Graphic Design Books

An interesting and well-designed catalog of an emergent art form. I still consider most "Street Art" to be just a notch above blight and usually an eyesore, but this book revealed an imaginative world of design and artistic improvisation. Too bad Banksy's too much the recluse to be profiled here, but his absence is made up for by the wide survey of international "stars." Now I've caught myself paying more attention to the visual "noise" around me, looking for sly creative expressions. Too bad most of the graffiti, scratchiti, and tagging I see is still craptacular, and nowhere near as the intriguing as what's shown off in this book.

Graffiti has its poster board roots on city walls, typically - but this worldwide survey documents a new trend: paper works glued to city surfaces. The author is a graffiti artist who traveled around the world surveying street art: some eighty artists' works are profiled in over 7,000 examples of this new 'paper art graffiti, providing both a historical survey and insights into the special demands of the new 'adhesive art' medium. Any art library holding will find this an excellent and unique acquisition.

show simbole and best of phot

show simbole and best of phot

When I first started animating, there were no books on stopmotion, only books on 2-D cartooning and filmmaking. Even so, they were dated.

Since then, a few books about the craft came out, but this is the only book I've ever read that was written from the point of view of a professional stopmotion animator that covers the "why" more than the "how" aspect of putting a soul into a puppet and making it move in a way that removes all doubt in the viewer that it is, in fact, alive.

I found the book to be inspiring and so full of useful information, that I've had it for more than a week already and still haven't finished reading it.

A must-buy for anyone who is making their own stopmotion-animated film.

I've got pretty much all the stopmotion books in print, and this one is really something else entirely. It's not a text, not a beginner's lesson book and not just an appreciation for the art form (and, as Mr. Purves proves, it really IS an artform). Rather it's a very passionate reflection on the creative process of making stopmotion, and on the larger aspects of creativity in general. Barry is one of the best among animators.... and has frequently been writer and director of his own films, resulting in some of the most startling and original animation to date (such as his brilliant Achilles or my favorite Rigoletto). He expounds with great articulateness and intelligence on the strengths and weaknesses of the various forms of animation, revealing his obvious love for stopmotion above all the rest. And as he does, he reveals truths about animation that you had always felt but couldn't quite put into words.

He also shares a wealth of his own hard-earned tips and techniques, some about animating, but more on the art of storytelling and on how best to utilize the special properties that stopmotion alone has. It's not a book about "how to animate" but rather Why.... and he stresses the importance of playing to the particular strengths of our quirky art. If it can be done in live action or CGI or drawn animation, then why use stopmo? As many, he feels the sheer potential of stopmotion has only begun to be tapped, and he expounds at great length on how that might be done. And reading his words, it's difficult not to feel the same inspiration he obviously does.

Every animator should read this book.... even if you're just scooting Lego figures across the bedroom floor in front of your webcam (unless that's the extent of your ambition). He really illuminates the magic of stopmotion, what it does best and what it shouldn't be made to do. I just finished reading it for the first time, and I'm about to begin again.....

I've been a huge fan of Sparth's work for years and have awaited the arrival of this book for almost as long. Sparth's work is warm and highly creative and his influence over a generation of digital fantasy artists is only beginning to be seen as his style is frequently imitated. It's certainly a great book and a must-own, especially for a concept art book at this price.

My only disappointment is is the format size (which is why I still give this 5 stars, as I don't think this is the fault of the artist). These works deserve a much larger format than the medium/smallish 9 x 9 inches. Also, and this probably has more to do with who owns the image licenses than anything, there is a bit of "sameness", a slight lack of variety, about some of the work that's not apparent when viewing his website.

Still, a great book by any standard and an essential addition to any fantasy/sci-fi/art lover's book collection.

Sparth brings a humanity to concept art and design. At this price, everyone interested in Movie and Games production should have this densely creative book in their library. The french designers are poignantly different from american designers, a gap which I appreciate and honor.

The work shown in this volume is mostly painted environments and vehicles. A couple pages of charcoal sketches and some plein-air digital work. It also has a good amount of robots and characters.

This book is a masterpiece in both design and content. It is timely and applicable to all designers, but especially those studying in a university and/or art school environment. Each spread is a gem as is the cover. All aspects of the book are visually intriguing and the book teaches visually about good design while the content combines the need for quality design to be integrated with environmental ethics. It is a must read for all designers, or those who hope to enlist in the field in the years ahead. I will be recommending it to all of my students.

very important book on a crucial topic. while this is a very worthwhile contribution to any library, it is essential reading for anyone in the field of design or advertising.

