Designers Books

This is an excellent book detailing Bill Peet's life from a small town in Indiana to becoming an award-winning children's book writer/illustrator.

I am a children's librarian and I am often perusing our collection for items that look interesting. I recently discovered an extremely old copy of "Capyboppy" by Bill Peet and absolutely loved it! As a result, I decided to look for other titles and realized we had his illustrated autobiography. His drawings are heartfelt and comforting and his (seemingly) effortless talent is stunning. His description of various parts of his life are engaging and I believe that children and adults will enjoy the book equally. I can't recommend this book enough.

Bill Pete started out as a daydreaming, doodling boy, and made it all the way to Walt Disney! Bill was born in Grandview and was raised in Indianapolis. He lived happily with his Mother, two brothers, and grandmother. His father was a traveling salesman, and didn't really come into his life until later. Ever since Bill was young, he loved to draw. During class, he would doodle in between the margins, and his books were a big favorite amongst the other kids when he sold them as second-hand. His childhood was fun filled, and he had some big hopes and dreams. First of all, he wanted to go on a safari and sketch the animals, but most of all, he wanted to be an artist. One day, in the summer of 1928, Bill's father returned "home" broke, travel weary, and demanding money. After arguing for many days, Bills mother gave in and paid his father. With that, his father drove away. Not long after that, Bill's grandmother tragically died, which put the family in complete shambles. They had to move, and everything changed. The Great Depression started, and Bills father kept taking money, so he kept them poor. Bill went through school well as a student, graduated, and went to college. That was when the work became harder. Bill was facing flunking some of his classes. One night, he ran into an old friend from school, and was persuaded to start taking some arts classes. Bill began painting, and it is there that he met his beautiful wife Margaret Brunst with which he eventually had two sons. He graduated with flying colors, and took a job as a painter. Finally, he realized he didn't have a steady income, and applied for Walt Disney Productions. He became a good friend of Walt Disney himself! Bill helped create many classics starting with Snow White, and going all the way to Jungle book. As time went by, Bill decided that after 27 years, it was time to leave. Bill had become attached to the company and his job, but mostly Walt. It was hard to say "good bye." About one year later, Walt Disney died. Bill went on to writing stories and illustrating them for children of all ages. They all relate to him in one way or another, but the one that felt the most connected to him was "Chester the Worldly Pig". Chester was who he was, and he had always been so. And like Chester, Pete "had grown beyond his expectations."

I can see myself in Pete sometimes. He never gave up and kept dreaming and kept his spirit alive. He has an easy flow to his writing that makes you feel relaxed and know that you're in for one heck of a good story. I loved his book for the truth that it told, and for the wonder that makes up Bill Pete. Keep dreaming, if you strive, you can reach the stars and soar beyond.

The book that introduced me to Bill Peet as a child and helped in inspiring me to push my art and chase my dreams. A must have for any lover of original Disney art or aspiring artist.

I nevertheless found it quite fascinating and engrossing.

Peet is a self-professed reluctant student, especially of English classes, but he is nonetheless quite the good writer. Peet's illustrations add a lot to the pace and feel of the book and are a joy in their own right. His stories of life in Indianapolis before World War II will be interesting to any native Hoosier (as am I).

However, the most interesting part details his jobs at Walt Disney studios. His descriptions of how they made movies in the old days as well as the insider's look at Walt Disney himself are fascinating. Peet worked on several Disney movies, including Pinnochio, Fantasia, Cinderella (he created the lovable mice) and the original 101 Dalmations.

Peet brushes over his life after he left Disney a little too quickly. I would have liked to have read his descriptions of life in the publishing world as well. Also lacking is much history of his family life.

That being said, it was still fascinating, entertaining and totally worth the reader's time.

I give this one a grade of A-

Pastore's book on turn of the century world class yachting is a window into another time. For armchair mariners he provides just enough nautical jargon to allow one to come away feeling more knowledgeable, without overloading the reader. His biographical portraits of the designer Nathaniel Herreshoff and the tea and grocer magnate Thomas Lipton are fascinating. And if nothing else the author deftly transmits the awesome scale of the America's Cup defenders and challengers to the written page. I'd highly recommend this book. It's an excellent read.

For serious sailors and lovers of history, this book is a wonderful stroll through one of the most dramatic periods in the history of America's Cup competition. Christopher Pastore's conversational style and meticulous research give us three dimensional portraits of both "Captain Nat" Herreschoft and his arch rival, perennial British America's Cup challenger, Sir Thomas Lipton. It's easy for experienced sailors who write works such as this to forget that the sailing lexicon can seem like a foreign language to those who don't "...mess about in boats..." However, Mr. Pastore takes time to define the complex terminology of the yachting world. This is the book that will help northern sailors get through the long winter months and help non-sailors to appreciate the complexity of mounting a challenge and defense to the longest continually run sporting event in history.

