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The Layout Look Book

Max Weber

Amazon Price: $29.70 List Price: $45.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Collins Design Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $23.75

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> Themes

Editorial Review:

When undertaking a new project, the first thing that must be decided on is the layout. Organized so as to encourage creativity, serendipitous discovery, and inspiration, The Layout Look Book is a great guide for both amateur and professional designers. The book includes techniques that can be used to enhance any layout, as well as insights into the factors that helped make each layout an effective piece. The styles covered in the volume range from traditional to cutting edge, and will enable any designer to become a more creative thinker and produce fantastic work.

Quantum Dreams: The Art of Stephan Martiniere

Stephan Martiniere

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Design Studio Press Amazon Marketplace: 25 new & used starting at $7.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"When I grow up I want to be an astronaut!" declared a six-year-old Stephan in 1968, a year before man walked on the moon. Not surprisingly, his first doodles featured blazing rockets and spaceships. Growing up in France, and not permitted to watch much TV, Stephan spent a lot of time at the corner cinema. There he was introduced to the likes of the Werewolf, the Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein and King Kong. He traveled on the Voyage to the Center of the Earth and experienced The Day the Earth Stood Still. The fantastic creatures and worlds in all of these classics were overwhelmingly cool. As Stephan's doodles of astronauts became doodles of monsters and aliens, he found himself enjoying drawing more and more--and the dream of becoming an astronaut gradually evolved into becoming a visual artist.

Quantum Dreams: The Art of Stephan Martinière is a collection of his sci-fi book paintings, video game designs and personal art. Stephan takes others' descriptions of faraway, imaginary realms--and makes them real.

Front Cover: Great Book Jackets and Cover Design

Alan Powers

Amazon Price: $14.36 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Mitchell Beazley Amazon Marketplace: 34 new & used starting at $11.64

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Graphic Arts -> General

Editorial Review:

You can’t judge a book by its cover…but some covers simply speak for themselves. The most influential book jacket designs from throughout the 20th century are on display, and the fascinating images track their evolution from throwaway utilitarian “dust jackets” into a powerful modern art form. Three hundred hardcover and paperback book jackets appear in full color, including many from rare first editions seldom seen outside a serious collector’s library. Accompanying analysis commemorates the contributions of top European and American artists like Victor Gollancz, Paul Rand, and Barnett Freedman; explains how cover art styles helped launch such publishing brands as Penguin and Bloomsbury; and explores the impact of today’s digitally designed covers.

Make Spectacular Books (Create & Treasure (C&T Publishing))

Sue Astroth

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: C&T Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $6.85

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Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Crafts & Hobbies -> Book Making & Binding
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Crafts & Hobbies -> Textile Arts

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent resource 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book was one I found at the local library and loved, so decided to own my own copy. It has taught me a new artistic skill and done so in a clear and engaging way. I hope to locate an online forum for this craft because I just know the applications are unlimited. The book is well-written with clear photographs of all steps, a real plus in my book! I hope the author gives us more of the same!

Editorial Review:

Use three easy techniques to create a huge variety of books. 19 fun projects, inspirational gallery.

The Serif Fairy: Explorations in the Word of Letters

Rene Siegfried

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Mark Batty Publisher Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $7.99

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Typography
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Subtle, Sophisticated, Thoroughly Entertaining Art Book for Children of All Ages 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

THE SERIF FAIRY is a delight from every aspect. Though conceived as a children's book, it is also a teaching tool of the sort that makes learning fun while challenging both the adult reader and the child. Writer and graphic designer Rene Siegfried composed this fable in German (it is sensitively translated for us into English by Joel Mann) as a studio work for a course in communication design, the challenge being to create a readable and interesting story while introducing the child in each of us to concepts of the somewhat obtuse subject - typography!

The Serif Fairy, 'a clever little letter-fairy', has lost her left 'magical' wing, disabling her ability to fly and to perform magic. She sets off in search of the lost wing, wandering through the Garamond Forest, the Zentenar Gate, the Futura City, and finally to Shelley Lake where, after falling into the water, she finds her lost wing and flies into the air, a revived magic fairy. Each of the images, from the construction of the fairy herself to the trees, buildings, bugs and animals she encounters are built from letters from the various typefaces (fonts) that we all know from the computer cascade of choices. Siegfried encourages the reader to find the various composed creatures and identify how they are created from letters by adding at the end of the brief book a concise but excellent description and illustration of each of the four typefaces used. Then on the inside back cover spread the designer shares each of the designed objects from car to crab with a simple lineup of the letters used in each composition.

The design of the book is clean, elegant, and very intelligently presented. Some will ask whether the book will appeal to any child (or adult) not involved in the graphic design business. For this reader the answer is a resounding 'YES!'. Siegfried has managed to create an interesting tale while opening fresh lines of investigation for visual problem solving of the 'type' that fascinate children with inquisitive minds: problem solving in finding the inventive critters that fill the pages is enhanced by the reward of learning more about the new discoveries at book's end. This is a book that restores faith in the intelligence of readers - of any age. Another Mark Batty Publisher winner! Grady Harp, May 07

Editorial Review:

The Serif Fairy has lost her wing, keeping her from performing magic. This book follows her through an airy, immaculately designed typographic landscape as she tries to recover the wing. Along the way, she makes friends and has adventures as she wanders through the Garamond forest, visits Futura town and eventually ends her quest at Shelley Lake. An amazing book for type aficionados and their children, The Serif Fairy epitomizes the synthesis of form and function, the ultimate goal of good design. In this Type Director’s Club award-winning children’s book, readers both young and old are sure to delight in the tale and illustrations. Children will marvel at the unique visual renderings of trees, towns and animals, hardly realizing that they are learning about typography.

