Best of
Art-Design

2009

Figure Drawing: Design and Invention


Michael Hampton - 2009
    This book emphasizes a simplified understanding of surface anatomy, in order to clarify the mechanics of the figure, facilitate invention, and ultimately create a skill-set that can be successfully applied to other media. In addition, this book focuses very strongly on practical usage, making sure the artist is able to assimilate the steps presented here into a cohesive working process. (Fourth printing, September 2011)

The Art of The Princess and the Frog


Jeff Kurtti - 2009
    From the creative minds of directors John Musker and Ron Clements (The Little Mermaid and Aladdin) comes an American fairy tale and musical set in the heart of New Orleans during the Jazz Age. This unforgettable tale of love, enchantment, and discovery features Tiana, a young girl with big dreams who is working hard to achieve them amid theelegance and grandeur of the fabled French Quarter. The Art of The Princess and the Frog showcases the lush concept art of this sure-to-be-classic movie, including sketches, character designs, lighting studies and storyboards, alongside inspiring quotes from the directors, producers, artists and designers, including veteran hand drawn animators that brought you many of Disney's most classic and unforgettable characters.

Walton Ford: Pancha Tantra


Walton Ford - 2009
    But a closer look reveals a complex and disturbingly anthropomorphic universe, full of symbols, sly jokes, and allusions to the 'operatic' nature of traditional natural history themes. The beasts and birds populating this contemporary artist's life-size paintings are never mere objects, but dynamic actors in allegorical struggles: a wild turkey crushes a small parrot in its claw; a troupe of monkeys wreak havoc on a formal dinner table, an American buffalo is surrounded by bloodied white wolves. The book's title derives from The Pancha Tantra, an ancient Indian book of animal tales considered the precursor to Aesop’s Fables. This large-format edition includes an in-depth exploration of Walton Ford’s oeuvre, a complete biography, and excerpts from his textual inspirations: Vietnamese folktales and the letters of Benjamin Franklin, the Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini and Audubon’s Ornithological Biography.First published in TASCHEN's limited collector's edition — now available in this popular hardcover edition!

Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities


David Airey - 2009
    But David Airey’s “Logo Design Love” is something different: it’s a guide for designers (and clients) who want to understand what this mysterious business is all about. Written in reader-friendly, concise language, with a minimum of designer jargon, Airey gives a surprisingly clear explanation of the process, using a wide assortment of real-life examples to support his points. Anyone involved in creating visual identities, or wanting to learn how to go about it, will find this book invaluable. - Tom Geismar, Chermayeff & GeismarIn Logo Design Love, Irish graphic designer David Airey brings the best parts of his wildly popular blog of the same name to the printed page. Just as in the blog, David fills each page of this simple, modern-looking book with gorgeous logos and real world anecdotes that illustrate best practices for designing brand identity systems that last. David not only shares his experiences working with clients, including sketches and final results of his successful designs, but uses the work of many well-known designers to explain why well-crafted brand identity systems are important, how to create iconic logos, and how to best work with clients to achieve success as a designer. Contributors include Gerard Huerta, who designed the logos for Time magazine and Waldenbooks; Lindon Leader, who created the current FedEx brand identity system as well as the CIGNA logo; and many more. Readers will learn:• Why one logo is more effective than another• How to create their own iconic designs• What sets some designers above the rest• Best practices for working with clients• 25 practical design tips for creating logos that last

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles


Cees W. de Jong - 2009
    Taken from a Dutch collection, this exuberant selection traverses the evolution of the printed letter in all its various incarnations via exquisitely designed catalogs displaying not only type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad, but also characters, borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations as well as often spectacular examples of the use of the letters. The Victorian fonts, sumptuous and sometimes unbelievably outrageous, are accorded a prominent place in this book. In addition to lead letters, examples from lithography and letters by window-dressers, inscription carvers, and calligraphers are also displayed and described. Featuring works by type designers including: William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, Adrian FrutigerIn order to include a vast amount of material, we have divided this text into two volumes. The first volume displays pre 20th Century type specimens, and the second covers the period from 1900 to the middle of the century. In the first volume, editor Cees de Jong and collector Jan Tholenaar write about single specimens and types; in the second, Alston Purvis outlines the history of types.

Landscape Painting: Essential Concepts and Techniques for Plein Air and Studio Practice


Mitchell Albala - 2009
    In Landscape Painting, Mitchell Albala shares his concepts and practices for translating nature's grandeur, complexity, and color dynamics into convincing representations of space and light.  Concise, practical, and inspirational, Landscape Painting focuses on the greatest challenges for the landscape artist, such as: •  Simplification and Massing: Learn to reduce nature's complexity by looking beneath the surface of a subject to discover the form's basic masses and shapes.•  Color and Light: Explore color theory as it specifically applies to the landscape, and learn the various strategies painters use to capture the illusion of natural light.•  Selection and Composition: Learn to select wisely from nature's vast panorama. Albala shows you the essential cues to look for and how to find the most promising subject from a world of possibilities. The lessons in Landscape Painting—based on observation rather than imitation and applicable to both plein air and studio practice—are accompanied by painting examples, demonstrations, photographs, and diagrams. Illustrations draw from the work of more than 40 contemporary artists and such masters of landscape painting as John Constable, Sanford Gifford, and Claude Monet.  Based on Albala's 25 years of experience and the proven methods taught at his successful plein air workshops, this in-depth guide to all aspects of landscape painting is a must-have for anyone getting started in the genre, as well as more experienced practitioners who want to hone their skills or learn new perspectives.