Mr. Pastore writes with a style that both informs and draws you in. The race sequences play out with drama and tension. I loved this book, and recommend it to anyone interested in maritime history, racing, shipbuilding, or early 20th century history.

I found the depth of the character studies especially entertaining, and I finished it feeling like I personally knew Messr's Herreshoff, Barr, and Lipton.

Growing up in RI made this book a very special read. Passing the museum on a daily basis, but never knowing the story behind the ships and their designers always made me feel like I was slacking in my duties. The book answered every question I could have had from a personal and engineering standpoint. If you are an engineer or enjoy Non-fiction, defintiely pick up Temple to the Wind.

Pastore takes you on a journey through history and makes Herreshoff come alive. This book is an amazing account of Herreshoff's travails while designing Reliance. I am basically a sailor wanna-be and was delighted to feel much closer to the excitement of the yachting world years ago- when the stakes were very high. Pastore's devotion to the subject is evident and his enthusiasm for the race is contagious! Truly a great read.

I read this book in two days, dropping everything. I could relate to Yvette on so many levels, growing up in Southern California and being stuck in a dream about life and love on the heels of deep personal loss. This is a beautiful story in its hunger for an eternal love that cannot be in the way Yvette dreams it, but is there in the way it can be.

This story is as much about love as it is growing up and through it all I felt like Yvette is a friend. She reminds me so much of a best friend of mine who dated these larger than life men and found herself lonelier for it. But here Yvette is bigger than my friend for she sees the good in what she has with this man and gets past the pain and triumphs as a woman and an artist.

I was intoxicated by DeLaune's language and rhythm from the first page. Her characters kept me company to a beach resort last May. And when I got back to LA --- I was longing for them. Memorable!!!

This is a book written by a woman, about a woman, with a woman's occasionally grimace-inducing candor, but sorry, I don't see it as a "woman's book." (And what's with "chick lit"? Is it just me or does that phrase seem downright condescending?). This is simply a GOOD BOOK, a great story with a compelling lead character, a detailed sense of time and place, a smart way with words and attitudes, and a deeply compassionate view of...people, male and female. I don't know why men don't seem to read or like books like this; maybe because most men don't know about mercy-f**ks or compulsive caretaking or needing to be the good-girl or struggling to find your way in a world that uses words like "whiny" and "weepy" when talking about women's emotions, but whatever it is, men are missing out. This book is a heartfelt, passionate and bone-achingly truthful story, one that many, many women will identify with and men might find enlightening. Yvette is an arty, brave, and very human Every-Girl, with deeply felt flaws and oh-so-errant ways, but her slightly bent and very real journey is one we want to follow because...well, she's slightly bent and very real! Yay! No feminist proselytizing, no man bashing, no weepy, whiny carrying on, just a girl makin' jewelry, looking for love, and trying to get it right. So despite her personal chaos and dubious decision-making, we like her! She inspires us and makes us want to take her out for coffee. Ms. Michel has written a character we never fail to feel tenderly toward; a women who falls down many of the same flights of stairs others have known and hated, but who does so with such authenticity, we can't help but wish her well and hope for the best along with her. I closed this book feeling deeply satisfied, delighted that I had just read something chewy and worthy and clever and funny and touching and insightful. Congratulations, Ms. Michel...write on.

a beautifully written story that takes you through all the emotions. i was surprised to find myself enthralled by the main character and her experiences but quickly realized it was all due to Ms Michel's amazing way with words. i look forward to her next novel with baited breath.

The book pulls you in right away and you find yourself engrossed, unable to stop reading so you can find out what happens next. It is vivid, funny, and poignant as it details issues we all can relate to - growing up, letting go, and finding our path in an active way.

I have so far read 3 books out of the series and this is definitely my favorite! The author, Ellen, ties in a great story of the past with one of the present that is also related to our heroine, Lacey Smithsonian. The series is fun with romance and keeps you interested throughout the whole book. Ellen Byerrum always tells a great mystery story and she delivers over-the-top in this great read!

Lacy Smithsonian is on a roll. I can't put the book down. I continue to look forward to finding out who the villain is in these stories. I am pleased these books are not predictable and they keep you guessing. Ellen Byerrum has a great writing style that is relatable to many different types of women.

I debated between 4 and 5 stars, but really, I can't think of anything to complain about in "Designer Knockoff", so 5 stars it is. Lacey Smithsonian is an appealing heroine and the supporting characters are interesting and nicely developed (though characters introduced in the first book in the series don't get a re-hash, so it may not feel as if they are developed if you didn't read book one). The plot is good, not too unbelievable, and Lacey's world comes across as real and appealing with humor generously sprinkled in. The writing is good, no weak editing that could throw the reader off stride. Lacey seems like a happy, well-adjusted woman, not overly neurotic and she doesn't do things that you have to suspend disbelief to accept as a natural part of her life and the story. Highly recommended for an entertaining read.

