on the quality of our collective environment.

Thanks Alan Mascord for helping me to figure out how I can make the changes necessary to have a more sustainable lifestyle.

This book is a great introductory reference for sustainable homes with some interesting plans. I especially loved the inclusion of the CD with SketchUp models for review.

We purchased this book because we are building our first home and wanted to incorporate "Green" building, but didn't know where to start. This book gave us a clear understanding of the process without overloading my wife and I with too much minutae and helped us make informed choices when it came to all the aspects of building our home "green".

This book was perfect for us because it didn't talk over our heads and made us more comfortable with our choice to go "Green". Great book!

Both instructive and visually intriguing, Mascord Efficient Living serves as a first-rate tool for those looking to build a stylish home with low environmental impact. Chockful of information, ideas, and stunning home plans from leading home designer Alan Mascord Design Associates, the book is an invaluable resource for making home decisions for a healthy, sustainable future.

Complete with interactive CD-ROM, Efficient Living allows readers to fully envision homes in 3D, something the conceptually challenged (like me) can well appreciate. The home plans range from tiny to substantial and include an "Efficient Living Rating" that allows readers to evaluate the homes' expected performances when built with standard details. (I've already picked out my favorite.) A forward by Sarah Susanka, the guru of efficient living, just adds icing to this delicious morsel of a green-building guide. Sure to become a classic in home-building books.

This book lays out the information on green building (and living green) in an easy to read and easy to understand format. What caught my eye on this book was the foreword by Sarah Susanka, I enjoyed her books like "The Not So Big House" and "Home By Design" a great deal so I have a lot of respect for her work and opinion.

Inside this book you'll also find some great homes with great photos, I especially like the modern home plans. All of the homes in the book show that a lot of thought has gone into their design and are laid out the way most of us actually do live today, well that is if we were to build a new home, which I am planning on doing.

Thanks for putting out a book on building green that I can finally understand!

This book is absolutely beautiful. I have always loved and been fascinated by Matisse and his use of textiles and glorious colors in his paintings, and this book gives an excellent background and family history on his use of textiles and his life-long love for fabrics and design, even during times when he was experiencing creative blocks. I keep this beautiful book on my coffee table!

I thought it was a lovely book full of lovely pictures i had not seen before it gives u a real insight into this mans colourful life

Well,it isn't easy to write a review that goes cross current to the ones posted here already.
I love Matisse,and I sure do relate to his love for fabrics as a source of design inspiration.What the book leaves out is the fact that in the past,before computers, fabrics were designed first as colorful sketches.Matisse simply reversed the process to make paintings.
I guess what I dislike about this book is that there is no imaginative presentation of direct links between his collection of fabrics to his own art.
It is a very "stuffy" read.I wish I had spent my 60.00 canadian on a fabric website instead...
Sorry,folks, Yes,the book is concise,colorful, and very very "presented".I wanted something that was living and breathing between the covers...I did not find this to be inspiring, just preinterpreted, packaged and just to wrapped up in academia for my tastes,I guess.It has a "feel" like the kind of book one can buy in the museam shop,to remind one of something they saw,and was thrilled by.Now,That is a GOOD thing,I do it lots of times! But, to a graduate of an art university,it was like sitting though a lecture and slide show.But,thats the type of book it is,and it does it well.Just not what I was hoping for,Not enough Matisse as the "Material" Boy...,just alot of academia telling me how to look and think about his work.Blah.Matisse was about Imagination,not sitting on his duff hearing about it...but participating in it...

This is a marvelous resource book, especially for fiber artists and those who enjoy reading careful research into specific aspects of an artist's work. It gives detailed information about the influence of textiles on his paintings, including his use of textile techniques: actual textiles from his personal collection as sources for painting Odalisque costumes and background, combining colors, and creating cutouts.