While You're Reading

Gerard Unger

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Mark Batty Publisher Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $21.83

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very nice book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Unger has done a magnificent job and knows his stuff like no other type designer on the planet.

Editorial Review:

This book is about everything that happens while you’re reading, in front of your eyes and inside your head; and about what type designers, typographers and graphic designers bring to a page to make reading happen.Two examples of tantalizing questions will be answered: How is it possible to read without seeing any letters? How much hidden typographic knowledge does the average reader possess? Other subjects covered in this book include: legibility; the philosophy of typographic layout; invisible typography; pattern recognition; the reading process; engrams; the ergonomics of letterforms; letterform familiarity and use; typeface choice; type design; negative space and illusions; the role of the serif; the universe of signs; typography & language, and more. Gerard Unger is a prominent typeface designer, graphic designer, author, and design educator. He is based in Bussum, The Netherlands.

#5167 Altered Books 101

Beth Cote, Cindy Pestka

Amazon Price: $16.65 List Price: $16.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Design Originals Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $4.84

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Great Idea Book 4 out of 5 stars.
45 of 46 people found this review helpful.

As Beth Cote, one of the authors, says, you don't need any artistic ability to make altered books and that's the best part of this wonderful guide. You can do it! I'm an art therapist in an assisted living center for Alzheimer's patients and this book has served me and my patients well. With glue, markers and vanishing memory they are able create altered books every bit as wonderful as those shown in this book. So, if you're color blind, memory challenged and can't draw a darn thing to save your life, you can still be an altered book artist. Get this great picture guide and alter by the numbers.

Editorial Review:

Creating unusual items is so enjoyable... and making altered books is very rewarding. The supplies are simple... discarded books, paper, glue and assorted embellishments. You'll soon have books for every theme and season plus gifts for friends and special people. Turn old books into art! Beth Cote and Cindy Pestka share valuable tips on what to use and how to do it. Catch the Altered Book Craze. It will keep you turning pages! This book went into its third printing in the first 6 months.

The Bedford Hours: A Medieval Masterpiece

Eberhard Konig

Amazon Price: $28.00 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: British Library Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $24.89

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Other Media -> Illuminations
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Schools, Periods & Styles -> Medieval

Editorial Review:

The Bedford Hours is considered by many to be the most sumptuous Book of Hours ever created by an illuminator’s hand—as well as one of the greatest treasures possessed by the British Library. It once belonged to John, Duke of Bedford, who was the younger brother of King Henry V and regent of France from 1422 until his death in 1435. Its 1,250 elaborate medallions, thirty-eight large-scale miniatures, and extensive brush gold, gold leaf, and silver decorations are extravagant enough to make it one of the most precious manuscripts of its period. Known only as the Bedford Master, the artist behind the manuscript was among the most prolific painters of his day, though his identity has long remained a mystery.
The Bedford Hours: A Medieval Masterpiece presents superb and luminous illustrations of the manuscript—seldom available in print—alongside the engrossing tale behind its creation. Eberhard König’s account of the creation of the Bedford Hours unfolds toward a number of startlingly original and unexpected conclusions, spurred by extraordinary detective work following the smallest of clues, and culminating a strong conjecture as to the identity of the Bedford Master—Haincelin of Haguenau, an artist who became an illuminator to the dauphin Louis de Guyenne, one of the figures most associated with the major illuminated manuscripts in which the Bedford Master had a hand.
This remarkable story and the sixty rich color illustrations that accompany it help to make The Bedford Hours an unforgettable account of the creation of one of our most remarkable medieval masterpieces.

Tim Holtz Distressables

Tim Holtz

Amazon Price: $14.69 List Price: $14.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Design Originals Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $10.48

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Editorial Review:

Techniques for aging, distressing, layering, patinas, collage, soldering, transfers, folding, painting, scratching, glazing, and more. Create your own terrific cards, jewelry, accessories, scrapbooks, and more.

The Non-Designer's Scan and Print Book (Non-Designer's Series)

Sandee Cohen, Robin Williams

List Price: $24.99 By: Peachpit Press Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $8.41

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> Printing

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Non-Designer's Scan and Print Book (Non-Designer's Series) is an excellent guide for beginners who want to learn the essentials of scanning images and printing professional-looking publications. Authors Robin Williams and Sandee Cohen are two well-known desktop publishing (DTP) experts who have written a number of acclaimed computer-graphics books, and here they do an outstanding job of distilling the core elements of scanning, manipulating, and outputting images from high-tech, esoteric details.

Williams and Cohen commence their tour of scanning and printing by explaining how to plan your project. They begin by encouraging you to choose your paper, colors, graphics, binding, number of folds and copies, and printing methods. Then they introduce you to basic DTP and business issues like resolution, paper size, print area, cost of goods, fonts, and PostScript. Their highly rudimentary approach even includes a discussion of the type of printing device necessary to complete your project and whether you will need to use an inkjet, laser, dye-sublimation, or thermal wax printer. From there, they look to the essentials of commercial printing, finding a print shop, working within a budget, and using processes such as letterpress, flexography, and gravure.

Subsequent chapters delve into computer issues like software applications commonly used for DTP projects and how they handle color modes, raster images, resolution, vector images, and file formats. You also tackle color issues such as process color printing, using spot colors and duotones, and specifying the number of colors in a publication.

Image acquisition plays a big role in completing any project, and the authors provide helpful tips for using scanners, digital cameras, Kodak Photo CD-ROMs, stock photography, and clip art. Finally, you study printer topics such as using high-res output, working with service bureaus, determining output specs such as client and delivery information, writing film specs, using printer's marks, understanding resolution and linescreen issues, trapping, and proofing your job. There's also a preflight checklist to help you determine whether you've thought everything through. At the end of the book, you get quizzes or projects for most of the chapters as well as a list of resources for more information. --David Wall