The story is pretty well written, the characters are intelligent and sassy.

This is a fun light read. Definitly worth a few hours of your time if you like light mysteries.

I really enjoyed the first book, and found the second book, "Designer Knockoff" to be a great follow up.

The plot this time revolves around Hugh "the Bastard" Bentley, America's premiere fashion designer who is pushing for a Fashion Museum with some funding from Congress. Throw in an ambitious, missing Congressional Intern with dreams of being the next "Bentley Girl" model and you have an intriguing mystery with contemporary overtones.

Added to the mix is a "Bentley" original from Lacey's Aunt Mimi's trunk, which also yields dress patterns and designs from Aunt Mimi's friend, Gloria, who worked for Bentley during WWII, but disappeared suddenly and mysteriously. Lacey becomes curious about her Aunt Mimi's relationship with Hugh Bentley, especially why her Aunt started calling him, Hugh "the Bastard" Bentley.

While pursuing a story about a robbery at one of the Bentley stores to help Stella's friend, Miguel, Lacey's starts finding clues to the missing Intern and begins to uncover the Bentley family's dirty little secrets.

The mystery ends with Lacey showing up in one of Gloria's designs at the ball for the Bentley Fashion museum, where in a dramatic showdown she learns who really designed the first Bentley couture line. Lacey having caught the Interns killer, uncovers what happen to Aunt Mimi's friend Gloria, with the help of Bentley's nephew.

This novel introduces another man to compete for Lacey's affection, Jeffrey Bentley Holmes, Hugh Bentley's nephew. An interesting man, who is coming to grips with being a member of a powerful family that has no conscious, while he has a strong one. Tony, Lacey's co-worker, hovers pleasently in the background as another potential suitor. Vic Donovan still dominates the scene with Lacey, despite not being the most considerate of males.

Another enjoyable aspect of the series is the further development of the supporting characters. It is Stella who introduces Lacey to Miguel. Lacey's friend and conspiracy theory junkie, Brooke, finds romance with Damon, who runs the DeadFed website. Damon introduces Lacey to TurtleDove, a security agent. Turtledove helps move precious Aunt Mimi's trunk out of her apartment, when Lacey realizes someone will kill to get to the letters and patterns from Gloria it contains.

Justice is not served in the end, since the Bentley's are rich and powerful enough to prevent that, which unfortunately is a reality in most real life cases involving people in their position.

Another great and enjoyable read. This is a fun series.

The author, a passionate practitioner of the teaching arts in an inner-city classroom, has, amidst the ruins of print-based culture, rediscovered how to connect with the the fullest possible range of a would-be reader's senses. This is all the more timely, given what the rising generation internalizes as the normal way of information-processing. A. Bartlett Giamatti spotted the trend in the 1980s, and noted in "Take Time for Paradise," his ode to baseball, that the young were even them mentally imaging things as if on a screen - that their experiences with computers and video games dramatically altered their basic preception of knowledge transmission. (My son made the same observation - he learns more from the Discovery and History Channels than from text.)
Beyond that, the written word is not even what it once was: the plague of Newspeak-style bland language has all but extinguished the supple verve of good English prose in everyday usage. Business, newspapers, and textbooks, among other venues, are in the thrall of dumbed-down, disposable writing of a most forgettable kind. (Example: Compare a King James Bible with the New International Version, and try to find one memorable phrase in the latter that is not a leftover from the former.)
Ms. Kirschenbaum passionately wants to rescue our culture from irrelevance in the eyes of her students. Despite what she reports as indifference from academics more interested in pedigree than in the power of ideas, she gathered the panoramic sweep of how non-Gutenbergian cultures transmitted information - in vivid color, shaped in every way imaginable, as opposed to block text, with assistance from everything that two-dimensional art can offer to stimulate the brain (she discusses the science of that, too) to be receptive to the meaning conveyed by the author.
Ms. Kirchenbaum re-discovered the importance of color. In doing so, she stands in the center of a long tradition, sidetracked by the limitations of Gutenberg's printing press, but not entirely forgotten. The author is probably correct in thinking that black-on-white block text held sway for as long as it did because of the near-monopoly that it had in conveying printed information. The advent of multi-media and desktop publishing means that A.) Old-style text is not the only game in town, and B.) One must ask how anyone used to high levels of stimulation via television, the Internet, etc., can otherwise be induced to use unexercised imagination to make reading attractive.
The book is sprinkled with quotes from classic writers - Horace, Mencius, Hugh of St. Victor, etc., and experts in the field of graphic design, to bolster the author's case. That case rests on foundations as old as Plato: the preception of reality gained through reading may be as imperfect as the shadows on the wall in his famous anology of the cave; using art and color to enliven words can only help bring that image into sharper focus, and thus the phantasms of memory when the reader recalls it at a later date. In a post-literate world, such writing serves such as Gothic architecture once did for Christianity - a sermon in stone. To use a secular example, Shakespeare meant for his plays to be seen, not read; adding something to black-on-white block text brings the reader nearer to what the playwright wanted to convey, in terms of total, felt meaning.
The power of Ms. Kirchenbaum's message stayed with me as I read deeper into her book: While watching, "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding," I connected the Orthodox use of icons ("Written," not painted - every stroke had specific meaning to the believer), incense, chanting, and candles - all elements absent from American Prtoestant Christianity, to the Eastern way of engaging all the senses in a religous experience.
In closing, while Ms. Kirschenbaum does not cite Thomas More, he wrote in support of her ideas, when he said, as quoted by Sister Miriam Joseph in her classic, "The Trivium" - "Images are necessary books for the uneducated and good books for the learned, too. For all words be but images representing the things that the writer or speaker conceives in his mind,... and so conceived in the mind, is but an image representing the very thing itself that a man thinks of."
What Ms. Kirchenbaum is attempting is not a revelolution, but a restoration, reconnecting us with the timeless knowledge of the ages. For that she deserves our approbation and active support.
-Lloyd A. Conway