ART/WORK: Everything You Need to Know (and Do) As You Pursue Your Art Career


Heather Darcy Bhandari - 2009
     Unlike other creative professionals, visual artists don't have agents or managers. You have to do it all yourself, at least until you find gallery representation -- and even then, there are important business and legal issues you need to understand to stay in control of your career and ensure you're being treated fairly. Heather Darcy Bhandari, a gallery director, and Jonathan Melber, an arts lawyer, walk you through these issues so that you can essentially act as your own manager and agent. They show you, for example, how to tackle business basics such as tracking inventory and preparing invoices; how to take legal precautions like registering a copyright and drafting consignment forms; how to use promotional tools like websites and business cards; and how to approach career decisions such as choosing the right venue to show your work. In addition to drawing on their own experiences, Bhandari and Melber interviewed nearly one hundred curators, dealers, and other arts professionals, in cities across the country, about what they expect from and look for in artists. The authors also talked to a host of artists about their careers and the lessons they've learned navigating the art world. The book is full of their entertaining anecdotes and candid advice. No matter what kind of artist you are -- or want to be -- this book will help you. Art/Work covers everything you need to know to succeed, saving you from having to learn it all the hard way -- and letting you spend more time making art.

Inside the Painter's Studio


Joe Fig - 2009
    The rest of us just show up and get to work."Chuck CloseInside an art gallery, it is easy to forget that the paintings there are the end products of a process involving not only creative inspiration, but also plenty of physical and logistical details. It is these "cruder," more mundane aspects of a painter's daily routine that motivated Brooklyn artist Joe Fig to embark almost ten years ago on a highly unorthodox, multilayered exploration of the working life of the professional artist. Determined to ground his research in the physical world, Fig began constructing a series of diorama-like miniature reproductions of the studios of modern art's most legendary painters, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. A desire for firsthand references led Fig to approach contemporary artists for access to their studios. Armed with a camera and a self-made "Artist's Questionnaire," Fig began a journey through the workspaces of some of today's most exciting contemporary artists.Inside the Painter's Studio collects twenty-four remarkable artist interviews, as well as exclusive visual documentation of their studios. Featured artists were asked a wide range of questions about their day-to-day creative life, covering everything from how they organize their studios to what painting tools they prefer. Artists open up about how they set a creative mood, how they choose titles, and even whether they sit or stand to contemplate their work. Also included are a selection of Fig's meticulously detailed miniatures. In this context Fig's diminutive sculpturesreproducing minutiae of the studio, from paint-tube labels and paint splatters on the floor to the surface texture of canvasesbecome part of a fascinating new form of portraiture as diorama. Inside the Painter's Studio offers a rare look into the self-made universe of the artist's studio. Inside the Painter's Studio features interviews with Gregory Amenoff, Ross Bleckner, Chuck Close, Will Cotton, Inka Essenhigh, Eric Fischl, Barnaby Furnas, April Gornik, Jane Hammond, Mary Heilmann, Bill Jensen, Ryan McGinness, Julie Mehretu, Malcolm Morley, Steve Mumford, Philip Pearlstein, Matthew Ritchie, Alexis Rockman, Dana Schutz, James Siena, Amy Sillman, Joan Snyder, Billy Sullivan, and Fred Tomaselli.

Gig Posters Volume I: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century


Clay Hayes - 2009
    With the rising popularity of MP3 files and streaming digital music--and the near-extinction of traditional album art--concert posters have become the most important visual representation of contemporary music.Gig Posters Volume I celebrates this dynamic medium with contributions from 101 top designers--including Rob Jones of Animal Rummy, Steve Walters, Jay Ryan, Gary Houston, Aesthetic Apparatus, Patent Pending Industries, and many more. Throughout the book, their voices offer fascinating commentary and behind-the-scenes information about the creation of gig posters.Readers will also discover 101 perforated and ready-to-frame posters promoting today's most innovative and original bands--including Radiohead, the White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Girl Talk, Queens of the Stone Age, Wilco, and many, many more.Complete with an introduction by founder and curator Clay Hayes, Gig Posters Volume I celebrates the most talented designers, artists, bands, and performers of the twenty-first century.

Kindling: 12 Removable Prints


James Jean - 2009
    Bursting with unexpected beauty and hidden meaning, each of these 12 large-format prints features a lush painting on one side and a collection of intricate preliminary sketches on the other side. Housed in a sturdy keepsake portfolio, the pages, including an over-sized gatefold poster, can be left in place and leafed through time and again or removed from the portfolio and framed as eye-catching wall art.

Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes


Lindly Haunani - 2009
    In this book, they offer instruction and inspiration that focuses on polymer clay as a learning tool that readers can use to explore their own color instincts and preferences and develop their own palettes.Each chapter investigates a specific color principle, with the discussion supported by a related exercise, a “studio tool” assignment or demonstration, a polymer clay jewelry project, and a profile of a prominent polymer clay artist. Sample topics include:•The Complexity of Color•Three Properties of Color•Choosing Your Palette•Mixing Colors That Flow•Matching Colors with Precision•Games Colors Play•Orchestrating Color Combinations•Color Composition: Placement and Proportion•Playful Patterns•Tantalizing Textures

Ashley Wood's Art of Metal Gear Solid


Ashley Wood - 2009
    And it's little wonder why. The story follows infiltration expert Solid Snake as he attempts to save the world.In addition to showcasing art from Ashley Wood's graphic novel adaptations of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty, this all-new collection features the work Ash did for the Metal Gear Solid: Mobile Portable Ops video game.

Andy Warhol: "Giant" Size


Phaidon Press - 2009
    Cultural critic Dave Hickey provides a compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution while chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. More than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography and artwork not only provide a full picture of the artist's life but a telling look at late twentieth-century popular culture. Warhol's little-explored early career as a successful commercial illustrator and designer, his importance as a co-creator of the Pop movement, his mid-career switch to filmmaker and manager of the Velvet Underground, his founding of Interview magazine, and his bid for the hearts and pocketbooks of the high-flying glitterati are shown throughout this stunning new volume.

Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design


Armin Vit - 2009
    With more than 2,000 design projects illustrating more than 400 entries, it provides an intense overview of the varied elements that make up the graphic design profession through a unique set of chapters: “principles" defines the very basic foundation of what constitutes graphic design to establish the language, terms, and concepts that govern what we do and how we do it, covering layout, typography, and printing terms; “knowledge" explores the most influential sources through which we learn about graphic design from the educational institutions we attend to the magazines and books we read; “representatives" gathers the designers who over the years have proven the most prominent or have steered the course of graphic design in one way or another; and “practice" highlights some of the most iconic work produced that not only serve as examples of best practices, but also illustrate its potential lasting legacy. Graphic Design, Referenced serves as a comprehensive source of information and inspiration by documenting and chronicling the scope of contemporary graphic design, stemming from the middle of the twentieth century to today.

Elemental Magic, Volume I: The Art of Special Effects Animation: The Classical Art of Special Effects Animation


Joseph Gilland - 2009
    1 Explains and illuminates the technique, philosophy, and approach behind classical hand drawn animated effects and how to apply these skills to your digital projects. This title helps to create stunning animated effects such as sparkling pixie dust, roaring tidal waves, and raging fires. Full description

Edward Gorey: The New Poster Book


Edward Gorey - 2009
    Thirty large-format reproductions display Edward Gorey's signature crosshatched drawings, elegant watercolors, and endless wit--all perfect for framing, or to treasure as a collection.

How to Set Up and Run a Fashion Label


Toby Meadows - 2009
    In How to Set Up and Run a Fashion Label, Toby Meadows presents a no-nonsense guide to running your own business, whether it is within the clothing, accessories or footwear sectors. Packed with tips, case studies, and tasks to help you analyze yourself, your market and your product, the book is designed for anyone wanting to start their own fashion business.

Sphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini


Peter Webb - 2009
    From her opulent, bohemian childhood in Italy to her debut in a group exhibition at the age of seventeen and her rise in the international art world, Fini was legendary for both her vivacious personality and her ethereal subjects.  This is the first comprehensive look at Finis life and art.Fini’s figures—sphinxes, felines, nymphs, priestesses, nudes— are bold proclamations of female sexuality that convey a powerful feminine subconscious. Also renowned for her theatrical set-design, costumes and posters, the artist developed close relationships with other avant-garde Surrealists including Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, who became her lover. Henri Cartier-Bresson’s nude portrait of Fini in a pool, taken while they were vacationing together, recently sold at auction for a record sum. Sphinx is a fascinating portrait of a magnetic woman who lived her life with panache and elegance, deftly wrapping drama into her art.   “Fêted for her paintings, illustrations, theatre designs and, above all, her flamboyant bohemian lifestyle.” ~ The Sunday Telegraph: Stella Magazine “One of the most flamboyantly potent female artists of the mid-20th century — outspoken, provocative and willfully contrary.” ~ The Times “A sort of female Dalí—colourful, extravagant, as famous in her heyday for her personal appearance as her art.”~ Malkin Towers Media blog“This opulent tome befits her perfectly.” Grazia“Dreamlike paintings.” ~ ELuxury  “One of those artists whose life may have been her greatest work.” ~ The Philadelphia Inquirer “Glamorous Surrealist.” ~ Vogue  “A sensuous celebration of female sexuality.” ~ Dangerous Minds  “Her story is certainly fantastic.” ~ Spectator  “Compellingly individual.” ~ Bloomberg.com  “A fascinating subject.” ~ The Art Newspaper  “Gorgeous.” ~ Nothing Elegant blog  “A wonderful visual survey of an extraordinary career.” ~ The Independent “Exquisite.” ~ The Vintage Academe Blog

The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse


Scot D. Ryersson - 2009
    Her extravagant lifestyle, eccentric personality, and scandalous escapades captivated and inspired some of the most influential artists of her time. She was painted by Boldini and Augustus John, sketched by Drian and Alastair, and photographed by Man Ray and Cecil  Beaton, among others. Jean Cocteau praised her strange beauty; Jack Kerouac dedicated poems to her; Fortuny, Poiret, and Erte dressed her. She continues to inspire top designers today, including John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld.The Marchesa Casati is a visual biography, telling Casati's captivating life story alongside the art and designs she has inspired, featuring 200 images covering her lifetime and beyond. Personal family momentos, paintings, sculptures, and photographs, some never before seen, illustrate the artistic and cultural legacy she left behind. Runway images, sketches, and advertorials show her continuing impact on the present-day fashion community."The Marchesa Casati: Portraits of a Muse explores Casati's heart and soul. It's a wonderfully complete portrait of a style icon, during her life and afterward, lavishly illustrated with more than 200 images, including personal mementos, and the art and designs she has inspired even today."�Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times, September 13, 2009"The story of the Marchesa Luisa Casati's life resembles a fable for our times. Ryersson and Yaccarino present a compelling collection of images to tell the story of Italy's richest heiress at turn of the last century, whose married aristocratic life and progeny were cast aside to indulge in a dramatically theatrical existence...She emerges a heroine, living the fantasy, all the way to the end."�Glass Magazine"With incredible passion for the Marchesa Casati, Scot D. Ryersson and Michael Orlando Yaccarino have worked tirelessly to create a stunning homage and a visual biography to this legendary woman who continues to inspire fashion and style." --Diane von Furstenberg

My Wonderful World of Fashion: A Book for Drawing, Creating and Dreaming


Nina Chakrabarti - 2009
    The book encourages creativity, with illustrations to color in and designs to finish off, as well as simple ideas for making and doing (how to make a sari, turn a napkin into a headscarf, dye a T-shirt, and so on). Covering clothing, shoes, bags, jewelry, and other accessories, the illustrations span both vintage fashionsdrawing on beautiful and interesting objects from past agesand contemporary designs from the illustrator's own imagination.'Did you know...?' features that give brief historical notes encourage children to be inspired by history and by other cultures. A wonderful celebration of fashion, the book will appeal to fashion addicts from 8 years plus.

