Design & Decorative Arts Books - Page 5

Fingerprint: The Art of Using Hand-Made Elements in Graphic Design

Chen Design Associates

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: How Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $22.24

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Graphic Arts -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Make Your Mark

Design is at a turning point. Our infatuation with--and the backlash against--technology is over. Today's best designers have learned to embrace its advantages and think beyond its limitations by combining the power of the computer with the tactile qualities of handmade elements.

Inside you'll find examples of work that showcase a variety of design methods, including mixed media, illustration, letterpress, screenprinting and collage. You'll find inspiration in examples from outstanding designers and see how traditional elements can make a more powerful statement than anesthesized computer-only work. Fingerprint also includes insightful essays on the power of the handmade by Debbie Millman, Jean Orlebeke, Jim Sherraden, Martin Venezky and Ross Macdonald.

The projects in this book are beautiful, technical, simple, layered and powerful. Each project communicates its intended message with eloquence.

You can be part of this exciting design revolution. Leave your own fingerprint on the world by exploring the fusion of the digital with the hand-wrought.

Chen Design Associates is a visual communications firm based in San Francisco. Firm Principal Joshua Chen is a frequent guest speaker for professional conferences, workshops, studio tours and educational institutions. The firm self-published the award-winning Peace: 100 Ideas.

Couture Sewing Techniques

Claire B. Shaeffer

Amazon Price: $14.93 List Price: $21.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Taunton Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $13.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> Fashion Design

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not much of illustration 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

actually this book is a complete...
the flaw is the illustration is not much...and the words are like written all in sub-chapter...it's not like a handbook...

i think for sewing books, illustration is important...

Great couture sewing instruction 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book. Recommended by my couture sewing instructor at the London School of Fashion. It provides an excellent overview of couture sewing technique.

Like a text book of information 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The introduction is interesting and basically explains why Shaffer is qualified to give you this information. The rest reads like a text book, which, for me, is much easier. When I reach a road block with sewing, I simply refer to the applicable section and determine what stitch, seam, technique would best solve the issue. There are decent diagrams/pictures to walk you through each step. It discusses each type of seam, tools and their purpose, threads, needles, etc. It's a sewing dictionary.

Chapters include:
PART I
1. Inside the world of haute couture
2. The art of hand sewing
3. Shaping the garment: seams, darts, and pressing techniques
4. Edge finishes: hems, facings, and bindings
5. Closures
PART II
6. Skirts and pants
7. Blouses and dresses
8. Sleeves
9. Pockes
10. Jackets and coats
11. Evening wear

Draping was mentioned briefly, and in the little that was there, I was able to apply the information and successfully created/altered patterns.

Hope that helps, and good luck on your future projects!

Editorial Review:

Starting with hand sewing - the basis for every haute couture garment - expert Claire Shaeffer guides the reader through the steps to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. She presents the sewing techniques practiced in the studios of such legendary designers as Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and Balenciaga. Detailed instructions and illustrations make high style a snap.

The Calligrapher's Bible: 100 Complete Alphabets and How to Draw Them

David Harris

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Barron's Educational Series Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $12.88

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Calligraphy
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> Calligraphy
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Reference -> Study & Teaching

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great! 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book for beginners. It has a great layout and is easy to understand.

Editorial Review:

Both hobbyists and students of design will value this easy-to-use self-teaching book. Each of its 100 sections shows a complete A-to-Z calligraphy alphabet, with lessons on correct pen strokes and advice on avoiding errors. Beginners will find sound basic instruction, while experienced calligraphers can extend their repertoire with letter styles that range from classic Roman to clean and elegant contemporary styles. In addition to analysis of each alphabet’s features, the book’s detailed instruction provides information on— Tools and materials * Layout basics * Numerals and punctuation * Illumination and ornamentation * Tips for the left-handed calligrapher . . . and more. Readers will also find examples by master calligraphers from past eras. This book’s spiral binding ensures that pages lay flat when opened, allowing calligraphers to study and copy each pen stroke with ease. The Calligrapher’s Bible is printed in color and features more than 350 illustrations.

Designing Brand Identity: A Complete Guide to Creating, Building, and Maintaining Strong Brands

Alina Wheeler

Amazon Price: $29.70 List Price: $45.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 63 new & used starting at $25.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> Advertising
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Graphic Arts -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This innovative approach -- blending practicality and creativity -- is now in full-color!