From her unique perspective as a high school teacher, Valerie Kirschenbaum has made some stunning discoveries about learning - that children learn much better when teachers use body language, that body language can be brought into writing with color and image which excite different groups of cells in the brain, that emotional arousal amplifies memory, that there is such a thing as visual thinking, and that word and image used simultaneously integrates brain operations and allows the student to come to a higher level of understanding more quickly. "Especially today," says the author, "if we don't immediately grab them, we too often lose them. Colorful visuals are a way of grabbing their attention, arousing their emotions and of sustaining their interest."

In researching the subject, Ms. Kirschenbaum discovered, for example, that "...the image of a Buddha can trigger the release of hormones such as epinephrine and norepinephrine, causing them to interact with nerves in the body and travel to the brain. Literally, the image opens the mind and heart of the reader." And in Tibet, the sight of an image that the viewer perceives as sacred can trigger electrochemical responses in the brain, i.e. readers could SEE concepts. "With the designer word," Valerie maintains, "we can transform traditionally verbal techniques into visual techniques. Rhyme, repetition, metaphor, figures of speech, characterization, tone, simile and symbolism can all be visual. We can foreshadow, change moods, express irony or sarcasm and allude and alliterate visually. The possibilities are endless..."If we cannot always make this exquisite avalanche of consciousness sayable, then we can at least make it showable." Amen to that.

It's not exactly rocket science to realize that this could be an incredible aid to reading and therefore to learning in our technological society, but as far as I am aware, nobody has connected these particular dots before this particular young woman came on the scene and pointed them out.

Before the advent of Gutenberg, Medieval illuminators used ornament and decoration to create "multiple simultaneous meanings." After Gutenberg, when block black-and-white printing became the norm, "...writers couldn't synthesize their verbal and visual innovations. They couldn't write outside the box and think outside the box simultaneously. They were stuck between word and image, seeing and thinking, left brain and right brain." And while Medieval denial may have been rooted in religion, our modern denial is rooted in an antiquated technology that insists that black and white blocks of texts are the only proper form for serious scholarship and that images, different fonts and color should be relegated to children's books.

As Leonard Shlain observed in his groundbreaking work, *The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image*, our era is evolving toward a new integration of left and right brain functions with keyboards, computers, TV, movies, etc. Why cannot that integration be extended to the printed word?

This book realizes left and right-brain integration in a most delightful way. I especially enjoyed the color graphics where Medieval, Greek and Renaissance characters are shown to be writing and on closer inspection, you see that they're using computers. I would have liked a snappier title for the book but have to admit that upon this writing, I haven't thought of any.

"First a new theory is attacked as absurd," says William James in *Pragmatism's conception of Truth.* "Then it is admitted to be true but insignificant. Finally it is seen to be so important that its adversaries claim that they themselves discovered it." One can only hope that Valerie Kirschenbaum's name will still be remembered long after her thesis has become a new canon. But as she herself admits, in the long run it doesn't matter as long as the new canon is adopted, because "...no matter how much I may have blossomed, I could never stand up before other teachers and writers and designers and not invite every one of them to surpass me."

"We will not join the ranks of the Old Canon. We will create a new Canon...."We will seek the rose in the prose. We will find the light in delight." And finally "incipit liberi besti" -"begin beautiful books." I believe this is an idea whose time has come. Bravo!

This is quite simply one of the most fascinating books I have read this past year. It touches on History, Design, Literature, Creativity and so many other areas with a zeal and passion that is rarely seen these days. It also is one of the most beautiful books just to page through as well. I have had several people pick my copy up and browse it briefly, only to get enthralled in the text and illustrations.

