Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual

EAN:9781592532612 Label:Rockport Publishers Author:Timothy Samara Binding:Paperback

This book describes the 20 rules of graphic design Awesome book, exactly what I needed. It has lots of great examples of concepts and ideas for brainstorming2009-02-09 Rating 5. I highly recommend this to someone who is wanting to learn about the general rules of graphic design and how to communicate, not decorate, with graphic design. "A Real World Book Design Elements. " After being in the graphic design field for more than 25 yeas, I find it very hard to find books that are interesting, useful for everyday life or not out of date2009-02-07 Rating 5. Our field is constantly changing and it is hard to find books that are not "Old School". I like info that is cutting edge, not stuff that has fallen over the edge and is not useful information that can not be used in the "real world". This one is right on. Not only is it informative it is visually stimulating. It is one that I will go back and look at often for inspiratin. It really gets the creative juices flowing. Finally a useful book. Love It!. I'm an amateur-to-semipro designer and found this book to be absolutely wonderful Exceptional resource for learning and design inspiration. Besides some great principles it offers an amazing collection of examples, several on each page2009-01-07 Rating 5. They illustrate Samara's points well, and also provide a profusion of design ideas. I started by using post-its to mark pages that made especially good points, or that I wanted to revisit. By the time I was half-way through I realized I'd marked nearly every page. . For the novice, even the technologist who is not a graphical designer, this is an excellent text on graphical style Great Design Guide. It is probably the only guide you'll ever need2008-12-28 Rating 5. Very complete, very detailed and inspires good use of graphics, text and even space. Excellent. I have purchased a lot of books from Amazon; this is the first time I have actually taken the time to write a review GREAT BOOK!!!. I have decided to take a minute to write this review simply because I am so impressed with this book2008-11-17 Rating 5. I have been creating various media that involve graphic design; including web design, print material, graphics for video, etc. , for about three years now. Like many other people, I am 100% self taught. I have never been to graphic design school or taken classes in the field. So I don't know the basic fundamentals of Graphic Design & color treatment, and often find myself struggling with creativity and coming up with ideas. This book lays out the fundamentals really well. One of the nice things about this book is this; all of the examples are modern illustrations that you see in the real world today that reflect really good design. Not some hokie, boring examples that you see in a lot of other books. I have a lot more that I want to say but I will keep it short. I will say this; if you are like me a self taught web designer, print developer, or work with graphic design in any other capacity and struggle with ideas and creativity, YOU GOTTA GET THIS BOOK!!! This book is definitely opening new doors of creativity for me. Joseph K. . The graphic design equivalent to Strunk & White's The Elements of Style This book is simply the most compact and lucid handbook available outlining the basic principles of layout, typography, color usage, and space Being a creative designer is often about coming up with unique design solutions. Unfortunately, when the basic rules of design are ignored in an effort to be distinctive, design becomes useless

House Beautiful Colors for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites (House Beautiful Series)

EAN:9781588167392 Label:HearstArray Binding:Paperback

I found the color chips in the book do not match the color chips produced by the manufacturers A Waste of Time. I chose colors for my kitchen, family, dining, bedroom, hallway, and half bath2009-03-22 Rating 1. About 50 colors in all, many were Benjamin Moore colors. Only 5 came close to the chip printed in the book. Whether the problem was with the printer or the editor of the color names the result was the same. I had to use fan decks to choose colors all over again. The book provides one picture using only one of the five or so colors suggested on every two pages. If the goal is to help readers visualize what a room could look like with a more adventurous use of color, providing one picture and four color chips does little more than a book of color chips. The compact size of the book is not a plus. This book is an invaluable resource for choosing paint colors Great Resource!. I utilized this book extensively while having my house painted2008-12-14 Rating 5. The size makes it easy to carry to the paint store. Highly recommend this if you are needing help choosing paint colors. loved this book, found the colors I wanted without having to go to various stores loved this book. Was able to see which colors matched each other and what matched my colors at home2008-10-22 Rating 5. large selection of Benjamin Moore colors. . Great book with beautiful colors and suggestion on how to use House Beautiful Colorsw for Your Home: 300 Designer Favorites. Well worth the money2008-10-06 Rating 5. . I love the color pages that appear every month in House Beautiful What a handy color reference book!. This book contains much of that information in one handy location2008-10-03 Rating 5. The book is divided by rooms as well as color families and color inspirations. There is also a very good index. I am a Realtor and often help my customers with color selection. This book provides some great visuals plus the name of the paint color and manufacturer. The photos of the rooms also can give you some excelling decorating ideas. What transforms a room from monotone to magical? Color! So, if you’re nervous about splashing that white with bright, this conveniently portable primer based on House Beautiful’s most popular column will help With special insider advice from top designers, plus a directory of actual paint swatches, this book is the most comprehensive and appealing color resource available today. All the colors are searchable by shade and by room, and every paint is accompanied by its manufacturer, name, and number, so you can match what you want right from the book

Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

EAN:9781584281252 Label:Amherst Media, Inc. Author:Christopher Grey Binding:Paperback

This book covers all of the most popular lighting styles for portraits Good lighting style guide. I've yet to practice all of them but the diagrams are nice to see and I believe this book will help me to improve my photography by being able to offer more variety in my photography2009-01-19 Rating 4. It's a pretty good guide. Let me first say that if you want a thorough and exhaustive explanation on portrait lighting this is it Very, Very Informative and technical but needs just a bit more editing.. The only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that it would have been good to create a separate chapter on "Challenging Portraits" such as wrinkled faces, big noses, double chins, etc2009-01-13 Rating 4. They are mentioned in the book but really more of an afterthought and sprinkled around. Also, all of the people in this book are basically "models" but real world dictates you won't be shooting your ideally "proportional" subject. Maybe even a small section of full length as an added value would be good. . This is a perfect addition to your photography library Easy and clear... 2009-01-13 Rating 5. it is written clearly and easy to understand. All my question were answered in this book. I highly recommend it. I was excited to get this book, because I want to get into lighting Has some serious flaws. I was hoping for a section describing fluorescent "always on" lights, and the tradeoffs between them and strobes2008-12-19 Rating 2. But he doesn't mention this at all. It's all about strobes. I'm sure strobes are the way to go, but I'm very sorry he doesn't say why. Also, he got the f-stop chart wrong. He says f/4 is one stop below f/8, and that's just wrong. I wonder if he knows what a stop is, because he talks in the text as though stops are all powers of 2, rather than powers of square root of 2. I'd look for something else. . There is a lot of good information in this book, but if you are a beginner I wouldn' suggest it Wouldn't recommend for a beginner. 2008-11-16 Rating 2. Time-tested lighting strategies that will improve the quality of a portrait are detailed in this book for beginning photographers Terminology used by industry pros is explained, the equipment needed to create professional results is outlined, and the unique role that each element of the lighting setup plays in the studio is explored. Photographers learn how color, direction, form, and contrast affect the final portrait

The Marvel Encyclopedia

EAN:9780756623586 Label:DK ADULT Author:Daniel Wallace Binding:Hardcover

I got this book for my son and he absolutly love it Grrreat Book. I must admit it was quite informative on every character2009-02-26 Rating 5. . To begin with, I am not a comic book reader Not just for comic book fans. I am, however, a fan of several animated TV shows that feature Marvel characters(X-Men, Iron Man, Spiderman & His Amazing Friends, etc)2009-02-15 Rating 4. I wanted to know the back story on them, so I got this book (along with the DC Encyclopedia). The characters are featured in alphabetical order. We are given a brief but detailed history along with at least one illustration. There is also a profile that lists their "real" name, occupation, height, weight, eye/hair color, & a list of their powers or talents. The more prominent the character, the larger their layout is. The hardcover is fairly large. I have looked through it several times & have learned a lot. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the DC version seemed to be a little more thorough. For instance, it includes each characters hero/villain status while the Marvel book doesn't. For a non-comic fan, like me, that info would be nice to have up-front. . The Marvel Encyclopedia is a good quick-reference for those not very familiar with the comic world Good overview, not very detailed. For those who have been avid comic book geeks for years, the information in the Marvel Encyclopedia is not likely to be detailed or thorough enough to satisfy their curiosity2009-02-07 Rating 3. Most characters don't get more than a paragraph of information, and even the most popular characters (i. e. the Fantastic Four) only get one page that is at least half images of the characters from various story lines. The images are great - no complaints there - and it is nice to have info on the more obscure and forgotten characters that may have appeared only once in the 80's. Good coffee table book, not necessarily good encyclopedia. the book came 2 days ahead of the scheduled delivery date excellent book. the book was a gift for my brother in law who doesn't like to read and now he can't put it down2009-01-22 Rating 5. its a wonderful addition for any comic book lover . Kids love it Grandsons Christmas. Also when I get extra cash I have intentions on buying them another one2009-01-19 Rating 5. Thank you. Marvel Comics' character roster boasts some of the best known and most popular characters ever conceived-heroes that are international household names, both as comic book stars and movie stars, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk and Wolverine This unique, one-volume encyclopedia contains more than 1000 of Marvel's greatest, with full details of their powers and their thrill-packed careers. The encyclopedia's range of spectacular art features eye-popping work by Marvel's finest artists, while the authoritative text is supplied by a team of top Marvel comic book writers

