Advertising Books

A wonderful look into the world of advertising. Great stories about companies we all know and ads which we all remember. Entertaining whether one is in the business of advertising or simply a comsuer of those products. Thank you.

This is a wonderful, charming book about advertising in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. Wally Bregman's first hand accounts kept me glued to this book, and I couldn't stop smiling/laughing as I moved from story to story. This is a book for anyone who works in advertising, marketing and the world of business--whether you experienced the Golden Age firsthand or just starting out today. And, the wonderful thing is that a lot of great advertising was produced by dedicated people who really had their clients interests at heart. The stories in this book, in my opinion, indicate that you can have some fun making ads while making money for the advertisers who pay the bills.

I have been through a number of the most popular books on corporate storytelling, and this is by far the most useful of them. While they all contain a number of case studies, this book goes one step further and actually provides the reader with clear step-by-step guidelines on how to start using storytelling within your own organisation. Budtz, Fog and Yakaboylu evidently have a lot of real-world experience with their subject matter.

It's rare that a European book on branding is endorsed by American gurus such as Philip Kotler, Kevin Kelly and Tom Peters - even marketing guru Seth Godin calls this book "one of the very best marketing books of the year".

The strength of this book is not only its message, but in the simple way it delivers this message - through a range of anecdotes and good illustrations.

Addressing professionals working in management, sales, marketing, PR and human resources "Storyteling - Branding in Practice" is probably the first of its kind to provide a practical, hands-on set of tools for companies to apply storytelling strategically as a source to competive power.

In a few hours the book will give you insights into:
- how storytelling can be applied in a business context
- how and where to find stories about your company or brand
- how to tell these stories in a way that benefits business

I'm an independent information specialist with several ad agency clients. When I picked up this book, I'd been tearing my hair out over yet another "need it yesterday" assignment. As I read through the interviews in this book, I felt like I was chatting with old friends. It was good to know the challenges I faced were not unique, and I enjoyed reading about how other information pros handled them. I picked up some great ideas.

This book is an excellent introduction for researchers in the ad business, but I'd also recommend it for seasoned professionals. Each professional interviewed for this book had a different area of specialization, and since we can't specialize in everything, the advice and resources that these individuals provide may be helpful even to those who've been in the business for a long time.

Others books have focused on research pros who work in various fields; Super Searchers On Madison Avenue tackles those who function in the advertising and marketing world, using interviews with researchers who find and analyze information for fueling new product launches and ad campaigns. Especially intriguing are case histories showing how successful researchers made the change from traditional careers to being an online researcher.

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.

Chermayeff & Geismar is one of the world's top corporate identity consultancies. This book shows their work over many decades, and even though the "in" styles of logo design have changed greatly since the 1960s, the work shown within these pages is highly inspirational.

The quality of the designs shown for both large and small clients is a testimony to the firm's high standards. Simply stated, the book should be on every logo designer's shelf.

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar are two legendary figures in the world of corporate identity. They created many well-known designs beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the current time. This book is simple in design - mostly one logo per page - but the overall impact of the book is powerful. While the reader will recognize many of the logos shown here, he (she) will come away with the understanding that the best marks are simple. Simplicity works. I buy many design books each year. This is one that I'll treasure for a long time to come.

We came across posters that we had not seen elsewhere in this book. Great documentary for a bygone era and the prints are excellent.

The American railroads sold their services using posters but had a problem deciding what should be shown. European train posters mostly favored showing the end destination rather than the American graphic idea of showing the train. The first few posters shown in this beautiful book are a mixture of route maps, flamboyant lettering and illustrations of trains, sometimes all on the same poster, too.

Santa Fe, to my mind, really kicked off the great railroad poster by using the talented Louis Treviso and Oscar Bryn. They both produced knockout, straightforward graphic solutions, with bold colors and strong typography, clearly influenced by the leading European poster artists, Ludwig Hohlwein, Lucian Bernhard and the Beggarstaff Brothers. Into the twenties Santa Fe used Sam Hyde Harris to continue the trend in strong graphics. Southern Pacific used Maurice Logan to design equally powerful posters, page sixty-two has a stunning Logan graphic of two trains selling the Great Salt Lake.

Other artists and designers who get a good showing are Hernando Villa, who developed the memorable Indian's head for Santa Fe, Leslie Ragan for the New York Central (he has the most illustrations in the book) Sascha Maurer for the Pennsylvania Railroad and many artists who have one or two works shown. The authors combine all these creative folk and the way their output was used by the rail and ad industries up to the Fifties.

I thought the book was very well produced, though the caption typography is rather fussy, using the rather old fashioned Fig.33 and then capital directions in brackets (FACING PAGE TOP LEFT) in every case there is enough space to put the caption below each poster. The back of the book has a bibliography and index.

This is probably the best (and only) title about American railroad posters, some good work is shown in 'All Aboard' by Lynn Johnson (ISBN 0811817474) which also covers general railroad graphics. European travel posters have had plenty of coverage and I can recommend a really super book of British work, 'Railway Posters 1923-1947' by Beverly Cole and Richard Durack (ISBN 1856690148) with over two hundred illustrations in a well designed book.