This volume is the catalogue for a truly unusual show co-sponsored by the Royal Academy in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For once, a team of art specialists has put together a Matisse exhibition which is more than a paean to this artist's use of color and a slapped-together collection of pretty pictures. While all of the paintings on display here are quite familiar to audiences as the bulk of them have been included in every Matisse show for the past 15 years, they have been given a new context by presenting them with examples of fabrics (both decorative and dress) from Matisse's personal collection. The offspring of weavers, Matisse possessed an appreciation for pattern and textiles from his earliest years. Fabrics were some of his favorite props, necessary for him to create the orientalist, hothouse atmosphere of the 1920s "Nice period" paintings, the chic calligraphy of his 1930s work, and the simplicity and repetition of his 1940s cut-outs. While the exhibition itself was not a large one, this book has got to be one of the most beautiful catalogues the Metropolitan Museum has ever produced. The stunning design interweaves full-color images of individual textiles with "their" respective paintings...It is a fascinating experience to see the same purple striped turkish robe or peasant blouse transformed into a dazzling pattern on several different models in paintings and drawings separated by years in time. The standard of color reproduction here is exemplary - Matisse's brilliant colors literally jump off of the page and into your eyes! A necessary addition to any art library for the design and quality of illustration alone...

If you've been looking for a complete book on medieval castles, you have found the book for you. Although it touches lightly on such on such areas as medieval food, hygene, and battles, the bulk of this book is an in-depth study of castles. The writing is a bit dry, but very informative, covering fortresses from England, France, Itally, and even eastern Europe. I doubt there is much about castles unsaid in this book.

This book starts from the first few pages with an in depth study of the fortified positions of the middle ages - i.e. castles, keeps, etc. Despite a level of detail that may be too in depth for a beginner, the book itself provides a very readable style and is absolutely full of useful information (krunchy bits) for authors or others wishing to make an in depth study of medieval fortifications (ATTENTION GAMERS!). It has hundreds of high quality, albeit sometimes confusing, line art portraits that show each and every aspect of castle or its related cousins (where is #67 again - its sometimes like Where is Waldo finding the numbers referenced in the subtext). The book also has a great deal of information regarding siege techniques and the weapons used therein - and this information is fantastic in its level of detail and the included line art! The included photos are all in B&W, and some are rather grainy, but by far, they all serve the purpose they were intended to - they show the true grandeur of the castle as it was.

Within the text, the authors do have a habit of referencing other authors, which, if your looking for more on the subject, is good. However, by page 80, they have referenced at least 30 other authors and works (is that not what the bibliography is for).

Outside of this one complaint, the book is absolutely invaluable to anyone interested in the subject!

NOTE: This review references the soft-cover red front edition of the book, which I could not find the link for on Amazon (it may be an out of print edition or not, I am not sure - however, the TOC of the this edition appears identical to mine, so I am assuming that the contents have only been repackaged for the HB binding).

This is an excellent work. It would be perfect for a student
project with a focus on Middle Ages building designs. The author
provides detailed engineering specifications for castles, forts,
a motte and rising towers. The engineering statics implications
are explained in the detailed design process. The work covers
action implementalities; such as, the ram, siege and cannon.
The author spends a portion of the book explaining how
war objects were constructed during the Middle Age period.

In addition, he concludes that an increase in wall size
necessarily means weakening the overall superstructure.
Some time is spent explaining the model diet for the period
which consisted of wheat, barley, oats and fish. This work
will help readers understand the building requirements
for structures created during the Middle Ages. The book would
be valuable for historians, art buffs, architects, engineers
and a wide constituency of other readers.

It does not matter if you all ready are a "fort-geek" or some one, who just want a book on the topic: This book will for sure please you.

"The Medieval Fortress" is a nice big (app. 11" x 8.5" or 28,5 x 22 cm), 319p. book, which covers the development of fortified places through out Europe and North-Africa from the early to the late middle ages - when the forts had their glory.
The book is built up of five main chapters. The First deals with the elements of a fortification; the Second deals in general with the different kind of fortifications in different parts of Europe (Islamic, Byzantine, Frankish, British, Norse, Slavic and Magyar (Hungarian)); the Third does the same, but with emphasis on the emerging castle; the Fourth chapter introduces gunpowder and the decline of the high castle walls through the description of several sieges (Constantinople, Rhodes, and siege of fortifications during the Reconquista); Chapter Five goes in depth with some selected fortifications in Europe: Some of the more famous ones and some more obscure. The reader is guided through fortifications/castles in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Low Countries, Switzerland, Holy Roman Empire, Scandinavia, Central Europe (present day Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, and Slovenia) Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Mediterranean, Italy, Spain&Portugal, and North Africa. The appendixes gives the names of some more important builders and architects and their titles in different languages (French, Portugese, Spanish, Duch, Sweedish, and Russian), a chronology of important sieges from 623 (Constantinople) to 1529 (Vienna), a history of medival artillery and a glossary.
There are endless amounts of B/W pictures alongside with even more B/W line drawings and plans of forts, just like on the front cover of the book.

