Graphic Design Books

Now THIS is a minicomic. Minicomic collections from Microcosm have largely been some seriously angsty, self-absorbed downer stuff, and Ken Dahl is exactly what I needed to reinstate my love for the genre.

Not that Ken Dahl is without deep thoughts; he only expresses them with a little more whimsy and creative juice than your cliched, heavily-inked bleakness. Dahl gets his points across with a light and humorous touch and snappy dialogue that ends up being much more incisive than many of peers.

For instance, a rant against army recruitment is a romp featuring Sarge from Beetle Bailey. A Kafka-like trip through the prison system is done through the eyes of hilariously dry alter ego Gordon Smalls. And my favorite piece, a critique on zining and "the zine scene", stars a starry-eyed fresh zinester and an Underdog-like character trying to set him straight.

From that latter strip's jaded Underdog: "The real strength of today's zine lies in its ability to make its creator seem iconoclastic, rebellious and profound... all without actually saying anything divergent, insightful, unpopular or unique!"

Ken Dahl dodges those pitfalls with a fun sense of irony, an avoidance of narcissistic tendencies, and a style that is both cartoony and cutting.

I had read some of these as mini-comics years ago but it's nice to have them all in a single handsome paperback collection. His dry "skill shares" veer from frighteningly useful ("How to Get Arrested") to hilariously useless ("I Pee In the Shower," "Put Frozen Bananas In Your Cereal"). His illustrations of Craigslist "missed connections" entries are worth the price of the book by themselves. Ken Dahl savages mindless right-wing nationalism but is also sharply introspective and self-critical -- the book includes not one but two different stories ("Eniz" and "Blind Fart") about the tail-chasing pointlessness of his own samizdat cartooning efforts. The artwork is cartoony but detailed; at times I am reminded of some of Dan Clowes' Eightball stories. In his obsessive quest to render disgusting people in as repulsive a manner as possible (see "M4W" for a prime example) Dahl reminds me of Jack Chick. I only wish this collection had included some of his political cartoons from the Honolulu Weekly.