Animals and Objects in and Out of Water: Posters, 2006-2008


Jay Ryan - 2009
    Since the release of that book, he has honed his craftcontinuing without the use of computers, and screen-printing the work in his shop called the Bird Machine for bands such as the Melvins, the Shins, Modest Mouse, Andrew Bird, Shellac, My Morning Jacket, the Decemberists, Low, Built to Spill, Tortoise, and hundreds of others.This book features 120 of Jay Ryan's favorite pieces of art from the last three years, including text about each of the prints, detail photos (shot at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago), and original drawings. With a foreword by Andrew Bird and an essay by best-selling novelist Joe Meno (Hairstyles of the Damned), this volume solidifies Jay's position as one of the most unique postermakers in a thriving and exciting field.Critical praise for Jay Ryan's 100 Posters, 134 Squirrels:“Jay Ryan's decade of rock-postering has produced some superb and arresting work...I cannot think of a better visual advertisement for underground rock: posters that are wild, articulate, and well made; posters with both a heart and a brain.”—PopMatters“Not only a gorgeous catalog of the artist's many memorable posters, but a history of sorts of the Chicago underground rock scene in the last 15 years.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Serious Drawings


Marc Johns - 2009
    As we browse this selection of illustrated jests, we enter the artistas absurd and child-like world. Seemingly simple, these spare images are complex in their implications. Odd juxtapositions make us laugh and then think. As Marc Johns himself remarks afinding the humor in things often means finding the truth.a

James Tissot: The Life of Christ


Hudith F. Dolkart - 2009
    This is the first comprehensive explorotion of this extraordinary body of work.

Forms, Folds and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Need to Know but Can Never Find


Aaris Sherin - 2009
    With Forms, Folds & Sizes – Revised, you can just look them up! Including updated information and new topics, thishandbook provides designers with all the little details that can make or break a design, such as how much space to leave in the gutter when designing barrel folds, how to layout a template for a box and the ratios of each part, metric conversion charts, and standard envelope sizes in the USA, Europe, Canada and Asia.Featuring new topics such as sustainable design, web design, and grid design basics, Forms, Folds & Sizes – Revised is the one resource to turn to for answers to everything from folds and bindings to paper, imaging and much, much more!

Art Nouveau: Posters & Illustration from the Glamorous Fin de Siècle


Rosalind Ormiston - 2009
    Divided into three sections - the movement, its fashion and advertising - the reader gains great insight into the artists and innovators that helped popularize the Art Deco movement, such as Georges Barbier, Erte, Cassandre and Paul Colin. Though the focus for this intriguing book is based on the graphic arts, there are numerous examples of their impact upon other facets of the Art Deco movement. Nestled amongst posters and paintings, sculpture and jewellery assert their similarity, whether through line, form or theme.

Naïve: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design


Robert Klanten - 2009
    This compilation introduces a new wave of young designers who are rediscovering the stylistic elements reminiscent of classic graphic design such as silkscreen printing, classical typography, hand lettering, woodcutting and folk art and integrating them into their work. Inspired by 20th Century American legends such as Saul Bass, Charley Harper and Alexander Girard, the burgeoning designers and their work showcased this in this book are inspiring, ranging from illustrations, poster art, editorials, book covers and record sleeves to stationary and textiles."

Illusive: Contemporary Illustration Part 3


Robert Klanten - 2009
    Even more cutting-edge illustration talents scouted from around the world and indexed into the definitive reference for contemporary illustration.

Design Meets Disability


Graham Pullin - 2009
    This revolution has come about through embracing the design culture of the fashion industry. Why shouldn't design sensibilities also be applied to hearing aids, prosthetic limbs, and communication aids? In return, disability can provoke radical new directions in mainstream design. Charles and Ray Eames's iconic furniture was inspired by a molded plywood leg splint that they designed for injured and disabled servicemen. Designers today could be similarly inspired by disability.In Design Meets Disability, Graham Pullin shows us how design and disability can inspire each other. In the Eameses' work there was a healthy tension between cut-to-the-chase problem solving and more playful explorations. Pullin offers examples of how design can meet disability today. Why, he asks, shouldn't hearing aids be as fashionable as eyewear? What new forms of braille signage might proliferate if designers kept both sighted and visually impaired people in mind? Can simple designs avoid the need for complicated accessibility features? Can such emerging design methods as "experience prototyping" and "critical design" complement clinical trials?Pullin also presents a series of interviews with leading designers about specific disability design projects, including stepstools for people with restricted growth, prosthetic legs (and whether they can be both honest and beautifully designed), and text-to-speech technology with tone of voice. When design meets disability, the diversity of complementary, even contradictory, approaches can enrich each field.

Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture


Valerie Viscardi - 2009
    Virtually all the world’s major luxury houses have associated themselves with contemporary art through sponsorships, commissions, or foundations, and these points of exchange nourish the increasingly symbiotic relationship between fashion, art, and other design disciplines. Of all modern luxury brands, Louis Vuitton can claim to maintain the richest and most varied associations with the world of art. Included in this volume are Louis Vuitton’s important collaborations with an elite group of artists, architects, designers, and photographers, such as Jun Aoki, Shigeru Ban, Vanessa Beecroft, Olafur Eliasson, Zaha Hadid, David LaChapelle, Jean Larivière, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Stephen Sprouse, James Turrell, Inez Van Lamsweerde, and Vinoodh Matadin. The book is structured as a seductive anthology of the house’s most visible collaborations. Critical essays examine and position Louis Vuitton’s patronage—under the guidance of Artistic Director Marc Jacobs—during one of the most fertile periods of contemporary art and design.

Fairies Fantasy: Learn to paint the enchanted world of fairies, angels, and mermaids


Meredith Dillman - 2009
    Embodying all that is feminine, sparkly, and magical, these fantastic creatures have found their ways into countless stories, films, and works of art that appeal to people of all ages. And now anyone can discover how to bring them to life in watercolor with this delightful 64-page guide. Inside, artist-author Meredith Dillman shares the methods of her unique artistic style, which is influenced by Pre-Raphaelite paintings, turn-of-the-twentieth-century book illustrations, and modern-day Japanese manga—a combination that results in beautiful, contemporary artwork. Meredith provides instruction specific to creating the mythical beauties and their whimsical surroundings, showing readers how to draw and paint faces, bodies, hair, clothing, and more. The author also guides readers through several inspiring projects, demonstrating how to re-create the magic step by step.