This book is a very good buy!

(Review based on First DaCapo Edition, 2001)

On the whole, I found this book to quite informative with many detailed descriptions of medieval European castles and cities. On some specific castles the data can be fairly general. I found this to be most obvious on castles that I have been fortunate enough to visit in the past and purchase a guide brochure or booklet from which I naturally compared the data.
I found the section on eastern European fortifications and their developement over the centuries to be very interesting as this was a subject I previously knew very little about.
But I do have one major 'gripe' or dissatisfaction with the book. The detailed and extensive floor plans provided throughout the book all suffer from some serious 'under labelling'. For example, a specific castle floor plan might have 20 itemised (numbered) points or features of interest on it. But when one refers to the "legend' or 'key' to find out what a certain feature is, it becomes painfully obvious that not all 20 features are actually clarified or described in the key. This is a fault that is not isolated and is unfortunately prevalent on the vast majority of floor plans in the book.
I'm not sure whether this problem is peculiar to the published edition I purchased or is in fact inherent throughout the whole published run. In any case it appears to be a large oversite in the 'quality control' department of the book's publication process. Other than these faults, I thought this book to be a good 'read'.

This was a great book for a begining Colorado gardener like myself. The majority of the book is organized by month so you can work on what needs to be done at a specific time of year. The rest has very helpful charts and how-to guides for all the basic gardening techniques referred to in the book. Also plenty of room for notes to personalize. I really loved it.

This book is a quick and easy read -- great for summertime when you want to actually be gardening, not reading! The tips are wonderful, as are the "best" and "worst" plant lists. Many people *will* appreciate the space left for writing down your own ideas or information -- for the cost of the book I personally would rather have more tips in the book itself and jot down my gardening log in a cheap notebook.

Month-To-Month Gardening Colorado is the best book I've read yet on successful gardening in Colorado. The books offers hundreds of tips on things you can be doing to create a beautiful garden. I especially love the journal provided throughout the book. By journaling facts about my own garden, the book has become my own personal gardening guide. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in successful Colorado gardening.

"Month-to-Month Gardening: Colorado" is an attractive, well-organized and helpful beginner gardening guide to Colorado. It is one of the few Colorado books that recognize gardening in the Colorado mountains is vastly different from Colorado high plains gardening. This is not an exhaustive book although the variation and the brief format of the tips makes for easy absorption. Included are helpful lists of recommended plants including lists of xeriscape plants, mountain plants, and others. Local landscapers and gardeners have contributed garden designs that help tweak the imagination. If you are starting out in Colorado gardening, this easy to use book will get you pointed in the right direction.

We were delighted with the thorough directions and monthly prompting.
The spiral binding, design drawing and colorful pictuures are a real asset.
The space for journaling will be a help in planning next year.

There's hours of amazing creative play and relaxation here! Relax your mind, stretch your imagination or use it as a meditation tool. Ruth Heller's Designs for Coloring: More Geometrics is a blast!

Buy it, you'll adore it!

Hi,..I was very pleased as always with anything that I order from Amazon,..Thanks!!!

This book has delightful designs, on single sides of the pages, allowing paint or markers if wanted. Designs are for most ages also.

We got this for our 8-year old boys and loved the designs and the stained glass effect of the colored pictures on the windows. My 10-year old boy liked them too so we went through the book in just a few months and now need to order another Ruth Heller coloring book.

I used to teach 7th grade science. I made these coloring books available to the kids to work on after finishing their class work. They LOVED them! Even the boys...

This book does a good job of doing exactly what the title says it would do. I bought this because at work our company has always lived in a Wintel World. But we acquired another company that was Linux centric and it was clear that us Windows people needed a crash course of Linux. I needed some quick exposure to Linux and a way to cut my learning curve by being able to understand how to transfer tasks in Windows over to Linux. This book shortened my learning curve because as good as the net is about giving information to us for free. Sometimes I just like curling up with a good book.

Firstly i live in a caribbean country ..there are no linux user groups ...any info yu get from linux if you find one, user you most likely have to pay for ..I successfully installed linux already but i had no clue what was going on after that ..i have reached chapter 3 in this book and if there were no more pages i already got my monies worth.This book is truly built with the linux dummy in mind ..thanks mr easttom

I hated Linux until i read this book. I haven't turned on my Windows box all month. Very clearly written and easy to read.