This book is head and shoulders above the Eissenberg book (O'Reilly). Kurt Cagle is a serious developer, and the book shows it, with advanced examples that explore all aspects of programming. It would have been nice to have a .zip file that had all the examples in it, but that's a minor nit.

Finally an SVG Bible for the Web. I have worked with SVG for just under 2 years and had to learn SVG from the W3C documents and lots of "experiments". I have only reviewed half of this book so far and found a wealth of knowledge on using SVG on the Web. It's examples are solid and well organized.

This book can be used by the novice and the experienced to add the coolest vector graphics to their Website. This book is well balanced for all levels. It has earned a well respected slot next to my computer...

I love this book for two reasons. First, I get to expose my children to literature from a culture they have never experienced. This book gives me an opportunitiy to teach them cultural awareness and tolerance at a very early age. Second, I get to expose them to universal life lessons and teach them how these lessons bind all of mankind. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Chidebelu-Eze is uncompromisingly overt in his quest to teach. The lessons are clear, fun, and understandable to even the youngest children. My 3-year-old loves them. Children's books are full of opportunities to teach children letters, numbers, colors, shapes, animals, and such. Shouldn't we add moral lessons to this list as early as possible? This book can make that happen.

This is an excellent book written for children that teaches key Christian principles that they can apply to every day life. The illustrations are great and stories I'm sure your kids will always remember. I look forward to seeing more publications from the author.

As a student who is interested in pursuing illustration, this book is a golden gem for it is a rather thorough journey that is fun to dive into. While many other books similiar to this would simply showcase all the artists' body of work, this book reveals the creative struggle that James McMullan went through with each poster to create an image that met his client's needs. Reference photographs of his models and early color and pencil studies depict the story that is accompanied with each poster that describes McMullan's process. Sometimes an early draft of one of his posters didn't hit the nail with the director of the play: the character depicted in the image needed to look older and more angry, less naive. Whatever the case, McMullan would have to go back and rework. And in some cases, he might even start over with an entirely new idea and take a different road with the poster. With each poster, there's a different story, a different process, a different challenge. And none of the posters that are shown in here have been neglected for the book reveals it all. Above all, I appreciate James McMullan's conceptual talent with his posters that manage to create an image that defines the play as a whole. With this book, it is a pleasure to find the process behind these posters as well as being able to gaze upon their beauty.

Rarely is one able to glimpse into the world of a well-known illustrator. But, in this book, the illustrator James McMullan, takes us into his studio and explains just how he has created the 36 posters, over a 30 year period, for New York City's Lincoln Center. The full-page reproductions of McMullan's posters combined with his lucid prose makes this a beautiful and highly engrossing book. When I went to buy McMullan's book the bookstore clerk said, "this is the most gorgeous book in the store." Indeed, he was right.

I can see resemblence between sagmeister's "made you look" and Kim Hiorthoy's book. Both are reveiling the designer behind the design, but while sagmeister's book is briliant and explosive this book is sensitive and delicate. Beautifull imagery combined with very personal,lyrical text reveal a very talented and highly inteligent designer. I wish i bought this book sooner.

For music-heads Norwegian Kim Hiorthøy is probably best known for the cover design for the Rune Grammofon label and videos and covers for the Motorpsycho band. "Tree Weekend" is a beautiful full-colour book with photos, sketches and other graphics. Playful and highly personal indeed. Recommended.

In the early eighties Aaron Burns, boss of the International Typeface Corporation suggested to Ed Gottschall the idea for this book. It was published in 1989 which will give you an idea of how long this monumental type study took to produce. To sum up twentieth century typography in one book would seem a project too far but I think Ed Gottschall has succeeded. He has managed to capture the typographic feel of Europe in the early years of the last century and then brought it up to date (least to the mid-eighties) with typography in America, Europe and the Far East. Incidentally the early years include the inputs of European fine arts and the Bauhaus.

The book is actually in three parts, the history of typographic design to Seventies then there is a long section dealing with actual typefaces and the beginnings of computer setting followed by the final section on typographic design from 1970. It is basically a visual book, handsomely designed by Mo Lebowitz, with hundreds of color and black and white illustrations. I think it is worth saying that this is not a design problem solving book in the practical sense but a stimulating history of type and how designers used letterforms to communicate ideas.

If you work in the creative design areas of print this book will certainly interest you. Incidentally it's worth searching around the web for some inexpensive copies of the book.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This book is a hodge-podge of graphic arts and typography. It has little bit of everything: modern and historical examples of the uses of typefaces in advertising, business and the graphic arts. It is published by the International Typeface Corporation and is printed on a very dense glossy paper by Nai Nippon Printing Co. Japan. The quality of the printing is suberb; the colors and details are stunning. It is expensive and worth every cent.