Ms. Kirschenbaum has written and designed a masterpiece that I hope will soon become a standard on the shelf of every design school, and it should be in the library of every graphic designer as well. Editors and publishers could also benefit to see that today's technologies need not only yield the standard black and white of yesterday's printing techniques-and all could benefit from books that engage the readers as actively as television and computers do at the present.

Beautiful, thoughtfully written, and quite engaging. Highly Recommended reading.

Valerie Kirschenbaum is a woman with one modest goal: she wants to start a revolution. "The Designer Revolution: The Marriage of Art, Literature, Education, Technology" is the opening shot in her quest, drawn in good part from her experiences as a New York City high school teacher. Why, she asks, in this era of marvelous computer graphics should we continue to read the printed page in the same manner we have done so since the days of Gutenberg? Just as Henry Ford is reputed to have said that you could get a Model T in any color you wanted as long as it was black, so publishers have traditionally told us we can get a book in any color as long as it is black (and white).

Kirschenbaum believes that color is one element that should be explored and exploited to make reading come alive, not only for students but for all of us. Color is a tool for emphasis and engagement. Centuries ago in the era of hand-written manuscripts (that is, after all, what a "manuscript" is), color was an integral part of their creation - color not only for illustrations, but color of text to literally illuminate its meaning. With the dominance of mass printing of books on huge, inflexible presses, it made sense that color evaporated for entirely practical reasons. But we are now in another time when such limitations need no longer limit us. If one particular word or a special phrase or sentence or paragraph would benefit from color to emphasize it, then why not apply color?

Of course, the color of ink to print the text upon paper is only one aspect of Kirschenbaum's revolution. Integrated illustrations - and not just for children's books - are equally within reach of the computer-equipped author, illustrations that are intimately partnered to the text and not isolated to separate insert pages, corralled together away from words.

The third leg of Valerie Kirschenbaum's revolution is the shape of letters themselves, the font with which the words are printed. With computers we have become familiar with the notion that, if we choose to, we can select whatever style of "print" suits our purposes - Arial, Times New Roman, Century Gothic - whatever we want from that pull-down menu from the toolbar on our computer screen. Perhaps without thinking much about it, we are all aware on some level that the design, the "look", of font is important in how we relate and react to what is on the printed page. The shape of the letters speaks to us in an unconscious voice, aiding - or hindering - our reading. Pick up a dozen books and magazines and look at the font. They are not all the same. They speak in different tones, some more friendly, others more formal. But Kirschenbaum goes beyond merely advocating an informed selection of pre-made fonts to suit your purposes. With modern computer graphics, personalized, unique fonts tailored to individual preferences are within practical reach of each computer-savvy author.

At the heart of Kirschenbaum's revolution is the realization that computers can erase the line between author and publisher, allowing a unified creative process so that the final product is wholly within the control of a single creator.

The physical book "The Designer Revolution" is an embodiment of Valerie Kirschenbaum's writing/publishing ideas, a marriage of color, illustration, and font. Open it and let yourself swim in its visual variety. Open yourself to the idea that computers do not spell the end of the printed page, but its blossoming.

I finished this fascinating book later the same day I had read in my local daily newspaper that in 2001 a former assistant basketball coach at the University of Georgia had given a final exam for the only grade in a "Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball" course that consisted of 20 multiple choice questions. Two of the 18 questions included how many goals are on a basketball court and how many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a basketball game. So learning about teachers like Ms. Kirschenbaum provides a much needed antidote for the latest news item about education in Georgia. She begins this beautiful book with the following statement: "I will never forget the day that changed my life forever. [With the exception of the wondrous first letter "I" which I cannot describe, I believe those words are in burnt sienna] I was teaching The Canterbury Tales when one of my students raised her hand and asked, 'Ms. Kirschenbaum, how come our books are not in color, like they used to be?'" The author, for ten years a teacher of English at the Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities, located just a mile or so from Ground Zero, set about to find an answer to that question. The result is this beautiful book of many colors, designed, written and printed in a "feminine" very reader-friendly font that Ms. Kirschenbaum herself designed.

Ms. Kirschenbaum has certainly done her homework. There are 363 pages of text and another 50 or so footnotes. The book is filled with quotations from artists, writers and scientists about the significance of color and all its ramifications. The writer discusses the books before Gutenberg, though not accessible to common people, that were always in color. She also refers to the ancient Greeks, Chinese and Eqyptians who invariably wrote in color. She gives anecdotal evidence from her own teaching experience that an overwhelming number of her students would prefer reading, for instance, Homer, Poe et al in "living color." I think the writer's two stongest points are (1) we are fast losing a whole generation of nonreading students to television, video games, and movies, all in color and (2) because of digital printing, books in color can now be produced economically.