From translating the vision of a CEO and conducting research, through designing a sustainable identity program and building online branding tools, Designing Brand Identity helps companies create stronger brands by offering real substance. With an easy-to-follow style, step-by-step considerations, and a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity, the book offers the tools you need, whether a brand manager, marketer, or designer, when creating or managing a brand. This edition includes a wealth of full-color examples and updated case studies for world-class brands such as BP, Unilever, Citi, Tazo Tea, and Mini Cooper.

Alina Wheeler (Philadelphia, PA) applies her strategic imagination to help build brands, create new identities, and design brand-identity programs for Fortune 100 companies, entrepreneurial ventures, foundations, and cities.

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

Scott McCloud

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $11.83

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> History & Criticism -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> Drawing

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand–in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way. Comic book devotees as well as the most uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once–underappreciated art form.

Character Animation Crash Course!

Eric Goldberg

Amazon Price: $23.10 List Price: $35.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Silman-James Press Amazon Marketplace: 20 new & used starting at $23.10

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Animation
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Instructional & How-To -> Drawing
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Movies -> Screenwriting

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Yeah, Get This One Too 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Animation is an insanely broad topic. Far too huge to ever cover in one book. Listening to master animators on "The Animation Podcast" and else reveals that everyone's approach to this artform is different. And yet most animation books cover the same content.

For many years, Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit has been the gold standard of animation books, and rightfully so. Lucky for us, fellow animation guru Eric Goldberg's "Character Animation Crash Course" isn't just overlap from Williams' work and teaches us different aspects of animation that other books haven't covered.

Goldberg covers aspects of animation far less academically than Williams and rather focuses on things from a character standpoint, how you could apply a technique to a specific character. He also list several classic cartoons (most if not all of which are on DVD) for examples of each particular technique.

He also covers how control the overall shape volume of what's moving, even for flat, graphic characters, and goes in depth on animation "gimmicks" like smear drawings, zip lines, staggers etc... that are often mentioned, but never properly explained.

Probably the most informative part of the book for me was the section on character construction, covering many of the ins and outs of designing an animatable character that I haven't seen in other books.

"Character Animation Crash Course" also has the one big thing "Animator's Survival Kit" doesn't: A CD-ROM of the animations shown that you can watch and frame through to better understand the lessons in the book.

Hopefully someday other master animators will do what Eric Goldberg's done with "Character Animation Crash Course." Write an animation book that has unique outlook on the artform and that imparts some new pearls of knowledge on the subject. Until then, you have to at least add this book to your shelf. Right next to The Animator's Survival Kit of course.

Editorial Review:

Character Animation Crash Course! is a veritable Genie's lamp stuffed with everything the aspiring animator could wish for! Renowned animator Eric Goldberg's detailed text and drawings illuminate how to conceive characters "from the inside out" to create strong personalities. Classic animation techniques are analyzed and brought to life through this unique book and its accompanying CD that offers readers animated movie examples that show, in real time or frame-by-frame, the author's principles at work. Add to this Goldberg's discussions of classic cartoons and his witty, informative observations based on the wealth of knowledge he's gained during his 30-plus years in professional animation, and you have a tour-de-force guide to character animation with the classic touch.

The Principles of Uncertainty

Maira Kalman

Amazon Price: $18.73 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Press HC, The Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $17.19

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> Illustration

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Maira Kalman paints her highly personal worldview in an inimitable combination of image and text.

The Principles of Uncertainty is an irresistible invitation to experience life through the psyche of Maira Kalman, one of this country's most beloved artists. The result is a book that is part personal narrative, part documentary, part travelogue, part chapbook, and all Kalman. Her brilliant, whimsical paintings, ideas, and images-which initially appear random-ultimately form an intricately interconnected worldview, an idiosyncratic inner monologue. Kalman contends with some existential questions-What is identity? What is happiness? Why do we fight wars? And then, of course, death, love, and candy (not necessarily in that order).

The tremendous success of Kalman's 2005 illustrated edition of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style established her as an original, inspirational voice, and the quirky, hilarious, heartbreaking style of The Principles of Uncertainty reveals Maira Kalman for what she truly is: a national treasure.