Exodyssey: Visual Development of an Epic Adventure by Steambo


Scott Robertson - 2009
    In "Exodyssey" - created in parallel with a series of educational DVDs - the group demonstrates their creative production art techniques developed through many years of experience in the field (E.A., Activision, Unisoft, Epic, Digital Dimension, Canol Plus...). Follow the Steambot crew through an original but also realistic point of view on futuristic civilizations, space transportation and society.Text in English with an introduction also in French, Spanish and Japanese.

American Quilts: The Democratic Art, 1780–2007


Robert Shaw - 2009
    Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, it’s a fascinating chronicle of the growth and evolution of an art form with a rich heritage. Not only does author Robert Shaw provide an insightful look at quilting aesthetics, he places the craft in its historical, cultural, and socioeconomic context, providing a visually lush journey through American history.This opulent volume starts with old-world traditions and goes up to date, examining key moments that had an impact on quilting culture—including Amish emigration, slavery and the Civil War, the Depression, new sewing technology, and the Bicentennial. More than 350 stunning images capture a rich variety of work created by people from all walks of life.

Mastering Raku: Making Ware * Glazes * Building Kilns * Firing


Steven Branfman - 2009
    Ceramists will be informed and inspired by this newly updated, technique-based book with how-to photos and text. It covers such topics as types of clay, forming techniques, firing, glazes, decoration, and kilns and kiln construction. Mastering Raku also includes a gallery of works from around the world along with updated clay and glaze recipes.

Metahaven: Uncorporate Identity


Daniel Van Der Velden - 2009
    A science fiction book about design, it describes corporate identity beyond certainty, entwined with politics, speculation and information networks. Carved out from the multipolar geopolitical spaces of the early 21st century and the paradoxical leftovers and peripheries of ancient regimes and ruined ideologies, Uncorporate Identity is at once an artistic manifesto for design under globalization and a workbook of essays, narratives and truisms investigating the ambiguous state of identity and branding today.Authored by Metahaven, a design and research think tank consisting of Daniel van der Velden, Vinca Kruk and Gon Zifroni, Uncorporate Identity is edited by Marina Vishmidt and includes contributions by and collaborations with Armin Linke, Dieter Lesage, Chantal Mouffe, Peter van Ham, Regula StAmpfli, Michael Taussig, BAVO, Mihnea Mircan, Ruedi Baur, David Reinfurt, Adriaan Mellegers, Tina Clausmeyer and many others.

Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, and Maybe Even the World


Warren Berger - 2009
    The first book to reveal how thinking like a designer can help solve the greatest challenges we face in business, society, and our daily lives. What can we learn from the ways great designers think--and how can it improve our world? In this highly original book by journalist Warren Berger, in collaboration with celebrated designer Bruce Mau, ten groundbreaking principles of design are shown in action--addressing business, social, and personal challenges and improving the way we think, work, and live. "Glimmer" takes readers on a journey through today's fascinating world of design, where the formerly distinct disciplines of graphic, product, and social design are undergoing "smart recombinations." In the cutting-edge studios of Mau and other visionaries, everything is ripe for reinvention--including the ways businesses function, children learn, and communities thrive. Designers are solving problems at an unprecedented pace today by using improved technology and the highly practical design principles described in this book, such as "Ask stupid questions," "Make hope visible," "Work the metaphor," "Embrace constraints," and "Begin anywhere." "Glimmer" inspires readers to apply these same principles to their own life challenges. While celebrated designers work on re-creating the world, Berger reveals the growing grassroots "glimmer movement" in which everyday people are emerging as designers and problem solvers. Readers will be fascinated by how "transformation design" is reinventing companies and addressing thorny social problems. Berger shares stories of how burned fingers, wrenched backs, and mixed-up pills all led to ingenious new product designs. In a time of anxiety and retrenchment, this hopeful yet hardheaded book illuminates "the glimmer of possibility and potential--that first spark of an innovative idea or a life-changing plan." According to Berger, "This faint light is all around us and also within us, if we can learn to recognize and nurture it." The best designers already know how to transform that glimmer of possibility into the steady glow of creation and innovation --and with the inspiration of "Glimmer," we're now all able to do the same.

Mushroom Magick: A Visionary Field Guide


Arik Moonhawk Roper - 2009
    Arik Roper's exquisite painted portraits of magic mushrooms illustrate more than 90 of the known hallucinogenic species from around the world. He captures their powerful auras, adding to a tradition of Mushroom art that stretches back more than 400 years. Popular culture critics Erik Davis and Daniel Pinchbeck provide background and testimony in elegant essays, and mushroom expert Gary Lincoff contributes notes. This beautifully designed and profusely illustrated mushroom bible will appeal to nature lovers, mushroom hunters, and enthusiasts of all things psychedelic.

Negative Space


Noma Bar - 2009
    Of course, the term also refers to any topic that conjures feelings of unease and discomfort. Furthering the partnership with MBP begun with the publication of Guess Who?, internationally acclaimed illustrator Noma Bar has compiled his newest collection of work, Negative Space.

Bob's World: The Life and Boys of A.M.G.'s Bob Mizer


Dian Hanson - 2009
    His diaries, kept from the age of eight, make it clear that he was openly homosexual from his late teens, but until the age of 42 he lived and worked in his mother's L.A. rooming house, where his strict ethical code prevented him from fully expressing his fantasies. For 24 years he worked in black and white and never showed a completely naked man, but following his mother's death in 1964 Mizer built a kingdom dedicated to the pleasures of male flesh, and photographed fully nude men in explicit poses and psychedelically saturated colors. In the 1970s and '80s Bob Mizer's compound, centered around the old rooming house, became home to dozens of his young models, who lived outdoors on couches and porch gliders among the chickens, geese, goats and monkeys, Roman statuary, cast off Christmas trees and other sundry props that featured in his increasingly quirky films and photography. Sometimes called the Hugh Hefner of gay publishing for his pioneering magazine (republished in entirety by TASCHEN in 1997), Mizer influenced figures in art and society from David Hockney–who first came to America partly to meet Bob Mizer–to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who modeled for Mizer in 1975. Bob's World: The Life and Boys of AMG's Bob Mizer is the first book to celebrate the full-color, deliriously uninhibited carnival of late-period Mizer. Over 250 photos are accompanied by an oral history by contributing artists David Hockney, Jack Pierson and John Sonsini, photographers David Hurles and Hal Roth, models Ben Sorensen and Andrew Sears, and Wayne Stanley, inheritor of the Mizer estate. The book includes a one-hour DVD of Mizer films spanning 1958–1980, specially edited for this edition.