Ms. Kirschenbaum discusses many writers, some who used color effectively in their prose, and others whose works cry out for it: the artist and writer William Morris, and William Blake, whom she describes as the "only instance after Gutenberg of a great poet and a great painter married into one magnificent soul." On Emily Dickinson: "Her manuscripts are bubbling with body language [in red letters] -- long dashes, short dashes, angled dashes, crosses, pluses, minuses, waves, curves, line breaks. . . " Finally the writer makes a good case-- Faulkner himself wanted it-- for THE SOUND AND THE FURY to be printed in color.

Ms. Kirschenbaum's theory of designer writing has been well received except by some "academics." (The quotations are mine.) "Some people in the academy have refused to take me seriously because I teach high school and not college; because I have only a master's degree and not a doctorate; because I am not an Ivy Leaguer; and God knows what else." One professor even called her "Madame Nobody." She's in good company since Miss Dickinson would say, "I'm nobody/who are you?" And Robert Frost didn't have a Ph.D as I recall.

In addition to the brilliant illustrations and colored images here, the text, almost all of it in color, is clear and well written. And Ms. Kirschenbaum is a great punster, both verbal and visual. She sold me on this book when, in first thumbing through it, I found a delightful visual pun at the beginning of the footnotes.

What comes through in every page of this book, which I cannot adequately describe, is that Ms. Kirschenbaum is the most dedicated of teachers and decent of people. "Whenever I visit a museum, I seem, unavoidably, to be reminded of my mortality and of the precious chance [red letters] I have been given, as a young American woman, to make a difference in the lives of others." Chaucer would have said of her, "gladly did she learn and gladly did she teach."

You must see this book for yourself. I am at a loss as to how to best describe it.

This is a great book for anyone interested in learning more about their investments. It combines fascinating history with beautiful illustrations to make a book that is both intelligent and attractive. Very highly recommended!

Wow! What an amazing book. For a person who has never done well in history classes, this book puts together our history in a colorful picturesque manner that keeps the readers interest throughout the book. I wish a book like this had been available when I was in school.

This could have been a very good book because the idea of an "investment atlas" is a terrific idea.

But the job was botched
Worse, the book is more propaganda than anything else.

The book intends to be "appealing": there is endless photos, quotes, pictures that really don't fit into an "atlas" but makes it more appealing just like the photos in a typical annual report.

But while in the annual report you do get the numbers, in this books many charts don't have (incredibly and incomprehensibly) any axis units! For example, on page 142 you get a chart showing "german interest rates" consisting of a staircase graph with a single legend "Yield 4.6%" and no X-axis or Y-axis labels whatsoever. As such, totally useless, totally stupid. Same things for the staircase chart Germand common stocks on page 141 with unique legend of "Decrease 82%" and again no axis units whatsoever!

But after a while you start discerning a possible pattern: those charts typically are put in juxtaposition with a US charts to show how great the US results were. For example next to the german one, you get a chart of US common stock (this one with full x-axis and y-axis units) with legend "increase +12%". Same thing page 151: Korea bond yield 25% vs US yield of 2.9% (implying superior US economy).

Still, some charts have no x and y axis without any possible explanation: for example, you get a nice gold and silver chart "1247 to present" which show a staircase with no x or y axis units. Insane.

But it gets much worse and outrightly dangerous when the author try to blatantly mislead the readers. Indeed, the book has a very significant pro-war bend (to the point where one could easily be led to believe that this was possibly silently sponsored by the armament industry or the DOD): 1/5 of the book, no less, is devoted to the effect of war on the stock markets with the final, absolutely false, "wartime investments summary" that "WAR=PROFITS" (p. 161).

This merits a closer look. Let's do just that.

His "wartime investement summary" list wars followed by "number of years, percentage change" for stocks, real estate, t-bond yields, showing spectacular numbers such as
world war II: stocks up 35% ! (6 years)
cold war: stocks up 2,045% ! (11 years)
vietnam war: stocks up 80% ! (45 years)
The naïve and inexperience investor will be amazed and be mislead in believing with the author that "WAR = PROFITS". But is the author really that stupid? or careless? or could it be intended to deceive?

In fact, no competent person in the investment world (and Wiman is described as a "founder of an investment firm") would report raw change like this but instead would show "compound annual return values" and provide corresponding inflation figures and finally, "real (inflation-adjusted) annual compound return"

And we can do just that with his number with the help of more data taken from the excellent and highly recommended Ibotson Associates book "Stocks Bonds Bill and Inflation"

WW II : stocks compound annual return=5.1%, annual inflation=3.8%, stocks inflation-adjusted compound annual return=1.3%
cold war : stocks compound annual return=7.1%, annual inflation=4.5%, stocks inflation-adjusted compound annual return=2.6%
Vietnam war: stocks compound annual return=5.5%, annual inflation=5.4%, stocks inflation-adjusted compound annual return=0.1%


Those inflation-adjust war results are anemic for sure: 1.3%, 2.6%, 0.1% (average=1.3%) !

The author doesn't show those true results!

Moreover, without surprise, the author won't also show to the reader the peace-time result.