I first fell in love with the art of Wendell Minor while I was reading books by the children's nature writer Jean Craighead George. Spectacular watercolor art added a new dimension to Ms. George's stories about the Arctic (like ARCTIC SON and SNOW BEAR), the Everglades (EVERGLADES), great horned owls (THE MOON OF THE OWLS), and wildlife throughout the country (MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT). In each new book that I read, the colors were rich and the illustrations accurately portrayed the worlds which the author was describing. Then, as I came to recognize Minor's distinct, one-of-a-kind type of art, his work suddenly began to show up everywhere, in innumberable picture books and emblazoned on book covers. Now many of the book jackets in the bookstores and libraries don't seem as if they're scattered around in disorginization, out of view because the spines are facing outward on the shelves, or hard to find because the book might have gone out-of-print. That's because, to my relief and delight, there's a whole book of Wendell Minor's book jackets that have been compiled over the past twenty-five years. ART FOR THE WRITTEN WORD contains more than 100 of Minor's astounding watercolor, acrylic, and oil paintings. His distinguished work has appeared on a wide range of novels--fiction, nonfiction, biographies, thrillers, humor, cookbooks, natural history--many of them well-known stories by some bestselling authors. The artwork is reproduced in full-color on the oversized pages. There are pictures of famous people, houses, landscapes, wildlife, midwestern farms, towns, cities, wide open skies, automobiles, and scenes from the stories behind the covers. All of them are carefully rendered, detailed and thoughtful. You can look at a painting many times and each time notice something new. Along with the gallery of artwork, there's plenty of commentary from the people who wrote the stories that lie between the covers. Most of the authors' comments are filled with admiration and gratitude that the literature they spent so much time creating wasn't marred by an ugly or false jacket illustration. Some of the authors whose book covers are featured include David McCullough (who writes an excellent introduction), Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, Garrison Keillor, Sherman Alexie, Mildred D. Taylor, Eve Bunting, Mary Higgins Clark, Pat Conroy, Toni Morrison, Patricia MacLachlan, Martin Cruz Smith, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and countless others. They all basically agree that they were proud and thankful that Wendell Minor did the covers for their books; he read the stories and researched his topics before making the illustrations and contributed to the success of their books. Many of them have added his jacket art to their private collections, sworn never to discard a Wendell Minor book jacket, and shown off their "most prized possessions" to friends and family. Some comments are just gushing with elation, like two letters, placed 17 years apart, from John Jerome, who was obviously delighted that Minor so accurately depicted the blue pick-up truck for his book TRUCK. Garrison Keillor lends his kind of "Prairie Home Companion" lightness to his story of the covers for his books WE ARE STILL MARRIED and WLT: A RADIO ROMANCE. Some illustrations--like the ones for Nancy Price's SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY and C.J. Koch's THE DOUBLEMAN--seem to have almost subliminal meanings. WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? and Brooks Stanwood's THE SEVENTH CHILD are quite frightening, while W.P. Kinsella's THE DIXON CORNBELT LEAGUE and Bill Bryson's THE LOST CONTINENT are breezy and pleasant. The varieties are endless; for example, the illustration for Timothy Findley's HEADHUNTER is completely different from Jim Shepard's PAPER DOLL. But, in my opinion, the illustrations that really stand out are the landscapes, which Minor always embraces in his picture books and in the book covers for Laura Kalpakian's THESE LATTER DAYS, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, and countless others. You can tell just by looking at any one of his big skies, rolling ocean, or blue mountain pictures that Wendell Minor is someone who has a passion for America's great lands, from Alaska to Florida. In each painting you feel like you're there, either watching a mockingbird fly from a tree, as a sliver of moon rises, like you're hearing the cicadas buzzing on a hot southern night, as in Harper Lee's classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Or you're racing through the woods on a snowy winter night with a red fox, as in Eve Bunting's children's book RED FOX RUNNING. And if you're not there, you'll certainly want to be. It's a wonderful feeling to look at a painting like that that is so real, so familiar, so close. In the end, the only wrong thing I can see in this book is that there is not another one like it; there are dozens of book covers that weren't included in this collection, and there are still more coming out every month it seems! Still, as I've said earlier, part of the excitement of seeing a Wendell Minor cover is the surprise and the immediate recognization of his unique style when you're browsing through a bookstore or a library. It is my hope that someday I might write a book with a Wendell Minor cover to enliven its face.