Scanning Negatives and Slides: Digitizing Your Photographic Archives

EAN:9781933952307 Label:Rocky Nook Author:Sascha Steinhoff Binding:Paperback

This book was over my head as an amateur Waaaay over my head. At a glance, I knew that they were referring to equipment and activities that I didn't even know existed2009-03-19 Rating 1. It may be a great book for the right audience. I returned mine, and thank Amazon. com for a common sense way to return it. This is a book that should appeal to the baby boomer generation Scanning for Those With the Time To Do It. Most of us have slides of our childhood, or prints from our grandparents life scattered through our homes, often in attics or basements2009-03-11 Rating 5. I got this book because I'm interested in turning those prints and slides into digital images that I can save for my children. This review is about the 2d edition of the book, its publication date is 2009. Most of the reviews in Amazon concern the 1st edition. I haven't looked at the 1st edition, so I don't know the additions that have been made for this book. The book focuses on dedicated film scanners and flat bed scanners that can be used for film scanning. It is very complete in those areas. After discussing commercial scanning services, there are detailed analyses of scanner types, critiques of connection types, USB vs Firewire, the type of computer that is required, amount of disk space necessary (a lot, as a single high density image can take up 100 MBs), and the scanning software. Software evaluated include SilverFast SRD, VueScan and Digital ICE, as well as proprietary Nikon software such as Nikon Scan and Nikon Capture NX 2. There is a section on post scan processing using Photoshop and Photoshop plugins. And finally the pros and cons of various back up strategies are discussed. The back up strategy discussion doesn't include backup up to the net, using any one of a variety of commercial firms that offer it at very reasonable prices. This allows you to have automated off site backup, a good option for valuable photos. The book is focused more towards the semi-professional and professional. They're the only ones who have the time to use scanners for conversion from analog film to digital media. The rest of us will most likely use a slide copier on a digital camera to copy slides (very briefly discussed in the book), and for the occasional print, we'll either use a professional service or a scanner that didn't come with the specialized software discussed in the book. But if you'd like to go beyond those modest goals and have the time to do it, this is an excellent book. . I found this to be very useful in helping me decide what scanner to purchase as it lightly covered the various software packages that were sold with film scanners Helpful Reading. It also helped me decide not to buy less expensive software that was available to supplement the scanner package2008-12-16 Rating 4. The coverage of the software packages is not as detailed as I would have hoped for but it was adequate and accurate in its description. I did purchase a film scanner based on the facts presented in the book and I am satisfied with my purchase. For those with little photography or scanning experience (i Excellent for the intermediate photographer. e2008-11-04 Rating 5. , not knowing about bits or resolution) this book would be of little value. However, for those with intermediate experince it is excellent. It discusses, in depth, factors that affect scanners (i. e. , DPI, RAW vs JPEG, etc. ) and does so in good detail. It points out the many practical fallacies that underlie advertising with respect to scanners (that DPIs for example really are very limited in telling you the resolving quality of different scanners as they vary so much between scanners even if they are stated to be the same (i. e. , a 1600 dpi Nikon is not equivalent to a 1600 Canon). The book also provides very good high resolution pictures that actually show difference in photos (i. e. , different bit rates, resolutions, etc. ). The reason for this is the book is printed in high quality museum quality paper with high resolution (hence its relatively high cost). Examples, even subtle, are evident in these pictures, unlike so many photo books. In addition, the book is an excellent buy before purchasing a new scanner. It not only discusses the subtle differences between the major scanners (i. e. , Nikon and Canon) but there is a DVD included with pictures that actually ENABLE one to view the differences in scans produced (and the subtle differences/tradeoffs between scanners in terms of color saturation, resolution, etc. is evident in these). The last major strength of the book is its good discusion of scanning software. The major brands are discussed in detail with good comparisons between them. Very good discussion also of color correction, eliminating scratches, dust removal and other such touch ups. Last but not least equipment such as different stretch negative holders and scanhancer are discussed (helps soften scanned images). This book should be on the shelf of any person interested in advanced scanning or purchasing a scanner that is beyond entry level. Excellent book Well written. 2008-10-18 Rating 4. covers a lot of basics on the options currently available out there. Definiely reccmd it to anyone considering digitizing your archive of negatives and slides. Many photographers have either moved into digital photography exclusively or use both analog and digital media in their work In either case, there is sure to be an archive of slides and negatives that cannot be directly integrated into the new digital workflow, nor can it be archived in a digital format. Increasingly, photographers are trying to bridge this gap with the use of high-performance film scanners

Details Men's Style Manual: The Ultimate Guide for Making Your Clothes Work for You