For a good reason !

Peace-time result: 1992-2000 (between gulf war and iraq/al qaeda war): stocks compound annual returns 16.1%, inflation per year 2.6%, stocks inflation-adjusted compound annual return: 13.5 % !!!!
That is 10x the average of the above war time results.

Therefore the correct conclusion is: WAR = DISASTROUS INVESTMENT RESULTS.

The author does the same gimmick when comparing republicans and democrats: while studies have consistently shown that the stock market does better under the democrats than under the republican (on a real inflation-adjusted basis) the author again ignores inflation and produce misleading result to conclude the opposite!

So the conclusion is: this book = highly manipulative war-mongering propaganda

And this is why this book is dangerous.

Technical analysts often look at charts of past price action to assess the current state of the financial markets. In this beautifully illustrated book, Winans has assembled a great deal of data to illustrate the history of stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate markets around the world. And you can make money by studying the pictures.

Winans asks, "Why did the majority of modern investors, the most knowledgeable and technologically advanced in history, mishandle the `Dot.com' stock bull market and the recent `nothing down' real estate frenzy?" His answer is that there is a general lack of knowledge about US financial history which results in investors making the same mistakes over and over.

To address this lack of knowledge, he has assembled hundreds of charts, many spanning more than 100 years and some more than 200 years, to put financial market history into perspective. Each chart is accompanied with narrative that places it into perspective, and helps even short term traders identify applicable concepts.

As an example of the innovative ideas in the book, I was startled to see the historic performance of mid cap stocks. It is very well documented that small cap stocks outperform large cap stocks in the long-term. I always assumed mid caps delivered performance between these two groups. This book showed that mid caps are actually the best long-term performers.

Winans documents mid cap performance going back to 1927. Through 2007, these stocks would have delivered a total return of 1,071,395%, more than doubling the returns available through small cap or large cap stocks. This dramatic outperformance was also found through testing over the time period from 1958 through 2007, during which mid cap stocks also beat the returns available from global stocks.

This insight alone is worth the price of the book.

This is a wonderful book. The graphics are clear and understandable, and illustrate the author's point well. Further, it is a fabulous book for the layman who has interest in investing, but has little or no knowledge in the process or its history. An excellent use of reproduced historical documents and charts. Finally, a credible reference book on the subject that can also enhance any coffee table.

This is another good book of logo ideas. Great for inspiration. Nicely laid out and the pages are of good quality glossy paper. Very nice book for my collection.

This series is a must have for any designer. Not only is it great for ideas, but a nice tool to have when a wishy-washy client just isn't sure what they want. If you are a serious designer, you must own all the Logo Lounge books.

Always a fan, the assemblage of brands from every corner is impressive and helpful. The Lounge has always been and continues to be a wonderful resource for jump-starting logo block.

Great book for inspiration and search for the right ideas. This time RockPub. is making few more pages showing how the logos work in the graphic design environment.

I was excited to see foreign companies using the latest styles in advertisement, like the russian phone company "BeeLine."

Wold highly recoment this book for a graphic design major and advertisement.

Whether you are fresh out of college or a seasoned Senior designer, you will find this book an amazing resource of ideas, trends and just plain good design.

We actually have purchased every volume and they keep getting better and better. Logo Lounge 3 is no different in terms of the unique talent chosen to be showcased in this edition.

If you need a design spark look no further, this is the book of choice.

[...]

This book was written when Dungeon Siege I and Neverwinter Nights I were in development, and thus lacks any information regarding their sequels, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Titan Quest, Morrowind, and ultimately Oblivion. It briefly discusses UO and mentions both Asheron's Call and Everquest, the early mainstream MMOs. Don't expect anything regarding WoW, DAoC, EQ2, DDO, AO or Lord of the Rings Online. That's a lot of material that just didn't exist when this was published.

However, for what it contains, it's VERY good. It has a great introduction on the early development of RPGs. You'll find good information on the influence of Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings on CRPGs. The interviews at the end are excellent reading as well.

The book sets out to guide new RPG designers through the do's and don'ts of CRPG development, and give them a good background on why things are the way they are. It lays out what you need in your proposal and design document, with plenty of examples. It really does an excellent job in all of this. If you're looking for code, look elsewhere. You won't find ANY in this book. It's intended for designers, not programmers.

If you can grab it for under ten bucks like I did, go for it. Everything inside the book is still useful and the guiding principles are accurate even with all that's happened since it was published. I just wish there was a second volume that included all of the new stuff.

This book wasn't at all what I thought it would be, but I loved it. I finished it within a day.

Don't buy this book if you are expecting someone to tell you the steps involved in making an RPG. There are many better books for that. S&C doesn't tell you how to make a game. It tells you how to THINK when making a game. It also goes quite in-depth about what it's like to be in the role of a game designer.