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

In an even-handed examination of how mass media forms the boundaries of environmental issues, David Guantlett, with skill and clarity maneuvers through potentially difficult and theory-ladden "critical theory," incorporating a Herman/Chomsky (Manufacturing Consent) edge, examining the way television affects the way audiences frame the incredibly complicated and inter-penetrating social issues of environmental problems. Guantlett is not so much interested in whether the mass media is culpable of intensionally ignoring or avoiding environmental issues. Instead he discovers through a creative study that children audiences have internalized environmental problems and their solutions in a one-dimensional "narrative": the problem has been created by individuals and is to be then solved by individuals. So what's the problem with that? It seems clear enough that if there are environmental problems, they are nothing more that an accumulation and combination of individual lifestyle choices and subsequent actions. Right? Not so fast. Within this "individualistic" problem/solution framework, how do we account for and address instances of polluting industries that fall within government and legal regulations? Moreover, how do we address the environmentally problematic social institutions, such as the wide-spread car-centered transportation rubrics through an "individual" problem/solution framework? Is there not an equally complicit socio-political aspect to environmental issues? And why is this aspect, the environmentally comprimising social institutions, missing withing environmental news coverage? Guantlett's subltle, yet powerful analysis shows that the important "absent narrative" within television coverage of environmental issues is nothing as diabolical, cliche, or as simple as a conspiracy thoery, but rather the normal outcome of the workings of modern industial capitalism, corporate owned media, and thus an increasingly narrow ideological framework of acceptable media content. Guantlett's work is on the money - so to speak.

A worthwhile sidenote: anyone who can incorporate Horkheimer, Adorno, Marx, and Beavis and Butthead into a single chapter about mass media and society is a five-star book for that reason alone - enjoy!

In an even-handed examination of how mass media forms the boundaries of environmental issues, David Guantlett, with skill and clarity maneuvers through potentially difficult and theory-ladden "critical theory," incorporating a Herman/Chomsky (Manufacturing Consent) edge, examining the way television affects the way audiences frame the incredibly complicated and inter-penetrating social issues of environmental problems. Guantlett is not so much interested in whether the mass media is culpable of intensionally ignoring or avoiding environmental issues. Instead he discovers through a creative study that children audiences have internalized environmental problems and their solutions in a one-dimensional "narrative": the problem has been created by individuals and is to be then solved by individuals. So what's the problem with that? It seems clear enough that if there are environmental problems, they are nothing more that an accumulation and combination of individual lifestyle choices and subsequent actions. Right? Not so fast. Within this "individualistic" problem/solution framework, how do we account for and address instances of polluting industries that fall within government and legal regulations? Moreover, how do we address the environmentally problematic social institutions, such as the wide-spread car-centered transportation rubrics through an "individual" problem/solution framework? Is there not an equally complicit socio-political aspect to environmental issues? And why is this aspect, the environmentally comprimising social institutions, missing withing environmental news coverage? Guantlett's subltle, yet powerful analysis shows that the important "absent narrative" within television coverage of environmental issues is nothing as diabolical, cliche, or as simple as a conspiracy thoery, but rather the normal outcome of the workings of modern industial capitalism, corporate owned media, and thus an increasingly narrow ideological framework of acceptable media content. Guantlett's work is on the money - so to speak.

A worthwhile sidenote: anyone who can incorporate Horkheimer, Adorno, Marx, and Beavis and Butthead into a single chapter about mass media and society is a five-star book for that reason alone - enjoy!

A "got to have book" for every profesionall graphich designer. The only thing thats bad is that it's first published in 1997 and the exampels sometimes fells a litle to old, but old isn't bad so buy it now you will be more than happy.

I saw this book in a local sore, flipped through it and immediately went home to order it through amazon.com. If you have a passing interest in print or commercial art, this book is definitely for you! Full of all-color photos of great pieces of stationary, brochures, advertisements, etc. Makes a great coffee table book! If you liked Absolut Book, you'll definitely like this one as well!

The other reviews here sum up this book nicely. It is very insightful and great to read. Highly recommended.

"Uncommon Practice is the book that lets you hear about the essence of business success straight from the horse's mouth. "
Phil Dourado, Editorial Director, eCustomerServiceWorld.com

In an increasingly crowded market place, there are certain companies that really stand out from their competitors - companies like Tesco, PizzaExpress, Virgin, easyGroup, First Direct, Harley Davidson, Krispy Kreme and Pret A Manger.

This new book by Interbrand and Forum, demonstrates, through interviews with key executives from these and other leading companies, how they provide remarkable experiences for their customers and staff alike. The premise behind Uncommon Practice is that that this success stems from their distinctive cultures uniquely developed to meet the needs of customers. The companies featured have defied conventional wisdom and broken the traditional rules of management to engender exceptional levels of commitment from their people, who, united behind a clear brand vision, translate their belief in the company into exceptional customer service.

Editors Andy Milligan and Shaun Smith have taken care to let the voice of the organisation speak for itself. Uncommon Practice is not a `how to...' book, and does not provide a `quick-fix' list of invariable rules for success. The editors do however provide insight into the core principles and practices that the leading companies featured share but which are uncommon in many organisations today.

Uncommon Practice explores the creation of outstanding brand experiences delivered through people, illuminated with interviews with senior executives and front-line managers.

Critical to the success of these brands is the way they treat their own people. Open management, share ownership, training and appraisals are common benefits, but can you guess which company has an empty seat policy on the company jet, keeps a fleet of yachts, has a monthly beer bus, gives an employee the Bentley for the weekend or awards Tiffany stars? Through a series of interviews with key executives, Uncommon Practice gives an insight into how certain companies have become so successful by providing remarkable experiences for their customers and staff alike.

I'm an Architect. This whole series of books have been great. Very good reference material for current projects of all building types.

Many people are not interested in urban spaces as they are usually in love with their cars in Suburbia America. This book introduces mixed-use infill projects, high-rise structures, and larger regional planning. The pictures in the book are vivid and unique. This book assisted by the Urban Land Institute provides an excellent insight on the future of America.

Projects featured include Beijing's Plan for the 2008 Olympics, re-creation of Downtown Norfolk, and the new vivid town of Jupiter.

A great urban planner is Torti Gallas and Partners who make aesthetically appealing, practical, and tree filled projects in the Washington D.C. area and Harrison, New Jersey.