It is a book, explaining Linux in a simple,
clear manner. Best for a reader with some
Windows skills.

It was my old dream to learn Linux. I had heard that it
is a stable, free operation system. Having little
understanding about Linux before, I read the book,
installed Linux and now feel comfortable with it.

I found this particular book to be remarkably easy to follow, accurate, informative, and generally a great help. I am not a computer professional by trade, and my only experience has been with Windows. But like many people I have been quite frustrated with Windows and wished to try Linux. With this book I was able to install Linux and to use it to do all the things I had previously done with Windows.

This is a very good text for a beginning JSP/Servelet developer. Very clearly laid out, with copious examples, well orgranized, slanted to a novice Servlet developer. You cant go wrong with this text. Additional benefit is a chapter on how to use the NetBeans IDE.

Java can be used in countless applications and websites with very little problems from the viewer; an ideal component for a designer. The second edition of "Murach's Java Servlets and JSP" is a complete and comprehensive technical guide for those who wish to master the program and use it to its very fullest. Covering just about anything one can do with the program, and enhanced with a web address that can be accessed for further resources for programmers, "Murach's Java Servlets and JSP" is a top pick for community library collections.

This book takes you through a well structured learning journey of JSP, Servlets and related technologies such as Netbeans, Tomcat and MySQL for developing complete web apps. The book has provided me with the skill and confidence to start building my own web-app. The book finishes with a completed e-commerce example that builds on the earlier work, and gives the reader a basis for their own future development.

The book provides comprehensive details on how to set up the environment for developing and deploying web-apps, with the installation of Netbeans, MySQL, libraries etc covered in the appendices. The set up is generally a difficult part of learning a new computer concept and this book explains this very well.

The material, the downloaded code, and exercises are well integrated and provide for a comprehensive learning experience. I was able to successfully complete the vast majority of exercises readily.

I have ordered the Murach Java book as I found the JSP and Servlets book very useful.

COMPARED TO HEAD FIRST
***********************
I am a big fan of the Head First series, a series which has taught me everything I know about Java, XHTML, CSS, Design Patterns Ajax, OO Design etc. I love it. But as a novice, I found Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (SCWCD) difficult to get into. Mainly because the HF book is directed towards accreditation, and contains some curved balls to prepare for the exam that distracted me from learning.

Instead, I did the Murach book from cover to cover, and skim read the HF book (partially because I am in love with that bossy HF girl!). The HF series is more fun and engaging, but for JSP and Servlets I found the Murach approach worked best for me. While the Murach book is as as well written and presented as can be expected of a more traditional text book, it is not as interactive as the HF series. I therefore found completing the exercises in the Murach book important for engaging with the content.

Murach does a better job than HF on the MySQL and IDE side of things. HF probably covers the nuances of the Servlets more comprehensively.

I recommend both, depending on what you need.

Hi guys, if you are looking for a book that guides you step by step thru servlets and jsp's this is the book you should buy, the method that is used in this book is learn and practice, for me this kind of studying is very proactive and it is better than just reading a bunch of pages with just a final example.
So do not hesitate to buy this book, this is the only one you need.

"Working hands are better than praying lips"

The previous version of "Murach's Servlets and JSPs" was a good book, and this one is too.

The book is described for use as "Training and reference", and while books tend to be good for one purpose or the other I found this one did manage to accomplish both objectives. The information is presented in small, distinct and incremental sections, and each block of code is clear and concise. It also contains all of the important information required to get a good start developing Servlets. I also found the same layout worked well when accessing the information as a reference.

It was very amusing that the book managed to get through four whole chapters before addressing Servlets or JSPs in detail, but given that many people leap into Servlets while their other technical skills are still growing, this prelude will be valuable to many beginners. These chapters are spent introducing web programming with Java, setting up Tomcat and the Netbeans IDE, and a one chapter crash course in HTML.

All of the required topics are covered elegantly, and enough room is left over to provide the same level of coverage for the next level of knowledge such as SSL, JavaMail, connecting to databases, container managed security and even some raw HTTP.

While I would not usually consider 10 horseshoes for a programming resource, this one is less likely to be read and forgotten, and should be of use for the first few years of Servlet programming for the novice. Therefore it is easy to recommend adding this one to your bookshelf.