The design briefs in The Graphic Design Exercise Book act as sparks to fire your creativity and exercises to broaden your skill set. As prompts for developing your own personal projects they can lead to unexpected developments and revitalized portfolios, helping you break into new and lucrative areas of the design industry.Each brief is illustrated with inspiring reference material providing a visual resource that can be utilized well beyond this book. Sample roughs and visuals show work in progress to give you an insight into the thought processes and creative bent of other designers. Industry insiders share their specialist knowledge, offering professional advice on a selection of fully realized projects.As an additional research tool, The Graphic Design Exercise Book gives you a full glossary and reading list for every genre covered, including:packagingvisual identity and brandingpage layoutmusic graphicsscreen-based design

    Anyone who can hold a pencil can learn to draw.In this book, Bert Dodson shares his complete drawing system--fifty-five "keys" that you can use to render any subject with confidence, even if you're a beginner.These keys, along with dozens of practice exercises, will help you draw like an artist in no time.You'll learn how to:Restore, focus, map, and intensifyFree your hand action, then learn to control itConvey the illusions of light, depth, and textureStimulate your imagination through "creative play"

    The straightforward instructions discuss topics that include conditioning raw clay and making simple shapes; producing more complex shapes, such as rounds, canes, and spirals; decorating the beads with foils, powders, and milléfiori; and creating faux effects like ivory, bone, turquoise, marble, and silver. A gallery of beads by internationally renowned artists, hundreds of step-by-step photographs of new beads designed by the author, and a clay gauge that allows one to estimate how much clay is necessary to make a specific quantity of beads are included, making this a comprehensive guide that will provide inspiration, demonstrate the range of effects that can be achieved in polymer clay, and teach beaders how to incorporate these beads into jewelry designs.

    Now, in her much-anticipated first book, embroidery pioneer Jenny Hart brings her sublime designs to everyone. Expanding on the offerings of her Stitch-It Kit, Sublime Stitching offers all the instructions, tips, and hip patterns needed to create hundreds of stylish projects. Perfect for stitchers of all experience levels, this charmingly photographed book includes simple directions and inspiring project ideas for stitching up jeans, handbags, neckties, baby bibs, and more. Best of all are the entirely original, ready-to-use iron-on patterns bound in the back. Jenny has included all sorts of delightful designsfrom cheeky margaritas and maracas to classic teapots and cupcakes. These patterns are easy to remove after using, and a cinch to store in the handy pockets on the inside covers. Believe it or not, each pattern can be used up to nine times. Now that's sublime.

    This book helps you avoid the pitfalls that can ruin a career, with advice on crucial first impressions, how to create a portfolio and approach clients, how to negotiate contracts, and how to handle, deliver, and bill the first job. It discusses how to set up a studio, maintain a steady flow of work, and manage time and money. In addition, it provides information on successful self-promotion, self-publishing, and the prosand cons of agents. Packed with useful tips gleaned from the author's own career and his work as an agent handling major artists in the US and UK, the book includes interviews with nine big-name illustrators. The reader benefits from their experience of starting out; what they learned during the metamorphosis from student to professional; what their expectations and experiences have been. In addition, art directors and commissioners describe the ways they like to be approachedand the ways they really dislike.

    Grab your mess kit - we're starting a Journal Revolution.Overthrow your inner critic's tyranny of fear and rules, and discover fresh techniques and inspiration to rant, whisper, beg, stomp or sing your truths. Celebrate your rough edges with a revolutionary new approach to art journaling, as you learn to vividly express your uncensored emotions and boldly record your deepest secrets.Each chapter pulses with honest humor, art and writing guidance, and easy ways to create vibrant, edgy art. Once you've been through basic training, you'll practice these Tactical Maneuvers with dynamic projects such as Feel The Beat: Your Life Soundtrack personalized CD covers, retro-looking Fauxlaroid pictures worth a thousand words, and framed canvas Writings on the Wall. Along the way, Sound Off! exercises help you trek confidently into new territory.Featuring a bonus gallery of art by Rosie O'Donnell and members of the Art Army, Journal Revolution will have you marching to the beat of your most creative drummer, knowing that everything in your life really is part of "the journal."