The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berg


Robert Murphy - 2009
    Saint Laurent’s extraordinary taste went well beyond the world of fashion, and in this lavish volume, the eight splendid homes he shared with friend and lifelong business partner Pierre Bergé are presented in immaculate detail. Notoriously shy, the designer and Bergé lived in luxury, surrounded by incomparable collections of furniture and art. From the serene interiors of their apartment on the Rue Babylone to the incandescent beauty of the Villa Majorelle in Marrakech, Bergé and Saint Laurent’s sensibilities come alive. Taken after Saint Laurent’s death in 2008, Ivan Terestchenko’s photographs capture these exquisite surroundings in full, showcasing nineteenth-century French décor, important paintings by modern and Romantic artists, and masterpieces of furniture, sculpture, and silver ranging from the Renaissance to the Art Deco era. Though the homes presented here are now empty, The Private World of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé is a testament to a rare union of passion, elegance, and supreme connoisseurship.   “The quintessence of very grand and highly personal French taste.” -- Le Figaro  “As he did with fashion, Yves seized at one moment in time, a taste that was in the air, only to show his mastery. During the 1970s exoticism and Marrakech were currents in the air and St. Laurent became the authority. He was interested in Art Deco before it became fashionable, even before Andy Warhol and Karl Lagerfeld . . . St Laurent’s and Bergé’s taste is an expression of a culture and is always a story. When they decorated a house it was no longer an ordinary house: it became a story to tell.”-- Jacques Grange   “Takes readers . . . inside all eight of the couple's spectacular homes, from Paris to Marrakech.”-- Elle Decor  “Some of the most influential interiors of our time.”-- Town & Country  “(A) beautiful glimpse into their private world.”-- Habitually Chic  “A visually stunning book about a richly layered lifestyle built over the course of 40-plus years.”-- Home Design with Kevin Sharke y “(An) amazing book.”-- Decorati Access Interior Design Magazine  “You'll agree that this is a book with which you will be enchanted. And if a little of that YSL flair rubs off on us, all the better.”-- The Peak of Chic  “Terestchenko’s photographs beautifully capture the opulence and eclecticism of their dwellings.”--Clear “In this lavish volume, the eight splendid homes . . . are presented in immaculate detail.”-- California Home + Design “Sumptuously showcase(s) the eight immaculately designed homes (of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé).”-- Elle <!--StartFragment--> “A stunning book.” ~ ESFN   FEATURED ON THE TODAY SHOW: Holiday Guide: Find the Perfect Book for Each Person on Your List (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/3350894...)

Strokes of Genius 2: The Best of Drawing Light and Shadow


Rachel Rubin Wolf - 2009
    Fresh from the studios and sketchpads of 100 artists, these striking creations run the gamut from highly detailed, remarkably realistic images that were months in the making, to contour drawings, journal sketches and gestures captured in mere minutes. Selections feature original approaches to landscapes, portraits and other classic subjects, along with offbeat inspirations like vintage photos and washed-off watercolor paintings.In these pages you'll find: A vast range of mediums and combinations, including charcoal, pencil, pastel, ink and moreAn exciting mix of styles and techniques presented in subject-specific chapters: Portraits, Cityscapes, Animals, the Human Figure, Landscapes and Still LifeFirsthand perspective on the processes behind the work, offering expert insights on capturing atmosphere, telling a story, finding the right pose, achieving vitality of line, and much moreWith a special focus on the power of light and shadow, this work has an immediacy that is honest and engaging. Filled with strokes of poetry, precision and passion, this is a memorable collection of art as well as an inspiring survey of techniques that artists use to translate impressions to paper.

Drawing for Architecture


Leon Krier - 2009
    Drawn with wit and grace, these clever sketches do not try to please or flatter the architectural establishment. Rather, they make an impassioned argument against what Krier sees as the unquestioned doctrines and unacknowledged absurdities of contemporary architecture. Thus he shows us a building bearing a suspicious resemblance to Norman Foster's famous London "gherkin" as an example of "priapus hubris" (threatened by detumescence and "priapus nemesis"); he charts "Random Uniformity" ("fake simplicity") and "Uniform Randomness" ("fake complexity"); he draws bloated "bulimic" and disproportionately scrawny "anorexic" columns flanking a graceful "classical" one; and he compares "private virtue" (modernist architects' homes and offices) to "public vice" (modernist architects' "creations"). Krier wants these witty images to be tools for re-founding traditional urbanism and architecture. He argues for mixed-use cities, of "architectural speech" rather than "architectural stutter," and pointedly plots the man-vehicle-landneed ratio of "sub-urban man" versus that of a city dweller. In an age of energy crisis, he writes (and his drawings show), we "build in the wrong places, in the wrong patterns, materials, densities, and heights, and for the wrong number of dwellers"; a return to traditional architectures and building and settlement techniques can be the means of ecological reconstruction. Each of Krier's provocative and entertaining images is worth more than a thousand words of theoretical abstraction.

Medieval Jewellery in Europe 1100-1500


Marion Campbell - 2009
    This stunning book draws on the major collection at the V&A to focus on the heart of the Medieval period from 1100 to 1500.Royalty and the nobility wore gold, silver, or precious gems, while humbler ranks wore base metals, copper or pewter, sometimes set with colored glass, in imitation of gems. This richly illustrated book, one of very few on this subject, looks at the jewels themselves—rings, bracelets, necklaces, amulets, crosses and crucifixes—as well as contemporary portraits and sculpture to place the jewelry in its cultural context.