Gil Elvgren: All His Glamorous American Pin-Ups (Jumbo)

Charles G. Martignette, Louis K. Meisel

List Price: $39.99 By: Taschen Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $45.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Artists, A-Z -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Interesting Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I'm still studying and reading through it, but it has an interesting magic that's missing in many of today's similar subjects - innocence.

WOW 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Elvgren is a master of his art. This book truly is a gem at this price. If you love pinup art he is the master. Its a slice of days gone past and pretty girls to write home about. Elvgren will live on forever. Take a piece of history home.

great quality, great value, great buy! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in Elvgren or pin-ups. Beautiful picture quality, comprehensive collection. For the money, you can't get much better than this!

The product is just as gorgeous as the subject matter! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is absolutely beautiful. Lots and lots of color - designed and bound very well. Worth every penny and then some. Impressed with Amazon's service (my first order) and the whole shopping/purchase experience here.

Editorial Review:

This collection of pin-ups was produced by Elvgren using the technique of photographing models and then painting them into gorgeous hyper-reality, with longer legs more flamboyant hair and gravity-defying busts, and in the process making them the perfect moral-boosting eye-candy.

The Pocket Stylist: Behind-the-Scenes Expertise from a Fashion Pro on Creating Your Own Look

Kendall Farr

Amazon Price: $13.00 List Price: $20.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gotham Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $6.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General AAS
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> Commercial -> Fashion Design

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A celebrity fashion stylist reveals the tricks of her trade and shows women of all sizes how to pull together their own polished, individual look.

Whether she’s petite, average, or plus size, every woman has experienced the frustration of searching for flattering clothes. In The Pocket Stylist every reader can have a consultation with her own personal stylist and use the author’s behind-the-scenes wardrobe wisdom:
- Taking her true measurements—from eight different body zones—to ensure an attractive fit based on the reader’s unique silhouette and the proportions that will flatter it best
- Why ready-to-wear isn’t, and how and when to use a tailor for a custom fit
- The best fabrics for your unique silhouette
- How to balance trends with the classic, indispensable pieces that are the backbone of any well-conceived wardrobe
- What "closet archaeology" can unearth and reveal about your wardrobe needs
- Why the right lingerie makes a critical difference in the fit of your clothes
- Tips from other experts on the beauty principles that ground your everyday look— Bobbi Brown and Sonja Kashuk for makeup and Kevin Mancuso for hair—offer backstage access
- Accessories that give an outfit an individual look and that no versatile wardrobe should be without

Best of all, The Pocket Stylist features specifically edited shopping lists for various body types. Four "styled" looks for each silhouette—from jeans-casual to cocktails—illustrate ideal proportion and fit. The reader becomes Kendall Farr’s client and will learn to shop and dress herself like a pro. The Pocket Stylist delivers the behind the camera expertise of a veteran stylist in one purse-size indispensable guide.

The Fashion Designer Survival Guide, Revised and Expanded Edition: Start and Run Your Own Fashion Business

Mary Gehlhar, Diane Von Furstenberg

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Kaplan Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 28 new & used starting at $14.51

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> Designers
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Fashion -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mary Gehlhar, author, industry authority, and consultant to hundreds of designers, including Zac Posen, Twinkle by Wenlan, Rebecca Taylor, and Cloak, gives readers behind-the-scenes insights and essential business information on creating and sustaining a successful career as an independent designer.

With advice from fashion luminaries including Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Cynthia Rowley, Diane von Furstenberg, Richard Tyler, and top executives from Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys New York, this fully updated and revised edition of The Fashion Designer Survival Guide addresses the latest trends in apparel and accessories, the newest designers, an updated introduction, and a new foreword by Diane von Furstenberg, Designer and President of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA).

The Fashion Designer Survival Guide provides the necessary tools to get a fashion line or label up and moving on the right track, including:

* How to create a viable business plan

* Figuring out how much money you need, where and how to get it, and how to make it last, including the latest on private equity

* The best sources for fabric and materials

* Navigating the pitfalls of production both at home and abroad

* Marketing, branding, and getting the product into the stores and into the customer's closets

* Romancing the press, dressing celebrities, and creative publicity techniques

* Producing a runway show that will get results