So the two scenarios in which this book would be most useful are:

1. You have a game already designed in your head and just want to make it more fun or more professional.

2. You are considering whether you want to become a game designer as a career.

If you fit one of these two, buy this book right away. If not, it might still be worth a look. It's interesting, well-written, and you may just learn a thing or two.

First and foremost I have to say this book is very well written and easy to read. The only real mistakes I noticed were with release dates on some of the games in a timeline.

The concepts covered in this book will help not only individuals trying their hand at designing RPGs, but other games as well. The information is also presented in an interesting and entertaining way to keep the reader doing just that, reading.

Having recently entered the video game industry, I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to get a start in the industy or anyone just curious about game design in general.

This book provides a clear outlook of how to design an RPG though I wish there was a reference book to go with it. It even could be used as a text book for a class. It does everything it says. Includes other designers perspectives to broaden your perspective on design including designers from Might & Magic, Neverwinter, Star-Trek, and a few others.

Neal and Jana Hallford, Swords and Circuitry (Prima, 2001)

A word to prospective buyers: Swords and Circuitry is not a book about coding games. If that's what you're looking for, Prima has a number of other titles you can go to. This one's about designing games, and there's nary a line of code to be found.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, this book does have a lot to offer both for those who plan to specialize in game design and those who are running (or trying to run) one-man shops. The Hallfords offer a good deal of advice regarding the whole process of game design, from defining what it is (and having others interviewed by Neal Hallford do so as well) to details of design documents, proposals, etc. The benefits for the aspiring game designer are obvious; to the one-man shop, reading this may help clarify some things that will help when programming time comes, or shed a different light on things that may not have been thought of in quite that way. Definitely worth checking out, but know what you're getting. *** ½

First off, I have to say this book is absolutely perfect for all first-time freelance graphic designers. My business partner and I recently started our own design agency at [...] and didn't have a clue about where to get our hands on the legal forms needed. We were referred to this book from another source. And since my partner's father-in-law is a lawyer, we decided to let him take a look at it to see what he thought. He said everything was solid. He couldn't find any holes on any of the forms inside. So after making a few small changes to custom fit our business, we were set. I can honestly say this book should be on the shelf of every aspiring freelance graphic designer. I highly recommend it.

I have only serious clients who are willing to pay me because I take a contract to our first meeting and make them sign it. These contracts will protect you and your clients! They are worded with the legal stuff but easy to understand. He even explains what it all means. It even has a CD so you can pop it in your computer right before your meeting (as I have done) and print a contract.

This book has EVERYTHING you need ... and then some. When you think you're not going to need one of the forms in this book, you later realize that YOU DO! As a freelance artist, using these forms made me feel as though clients noticed that they were dealing with a real professional. Absolutely a great investment.

In starting out and gathering information it's hard to determine what books will be helpful. This is great. It is filled with tear out forms you can make copies of and use over and over. Great information. And the CD-ROM includes all the forms in pdf format, as well as Pagemaker and Quark XPress so that you can make changes to fonts and style, logo additions, and more, to suit your own home business. Files are compatible with Mac and IBMC platform, which is great for me being a designer working mostly on an IBM computer. Excellent book!

Our small graphic design firm had been relying on the legal forms and contracts from this book for about one year. Finally, we decided that perhaps we ought to visit with a lawyer to make sure we were doing it right...$560.00 later for an initial consultation, we realized that this $29.95 book was the best business investment we'd ever made! The lawyer confirmed that the contracts that we had been using were airtight and were great (he had a few other pointers...but, none worth $560.00).

We have had many comments from our clients that over all the creative teams they'd worked with over the years, our design firm had surpassed them all in business professionalism. If you are serious about running a firm, or just want to protect yourself, you really can't go wrong with this book! Such a small investment for such a large return!

This is an excellent book for artists fo all kinds. Our company has a library we make available to Production Designers - this is a great addition.

A luscious collection of photographs of beautiful colors and textures to inspire any artist/designer and be used as reference again and again.

There are nice collection of the samples.You can enjoy to look through them.

This book is one of the best references for any designer and painter in the industry. Color Photos are amazing and complete. I have been wanting to purchase it for years now and am very glad to add it to my collection. All of her books are worth having in any artists library.

I think I was a little hard on Judy Juracek with reference to the included CD. What Ms. Juracek has done in the way of cataloguing is nothing short of miraculous and one should not expect that every image on the CD would be photographed dead on and shadow-perfect. I was just really irked by the image quality of a CD I had such high hopes for. I purchased this book when it first came out for a Hundred Dollars retail but the price I now see listed online seems almost a steal for the treasure trove contained within.

In any case, A recent search reveals that even more books in the series have been written by the author and I'm excited to purchase these as well--let's hope the image quality has improved on the included CDs for the new millenium we're in. I guess you could still expect "middlin'" quality for an image CD produced back in the "stoneage" of the 90's. The book is GREAT!