Designers Books

Once again, another Stephen Gan masterpiece! Visionnaire 2000 works as a wondrous visual delight for anyone who adores the fashion world, art, and design in general. The format (text and visuals) is neat and appealing, and the photography memorable. As a sort of modern-day encyclopedia of fashion's most eccentric and notable renegades, this colorful documentary is both inspirational and entertaining.

If my bookcase were on fire, I would be willing to burn my hand to save this book. I am currently studying anesthesia at Columbia University, and I still draw on the things (oops, no pun intended) I learned from this book during my career in architecture.

If process and developing ideas is what you want, this is sure to jog your thinking.

This lovely hardbound edition makes a great addition to any Eames collection. The contents include a brief history of the designers along with examples of their furniture. Each piece is shown in different settings and positions. Wonderful diagrams show the breakdown of the materials. It is written in german, french and english.

A fabulous book for anyone interested in the fashion business. A must-have for any true design afficionado. No bookshelf should be without.

Lowestoft a quiet seaside town in Suffolk was in the front during World War II. Bombing raids, fire and trips to the air raid shelter bacame almost daily events for young Micheal Foreman growing up in the 1940's. He lived in a small house with his mother himself and his brother's( his father had died when he was a baby).

Humorous and intelligent account of one man's experiences during World War II and then in theatre design primarily in New York City during the late 1940's through the 1970's. Full of original sketches by this Broadway pioneer. Would be of interest to anyone who loves theatre history.

Those of us who have Microsoft Frontpage 1.0 for Macintosh NEED this book. The Microsoft manual that comes with the CD is one of the least-informative books I have ever read in my life. Trying to find help using this program has been even worse. Anyone who needs help with Frontpage for Macintosh version 1.0 needs this book. It may the be the only help they can get! It gives great examples and figures to follow as well as being easy to read. You will find yourself immediately able to apply the information you come across. You will save yourself a lot of time and headaches!

Timothy Webster provides a superior treatment of web graphics fundamentals, using clear and practical examples. Writing for both Windows and Mac, his Web Designer's Guide to Graphics first lays down a tight review of graphics file formats, monitors, color models, bit depth, resolution, palettes, anti-aliasing, compression and interlacing. Not stopping there, he gives pragmatic examples of when to use PNG, GIF and JPEG formats.

The book's one major weakness is that many of the color screen shots used do not hold up well when printed. The occasional ineffective 1:1 screen shot is used to point out details which would only be recognizable if printed at the same size as its screen display counterpart. This problem, present in many of the current web design books, could be easily resolved by zooming in on the screen to show the slight differences in detail.

That being said, out of all the many books that are available on web graphics, there are none that I've found which are more comprehensive and accurate than this one.

Web Graphics Instructor
Bellevue Community College
Bellevue Washington

Real women use notepad.exe to do HTML. Unfortunately, because remembering all of the tags and special characters, even real women need help every now and then. This quick reference guide is my constant companion when I am hacking away on my web page. It's well laid out and packs a lot of information in four pages. I frequently refer to the special characters section, but have also picked up a few tricks from the examples that are crammed into this guide. It even covers cascading style sheets, making this a wonderful accessory for a geekette. I also highly recommend "Web Design Color Reference Card" also by Bob Stein and available from Amazon as a companion to this guide. If you've ever struggled with getting the right color using hexidecimal codes, you'll appreciate the color reference. Together this HTML reference and the color reference card will make you a genuine MLCMF when it comes to HTML coding. Five stars and my strongest recommendation.

This is a wonderful book for those seeking inspiration on creating an open, airy home that lets the outdoors in. If you love windows then this is definitely the book for you.

The designs of over forty different architects and designers are shown here. Each tells a bit about the featured home and their design approach. There are several large color photos of various views in each home, with captions giving the details. The styles are predominantly modern and clean looking, but in a wide variety of styles and decor. There are no cute country ducks or rooms overstuffed with flower prints.

I loved the rooms with Asian accents. There is a wall of botanical prints in one home that is simply gorgeous - I'm sure I will do something similar in the future. The use of flower arrangements is fantastic. It amazes me how something as simple as a bouquet of sunflowers or vase of roses can really make these rooms into something special.

This book has been a great help to me. I know I will use some of these elements and ideas when I get to build my dream home.