A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920


David Adams Cleveland - 2009
    This is an indispensable reference for museums, galleries, collectors, artists and academics, covering some 50 artists, with over 300 colour plates and many never-before-published works on American Tonalism.

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing


Doug Clouse - 2009
    The style was known as "artistic" and was quickly taken up by letterpress printers as the design idiom ofchoice for advertisements, packaging, and all of the other ephemera occasioned by the rapid expansion of America's economy. For a while, this commercial style represented the best in popular taste. But just as quickly as this exuberant style was embraced, it fell abruptly out of favor. By century's end, the ornate bits of artistic printing were tossed into the gutter, and the style itself relegated to the dustbin of history. The rise and fall of this highly embellished idiom, which culminated in its denouncement as aesthetically and morallysuspect"a freak of fancy"are traced in this, the first comprehensive study devoted to the history of American artistic printing. Authors Douglas Clouse and Angela Voulangas explore the style's origins in the British Aesthetic Movement and analyze its distinctive features: idiosyncratic color harmonies, eclectic choice of type andornament, compartmentalized compositional strategies. They also present a landmark portfolio of letterpress printing samples, drawn from some of the most important public and private print archives. More than 150 examples of period ephemera, printers' own tour de force promotional pieces, and specimens of type and ornament are reproduced, many for the very first time since their initial circulation more than a century ago.The Handy Book of Artistic Printing celebrates a previously berated and today largely forgotten episode of design historyone of increasing interest in light of the recent embrace of ornament by some leading contemporary designers. This book will be of value to graphic designers, but also to fine artists, visual merchandisers, and collectors of ephemera everywhere.

Alla Prima: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Direct Painting


Al Gury - 2009
    It covers the history of the direct methods in both Europe and America. From there, it includes detailed step-by-step lessons and discussions on drawing structure, broken and smooth brushwork, and colour development.

Masters of Contemporary Watchmaking


Michael Clerizo - 2009
    In Switzerland, in the 1970s, tens of thousands lost their jobs in the watch industry, and for a time it looked as if a 500-year-long tradition of skills would be lost forever. Today, against the odds, artist craftsmen have triumphantly brought about the renaissance of the mechanical handmade watch.The aesthetic agenda is being set by a group of remarkable independents. This book tells their story, and it is beautifully illustrated with hundreds of examples of their virtuoso work.Here is George Daniels, who systematically set out to surpass the skills of the most celebrated watchmaker of all time, Abraham Louis Breguet. Daniels, the world’s most renowned watchmaker, has even improved upon those eighteenth-century skills by inventing a lever escapement requiring no lubrication. Svend Andersen (Denmark), Vincent Calabrese (Italy), Alain Silberstein and Vianney Halter (France), Aniceto Jiménez Pita (Spain), Marco Lang (Germany), Philippe Dufour, Antoine Preziuso, and Franck Muller (Switzerland), and Roger Smith (England) are among the other participants. In addition to the major interviews, other craftsmen and workshops from Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Holland, Finland, Ireland, and Hungary are introduced and illustrated.

Jacob Lawrence in the City


Susan Goldman Rubin - 2009
    With rhythmic text and 11 iconic paintings, this book is both an introduction to an influential artist and a celebration of city life.

A Decade of Negative Thinking: Essays on Art, Politics, and Daily Life


Mira Schor - 2009
    Mixing theory and practice, the personal and the political, she tackles questions about the place of feminism in art and political discourse, the aesthetics and values of contemporary painting, and the influence of the market on the creation of art. Schor writes across disciplines and is committed to the fluid interrelationship between a formalist aesthetic, a literary sensibility, and a strongly political viewpoint. Her critical views are expressed with poetry and humor in the accessible language that has been her hallmark, and her perspective is informed by her dual practice as a painter and writer and by her experience as a teacher of art.In essays such as “The ism that dare not speak its name,” “Generation 2.5,” “Like a Veneer,” “Modest Painting,” “Blurring Richter,” and “Trite Tropes, Clichés, or the Persistence of Styles,” Schor considers how artists relate to and represent the past and how the art market influences their choices: whether or not to disavow a social movement, to explicitly compare their work to that of a canonical artist, or to take up an exhausted style. She places her writings in the rich transitory space between the near past and the “nextmodern.” Witty, brave, rigorous, and heartfelt, Schor’s essays are impassioned reflections on art, politics, and criticism.

Colour Mania


Viction:ary - 2009
    Feeling blue. White lies. Grey areas. In every language spoken on earth human beings use colors to express themselves. World renowned author, Vladimir Nabokov*, claimed he could hear color and actually assigned a color to each letter of the alphabet based on each letter's particular sound. The Eskimos of the polar regions have countless words that uniquely describe the color white. In the world of graphics some designers have devoted their entire body of work to one color, sometimes showing it off in all of its full-bodied glory, sometimes stripping it back to its barest essentials.Colour Mania brings together an eclectic group of talented designers who have one thing in common: they are artists who simply can't get enough of one particular color be that red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black or white. This book offers a depth of understanding of individual colors that is unprecedented.

Etcetera: Creating beautiful interiors with the things you love


Sibella Court - 2009
    Etcetera draws on five of Sibella's favourite color themes as a framework for the display of her impeccable eye for detail and her bowerbird tendencies.Each section will draw you into Sibella's world of color and texture through inspirational room settings, to the most intimate of details.