I first fell in love with the art of Wendell Minor while I was reading books by the children's nature writer Jean Craighead George. Spectacular watercolor art added a new dimension to Ms. George's stories about the Arctic (like ARCTIC SON and SNOW BEAR), the Everglades (EVERGLADES), great horned owls (THE MOON OF THE OWLS), and wildlife throughout the country (MORNING, NOON, AND NIGHT). In each new book that I read, the colors were rich and the illustrations accurately portrayed the worlds which the author was describing. Then, as I came to recognize Minor's distinct, one-of-a-kind type of art, his work suddenly began to show up everywhere, in innumberable picture books and emblazoned on book covers. Now many of the book jackets in the bookstores and libraries don't seem as if they're scattered around in disorginization, out of view because the spines are facing outward on the shelves, or hard to find because the book might have gone out-of-print. That's because, to my relief and delight, there's a whole book of Wendell Minor's book jackets that have been compiled over the past twenty-five years. ART FOR THE WRITTEN WORD contains more than 100 of Minor's astounding watercolor, acrylic, and oil paintings. His distinguished work has appeared on a wide range of novels--fiction, nonfiction, biographies, thrillers, humor, cookbooks, natural history--many of them well-known stories by some bestselling authors. The artwork is reproduced in full-color on the oversized pages. There are pictures of famous people, houses, landscapes, wildlife, midwestern farms, towns, cities, wide open skies, automobiles, and scenes from the stories behind the covers. All of them are carefully rendered, detailed and thoughtful. You can look at a painting many times and each time notice something new. Along with the gallery of artwork, there's plenty of commentary from the people who wrote the stories that lie between the covers. Most of the authors' comments are filled with admiration and gratitude that the literature they spent so much time creating wasn't marred by an ugly or false jacket illustration. Some of the authors whose book covers are featured include David McCullough (who writes an excellent introduction), Ray Bradbury, Harper Lee, Garrison Keillor, Sherman Alexie, Mildred D. Taylor, Eve Bunting, Mary Higgins Clark, Pat Conroy, Toni Morrison, Patricia MacLachlan, Martin Cruz Smith, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and countless others. They all basically agree that they were proud and thankful that Wendell Minor did the covers for their books; he read the stories and researched his topics before making the illustrations and contributed to the success of their books. Many of them have added his jacket art to their private collections, sworn never to discard a Wendell Minor book jacket, and shown off their "most prized possessions" to friends and family. Some comments are just gushing with elation, like two letters, placed 17 years apart, from John Jerome, who was obviously delighted that Minor so accurately depicted the blue pick-up truck for his book TRUCK. Garrison Keillor lends his kind of "Prairie Home Companion" lightness to his story of the covers for his books WE ARE STILL MARRIED and WLT: A RADIO ROMANCE. Some illustrations--like the ones for Nancy Price's SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY and C.J. Koch's THE DOUBLEMAN--seem to have almost subliminal meanings. WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN? and Brooks Stanwood's THE SEVENTH CHILD are quite frightening, while W.P. Kinsella's THE DIXON CORNBELT LEAGUE and Bill Bryson's THE LOST CONTINENT are breezy and pleasant. The varieties are endless; for example, the illustration for Timothy Findley's HEADHUNTER is completely different from Jim Shepard's PAPER DOLL. But, in my opinion, the illustrations that really stand out are the landscapes, which Minor always embraces in his picture books and in the book covers for Laura Kalpakian's THESE LATTER DAYS, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, and countless others. You can tell just by looking at any one of his big skies, rolling ocean, or blue mountain pictures that Wendell Minor is someone who has a passion for America's great lands, from Alaska to Florida. In each painting you feel like you're there, either watching a mockingbird fly from a tree, as a sliver of moon rises, like you're hearing the cicadas buzzing on a hot southern night, as in Harper Lee's classic TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Or you're racing through the woods on a snowy winter night with a red fox, as in Eve Bunting's children's book RED FOX RUNNING. And if you're not there, you'll certainly want to be. It's a wonderful feeling to look at a painting like that that is so real, so familiar, so close. In the end, the only wrong thing I can see in this book is that there is not another one like it; there are dozens of book covers that weren't included in this collection, and there are still more coming out every month it seems! Still, as I've said earlier, part of the excitement of seeing a Wendell Minor cover is the surprise and the immediate recognization of his unique style when you're browsing through a bookstore or a library. It is my hope that someday I might write a book with a Wendell Minor cover to enliven its face.

Basically what this book is about is creating an advertising solution to fit your web business' needs. Not only does it give you the pro's and con's of different web-based techniques, but gives some nice examples. The book is easy reading with a lot of graphics to reinforce the text and is nicely laid out. I came up a solution for my site in less than a half hour. At the reduce price offered by Amazon, this book was well worth the buy.

Online advertising has become an important part of any company's overall marketing strategy. Only a few years ago the main form of online advertising was the static banner ad. The author, Richard Adams, explains why this old form of web advertising failed and how it has evolved into the interactive, cross platform and multi-media rich marketing that we see on the web today.

He begins by examining what was wrong with the old style banner ads and why these intrusive ads resulted in banner blindness. Then he discusses how online advertising has improved and the various types of web advertising available today such as multi-media banner designs, HTML email and micro sites.

Taking a closer look at today's online advertising, he explains all of the new design features including animation, sound, DHTML, Flash, interactive games and video which are designed to grab the viewers attention and compel them to click thru to the website. Then he covers the various software and programming needed to create these multi-media ads. He examines the creation process and the design decisions necessary for a successful advertisement. As with everything on the web, there must be a balance between an advertisement that says WOW and the constraints characteristic to the web such as development costs, bandwidth and other technical limitations of the media.