EAN:9781592403288 Label:Gotham Author:Daniel Peres Binding:Turtleback

Like most other guys, I'm an imbecile when it comes to fashion Exactly What I Wanted. Luckily, I realized this recently and started trying to correct the problem2009-01-23 Rating 5. The Details Manual is a book I picked up, seeing that ratings-wise, it was the best selection. I'm really impressed with it. The book contains guides and models on what should be a mans closet; it touches on most subjects regarding a mans wardrobe options: Jeans, Shirts, Blazers, Suits, etc. The book gives you the basic parts of clothes, and how they should fit. I'll use the first chapter (shirts) as an example; first is shirt basics (parts of the shirt: cuffs, collars, etc. ), it goes on to shirt options giving a few examples of decently nice shirts, after examples it tells you the characteristics of a perfect fit like how it should feel like when sitting down, from here it goes to collar types, dressing options, a kind of challenge for the chapter (challenges are on every chapter), and finally ends with the don'ts of shirts (EX. Don't unbutton your shirt too far, and it tells you why). I don't really agree with the person who said this book is for 20 to 30 year olds, I think this is a great, standard manual so to speak, for a man at any age, thats my opinion though. I bought this for my husband, to educate us both on how we can update his wardrobe Good start for fashion education. We were pleased to see a simple layout, lots of pictures to see why things work, and lots of diagrams2009-01-22 Rating 5. Just what we were looking for. Very good guide for people who want to dress well Details. Men's Style Manual. It is an easy book to be read with good background and photographs2009-01-19 Rating 4. This is a great book Great book!! a must have. I was looking to upgrade my style from just jeans and t-shirts2008-12-28 Rating 5. And this book fit the bill. This book provides great tips and is filled with LOTS of pictures. There are hints on not only what is good style but examples of what is bad fashion. I have read this book cover to cover and have used it to totally revamp my wardrobe. One of my favorite parts is the examples of different uses for the same article of clothing. "How to wear a white shirt for four different occasions" "How to wear a pair of gray pants for four differnet occasion" "How to were a sweater for three different occasions". This helps you build a functional wardrobe that you can truly use. This is a great overall book and I would recommend it for anyone who is looking to improve their style. I think this is a good book Details. What I really like about this one is it's all in color2008-11-28 Rating 4. I purchased this one and the askmen. com Style Bible. I like this one better because it has the color pages and shows examples of what goes together and even what doesn't go. Over all, I do recommend this book but I have to give it 4 stars because I think it could have been better. I wanted to see more explanations and different combinations. The book covers everything including formal wear, jeans, ties & how to fold them (two different ways), shoes, jewelry, tshirts, fitting of clothes, mixing and matching, designs that go together or clash, etc. Another thing I thought was cool was with each chapter it shows a picture of a well known designer with their opinion about things related to style. At last—a sophisticated wardrobe guide for men from a respected authority, Details magazine, offering head-to-toe advice for choosing the right look, the right fit, and the right style for every situation, from boardroom pitches to casual Saturday nights Each month, Details magazine keeps hundreds of thousands of men up-to-date on the most current trends and tips for looking sharp. Now the editors of these award-winning pages give every man the wardrobe wisdom he needs in order to reach both his professional and personal goals

Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition) (Non Designer's Design Book)

EAN:9780321534040 Label:Peachpit Press Author:Robin Williams Binding:Paperback

This is an excellent book for beginning designers Very informative!. It is very easy to follow and makes wonderful sense2009-02-25 Rating 5. I was able to take my current documents and make them easier to read, understand and more eye catching. . Its alright meh.. My graphic design prof recommended this for our class2009-02-22 Rating 2. Its not a bad book but its not all it could be. I would recommend looking around. This book is on my 10 list of books to read A different perspective . I was thrilled, not only to find such a book but also to see that it's in it's 3rd edition and has so many positive reviews2009-02-21 Rating 1. I'm a graphic designer with over 15 years experience both freelancing and working full-time in various industries. And I'm a firm believer that you don't have to be a artist to be a graphic designer. In fact I've focused a lot of my attention on helping people who may be artistically challenged, and show them they can design too. So this book is right up my ally. I'm definitely going to make this book available on my website just as soon as I read it. ;) This book is extremely simple, very clear, quick and easy to read and understand, and fabulously useful Font of wisdom.... Anyone can pick it up and go through it in an afternoon, then immediately put its advice to good use2009-02-10 Rating 5. Highly recommended to all, including technical professionals who can practice some of its advice in their graphs, figures, reports, and presentations. I manage my small business and design our printed documents, but I never had any formal training in this area Good practical book on design. This book filled this gap in my education by teaching me some design theory in a fun and easy way, illustrated with clear examples2009-02-06 Rating 5. It is not all-encompassing but helps structuring one's thoughts on what constitutes a good design (incidentally, that is the stated goal of the author). My documents look way better now, on par with most profesionally designed ones. I recommend spending some time on picking a quality font outside of the MS Office collection, it makes a big difference in the end. A lot has happened in the world of digital design since the first edition of this title was published, but one thing remains true: There is an ever-growing number of people attempting to design pages with no formal training This book is the one place they can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help from trusted design instructor Robin Williams. This revised classic--now in full color--includes a new section on the hot topic of Color itself