    Mail art is a collaborative art form with a long and fascinating history populated by famous artists as well as everyday practitioners. The term “mail art” refers to pieces of art sent through the mail rather than displayed or sold in traditional venues. Mail artists often use inexpensive and recycled materials including postcards, collage, rubber stamps, and photocopied images. Mail art is a truly international activity and a fun way to connect with people in every corner of the globe. Readers will learn to create decorated and illustrated envelopes, faux postage and artistamps, find penpals, make a mail art kit, and much more!

    First published in English in 1995, with an excellent introduction by Robin Kinross, this new edition includes a foreword by Rich Hendel, who considers current thinking about Tschichold's life and work.

    This inspiring and encouraging book for both novice and experienced painters teaches how to create colorful, exciting, expressive paintings through a variety of techniques, combining basic, practical painting principles with innovative personal self-expression.Flora S. Bowley's fun and forgiving approach to painting is based on the notion that “You don't begin with a preconceived painting in mind; you allow the painting to unfold.” Illustrating how to work in layers, Flora gives you the freedom to cover up, re-start, wipe away, and change courses many times along the way. Unexpected and unique compositions, color combinations, and subject matter appear as you allow your paintings to emerge in an organic, unplanned way while working from a place of curiosity and letting go of fear.—Learn techniques for working with vibrant color and avoiding mud.—Make rich and varied marks with a variety of unexpected tools.—Break compositional rules.—Embrace nonattachment as a way to keep exploring.—Keep momentum by moving your body and staying positive.—Work with what's working to let go of struggle.—Connect more deeply to the world around you to stay inspired.—Embrace layers to create rich complex paintings.—Find rhythm by spiraling between chaos and order.

    At over 400 pages and packed with 1,000 full-color photos and illustrations, The Printmaking Bible is the definitive resource to the ins-and-outs of every variety of serious printmaking technique practiced today.In-depth instructions are accompanied by profiles that show how working artists create their prints. Historical information, troubleshooting tips, and an extensive resource section provide more invaluable tools. Perfect for students, artists, print aficionados, and collectors, this is truly the ultimate volume for anyone involved in this creative and influential art form.

    Literary journals bound by magnets, or designed to look like junk mail. The sharp wit, gorgeous design, and playful why not invention of independent literary publisher McSweeney's have earned it a large and loyal following and made its journals, books, The Believer magazine, and Wholphin DVDs collectible favorites of readers and graphic designers alike. Created by the McSweeney's staff to commemorate their 11th (or 12th) anniversary, this book showcases their award-winning art and design across all the company's activities. It features hundreds of images, interviews with collaborators such as Chris Ware and Michael Chabon, and dozens of insights into McSweeney's quirky creative process and the visual experience of reading.

    Even if you don't consider yourself a doodler, the exercises and techniques in this book will give you a fun way to tap into your personal style.The invitation starts with a pencil as you work through doodle assignments. Eventually, you will learn how to size up and combine these doodles into larger compositions. Then, you will begin mixing it up with watercolor paints and, finally, with acrylic paints.In If You Can Doodle, You Can Paint we will:Dig for treasure/doodleObserve, arrange, and studyMake folded books for doodle-ready surfacesCopy your images with hand/eye coordinationScan and enlarge your doodlesAdd color combinations with colored pencil and acrylic paintCreate compositional grid paintings, andCreate a large complete painting!So what are you waiting for? Grab some pens and paints and get creative!

    Book sewing of all types (antique, flexible, lockstitch, whipstitch), plus how to make endpapers, attach headbands, case in, cover with cloth and other materials, add titling and decoration, much else. Updated list of suppliers. 254 illustrations and photographs.

    Teach Yourself Better Handwriting includes self-diagnosis tests to identify problems, before-and-after examples illustrating common faults, and a detailed section on holding the pen. It also offers advice to those with special circumstances that may affect their handwriting, such as being left-handed or having a medical condition.

    This gorgeous volume features work from 26 contemporary international artists who are creating images of astonishing intricacy, using little more than paper and blade. Featuring a host of new discoveries and including art by such stars as Nikki McClure, Rob Ryan, and Thomas Allen, as well as a number of emerging practitioners, Paper Cutting is sure to engage art buffs and indie crafters alike. An in-depth introduction by paper art expert Natalie Avella illuminates the rich history of the centuries-old form, and a whimsical preface by beloved artist Rob Ryan rounds out this delightful collection.