The author also discusses the importance of creating online advertisements that reach the correct audience. He explains the various aspects of target marketing such as market research, affiliate programs, smart ads and branded content.

Adams has compiled a showcase of the best advertisements on the web which demonstrate the ideas presented throughout the book.

Richard Adams is an educator, speaker, researcher and advertising consultant specializing in interactive media. He lives in Weybridge, Surrey, England.

... To my surprise I found the book very well laid out and ultra-conducive to high speed learning. To document my effort (and to have fodder for my lawsuit) I videotaped my Flash 5 session. After 7 minutes I began to think that this book really does deliver. At 9 minutes and 47 seconds I threw my hands up in the air and said "Its true, this book is amazing, I can learn this stuff in 10 minutes."...

I use to hate post modern art and the idea of appropriation until i discovered that one could take what already existed and create a completely new work of art from it. Greenaway is a genious of such, and his exhibits in Europe prove it, as do this book. This book is a fine example of the next step in photographic arts via the computer age using manipulation. A must for the visually aware of art and photo.

On the back of the book:

"111 posters is a retrospective collection of the graphic designer Gabor Palotai's poster art. 111 statements of his powerful graphic design. 111 documents of everyday life."

Yes, there are 111 posters in the book. Each is a display of confident graphic design. The designer uses only very simple design elements such as typography, colours, texture and symbols to create eye catching poster art. Printed on high quality matte paper, the colours of the posters are vivid and strong.

It's minimalism as its best.

You can view more of Gabor Palotai's work at his website. He has an online portfolio.

I've been looking for motifs to use in polymer and metal clays for jewelry, and this book has a stunning collection of faces. It also has several wonderful Hiroshigi's and Hokusai's (particularly and ocean wave I'm fond of). While I'm not sure that the designs will work out as transfers, the book is still enjoyable. I found several artists about whose work I was previously ignorant. Something new to contemplate.

Inspirational. Covers a wide range of subjects in detail not found easily else where. For example, as well as discussing techniques, tools and materials used in each area, details are also given for suppliers of many of the materials mentioned. Most chapters have colour photo step-by-step demonstations of the basic techniques under discussion and each chapter is also accompanied by fabulous photos of various illustrators work in the subject area. There is also an extremely helpful chapter on photographing your "illustration/artwork".

I particularly enjoyed the chapters on paper and fabric, and in regard to the fabric info, would recommend this book to cloth doll makers. There are many useful hints, wonderful photos AND a demo of Lisa Lichtenfels "creation" process of her Bette Midler piece. Ellen Rixford also discusses and demo's her techniques, which are equally exciting.

Although my interests lie with fabrics, I thoroughly enjoyed this book as a whole, and would now have a go at a number of the other techniques detailed. With the fantastic colour photos through out the book, I still re-read this book regularly, if not for inspiration, just for pure enjoyment!!

A great buy! One of those book you will always keep!

As a big t-shirt lover, I picked up this book a couple weeks ago. The content features an impressive range of international shirt design and shirt designers. Nice mix of high-end graphic work, conceptual/arty stuff, etc.

Book is very well designed, also. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves t-shirts or just contemporary design in general. (The first two in this series, 100% Cotton and 200% Cotton, are worthy pick-ups, also.)

365
Talking about book design. Standing tall and white, the new 23rd AIGA 365 Design Annual expresses my thoughts, and I applaud it for its cover design. The centered title "The Twenty-third Annual of the American Institute of Graphic Arts" is printed on a thin uncoated paper that wraps around the front and back cover. On the front cover the number "365" is printed in black and barely shines through the wrapper appearing as a ghost underneath the title. To me it suggests the 365 days that will sink into oblivion and that, as with everything past, we will have to wait patiently for those moments of re-emerging experiences. Good design happens in us.