Design for Obama: Posters for Change: A Grassroots Anthology


Steven Heller - 2009
    This selection of the very best—curated by Spike Lee and Aaron Perry-Zucker—is a visual document of the most inspirational U.S. presidential campaign in living history. From its inception, the Barack Obama campaign was destined to make history. Its message of inclusion and empowerment was spread by thousands of volunteers, a grassroots organization of unprecedented size and enthusiasm. Design for Obama built on this spirit with an online forum where artists, designers and supporters could upload their artworks and download others. Shepard Fairey’s social realist "Hope" poster became 2008’s enduring image, inspiring scores of designs that appeared on the streets, at rallies and registration drives, and in homes and offices around the country. Edited by designforobama.org founder Aaron Perry-Zucker and filmmaker Spike Lee, this collection showcases over 200 of the best pro-Obama posters. Contributors range from prominent graphic and street artists to young up-and-comers. With essays by Spike Lee, Perry-Zucker, and design historian Steven Heller, this outstanding collection serves as a matchless historical document of the widespread visual creativity that helped spur Obama to victory.

How Successful Artists Study: Effective Learning Ideas and Knowledge for Artists


Sam Adoquei - 2009
    NEW ART BOOK FOR ARTISTS AND ART STUDENTS

Alex Steinweiss. The Inventor of the Modern Album Cover


Alex Steinweiss - 2009
    101-1,600: Limited to 1,500 numbered copies, each signed by the artist. Also available in an Art Edition (No. 1-100), including a serigraph print."I love music so much and I had such ambition that I was willing to go way beyond what the hell they paid me for. I wanted people to look at the artwork and hear the music." —Alex Steinweiss Alex Steinweiss invented the album cover as we know it, and created a new graphic art form. In 1940, as Columbia Records’ young new art director, he pitched an idea: Why not replace the standard plain brown wrapper with an eye-catching illustration? The company took a chance, and within months its record sales increased by over 800%. His covers for Columbia— combining bold typography with modern, elegant illustrations —took the industry by storm and revolutionized the way records were sold. Over three decades, Steinweiss made thousands of original artworks for classical, jazz, and popular record covers for Columbia, Decca, London, and Everest; as well as logos, labels, advertising material, even his own typeface, the Steinweiss Scrawl. He launched the golden age of album cover design and influenced generations of designers to follow. Less well known—but included here—are his posters for the U.S. Navy; packaging and label design for liquor companies; film title sequences; as well as his fine art. Includes an essay by design historian Steven Heller; Steinweiss’ personal recollections from an epic career; and extensive ephemera from the Steinweiss archive, most of it never before published.

The Stephen Sprouse Book


Roger Padilha - 2009
    One of the first American designers to mix graffiti and a punk aesthetic with fashion, Sprouse manipulated conventional notions of style, and his unique sensibility has inspired designers from John Galliano to Raf Simmons to Marc Jacobs. Sprouse’s career started in the late seventies, when, after working for Halston, he migrated to a warehouse on the Bowery and started making outfits for his neighbor, Debbie Harry. The fashion world quickly embraced his innovative, culturally relevant sensibility and downtown edge. But Sprouse’s inability to compromise his artistic vision for the rigid fashion business compromised his commercial success. The Padilhas possess the largest private collection of Sprouse’s work, and were given exclusive access to his archives by his family for this project. They also obtained never-before-published images from photographers such as Steven Meisel, Bob Gruen, and Mert and Marcus. The book features a foreword by the novelist Tama Janowitz, one of Sprouse’s closest friends. The release of this book coincides with a retrospective at Deitch Projects. The book will be available with four different jackets, each featuring a different Day-Glo color, an homage to Sprouse’s iconic album cover for Debbie Harry’s Rockbird.

Walls Notebook


Sherwood Forlee - 2009
    Indulge your inner graffiti artist - without the risk of jail time!

Animation Development: From Pitch to Production


David B. Levy - 2009
    David Levy has been through every aspect of the pitching process--preparation, hope, rejection, success--and now he wraps up his valuable experience to deliver this comprehensive guide on the industry and process. Animation Development will help readers discover how to tap into their creativity to develop something personal yet universal, push projects through collaborations and partnerships, set up pitch meetings, get legal representation and agents, and manage the emotional roller-coaster common to the pitching and development process.Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Grid Index [With CDROM]


Carsten Nicolai - 2009
    Book annotation not available for this title.

William Morris and Morris & Co.


Linda Parry - 2009
    Beautifully designed, accessible, and informative, these little books are a repository of ideas and inspiration for designers of all kinds. Included in each volume is a CD of all the images shown within--to be redrawn, reworked, or even licensed for further use.  The books are available individually or in a beautiful decorative slipcase. William MorrisWilliam Morris's world-famous designs possess a timeless quality and appeal that is surprising in work created over 120 years ago. He began designing patterns in the 1860s, for his own use and as part of an effort to improve the general standards of decorative design.

The Mfa Handbook: A Guide to the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston


Gilian Shallcross - 2009
    Through an inexhaustible variety of media, in forms as diverse and surprising as history itself, artists and craftspeople have always expressed the common needs and yearnings of humankind. From ancient works in wood, clay and precious metals to Modern painting, metalwork, sculpture and video, the varied collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, provide an unrivaled telling of the story of art. This new, fully updated and redesigned edition of the definitive guide to the MFA's most enduring masterpieces provides a window on works that have surprised, delighted and inspired visitors since the museum opened in 1876. Featuring more than 500 objects, from Native American ceramics to European shoes, Egyptian funerary arts and Warhol silk screens, The MFA Handbook reproduces these works in vibrant color, accompanied by brief, incisive commentaries.

Vitamin 3-D: New Perspectives in Sculpture and Installation


Phaidon Press - 2009
    Following the successful reception of Vitamin P: New Perspectives in Painting, Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing and Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography, Vitamin 3-D aims to create a lively and informative survey of contemporary sculpture and installation from around the globe.  With 120 artists selected by 40 nominators, Vitamin 3-D will be an up-to-the-minute guide to the best artists working in three dimensions.

Silhouette: The Art of the Shadow


Emma Rutherford - 2009
    In this first major work on the art of the silhouette, art historian Emma Rutherford draws from dozens of American and European sources to create a fascinating history of the art form—and to illuminate the compelling social history hidden behind its shadows.