Escher was born in 1898 in Leeuwarden (Netherlands). He received his first drawing lessons during secondary school from F.W. van der Haagen, who also taught him the block printing, thus fostering Escher's innate graphic talents. From 1912 to 1922 he studied at the School of Architecture and Ornamental Design in Haarlem, where he was instructed in graphic techniques by S. Jessurun de Mesquita, who greatly influenced Escher's further artistic development. Between 1922 and 1934 the artist lived and worked in Italy. Afterwards Escher spent two years in Switzerland and five in Brussels before finally moving back to Barn in Holland, where he died in 1972. M.C. Escher is not a surrealist drawing us into his dream world, but an architect of perfectly impossible worlds who presents the structurally unthinkable as though it were a law of nature. The resulting dimensional and perspectival illusions bring us into confrontation with the limitations of our sensory perception. About the Series: Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Art series features:a detailed chronological summary of the life and oeuvre of the artist, covering his or her cultural and historical importance a concise biography approximately 100 illustrations with explanatory captions

    Staying abreast of recent developments in the field is imperative for both design professionals and students. Thoroughly updated to maintain its relevancy in today's digital world, Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Fourth Edition continues to provide a compre-hensive overview of every aspect of designing with type, now in full color. This Fourth Edition of the bestselling text in the field offers detailed coverage of such essential topics as the anatomy of letters and type families, visual communications and design aesthetics, and designing for legibility. Supplementing these essential topics are theoret-ical and structural problem-solving approaches by some of the leading design educators across the United States. Unwrapping the underlying concepts about typographic form and message, Typographic Design, Fourth Edition includes four pictorial timelines that illustrate the evolution of typography and writing within the context of world events - from the origins of writing more than 5,000 years ago to contemporary Web site and electronic page design. New features include: Full-color treatment throughout A new ancillary Web site containing resources for self-learners, students and professors (www.typographicdesign4e.com) Two new chapters: The Typographic Grid and Typographic Design Process An updated design education section that includes recent examples of projects assigned by leading design educators New case studies that showcase design for Web sites and animated typography projects Case studies detailing examples of visual identification systems, environmental graphics, book and magazine design, Web site design, type in motion, and wayfinding graphics Updated coverage of digital type technology

    They provide examples of a dozen alphabet styles, as well as many decorative details. Color photography reveals more than merely the necessary brush and pen techniques—it also shows a vast range of ideas for using calligraphy in new and surprising ways.

    Author Mike Rohde shows you how to incorporate sketchnoting techniques into your note-taking process--regardless of your artistic abilities--to help you better process the information that you are hearing and seeing through drawing, and to actually have fun taking notes. The Sketchnote Handbook explains and illustrates practical sketchnote techniques for taking visual notes at your own pace as well as in real time during meetings and events. Rhode also addresses most people's fear of drawing by showing, step-by-step, how to quickly draw people, faces, type, and simple objects for effective and fast sketchnoting. The book looks like a peek into the author's private sketchnote journal, but it functions like a beginner's guide to sketchnoting with easy-to-follow instructions for drawing out your notes that will leave you itching to attend a meeting just so you can draw about it.

    Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue “ultramarine” paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn’t afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red—still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today—has come from the blood of insects.

    In Stefan Sagmeister's telling words, Bantjes's work is his  "favorite example of beauty facilitating the communication of meaning."

    A fascinating mix of established master draftsmen and neophytes, working in a vast range of techniques, Illustration Now! Vol. 3 features illustrators from 30 countries, including  information about their career paths, and lists of selected exhibitions. Also included is an introduction by specialist Steven Heller on current trends in the field. This book is perfect for graphic artists, creative professionals and illustration students, as well as anyone with an appreciation for draftsmanship and visual language.

    Pub Date: 2006 Pages: 176 Publisher: Ava Publishing. SA Click on the Google Preview image above to the read some pages of this book! Creating great illustration work the requires specialist skills and knowledge. and in addition to practical applications. this text teaches a comprehension of basic communication theory and creative strategies. Contents: IntroductionContentsp. 4How to Get the Most from this Bookp. 6Forewordp. 8Introductionp. 10Communicating IdeasThe Blank Sheet of Paperp. 18Why ??Ideasp. 20The iefingp. 24Investigation of the Subject Matterp. 26Gathering Inspirationp . 30ainstormingp. 34Explaining the Visualp. 38Longevityp. 44The Medium is the MessageThe Power of the Pencilp. 50Material Worldp. 55Art School Ethosp. 60Illustration as a Disciplinep. 65A Demanding Lifep. 70Mixing Mediap. 72The Digital Dividep. 74The New Wave of Illustratorsp. 80From Outc...

    Organized chronologically, the book illuminates the dynamic relationship between design and manufacturing as well as the roles of technology, social change, and commercial forces on the course of design history. The layout of each chapter reflects the unique style of the period it describes, and some 450 illustrations throughout the volume provide a visual record of more than one hundred years of creative achievement in the field.Under the influence of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement in the late 19th century, a new era began for design arts. Fueled by popular Art Nouveau advertising, the work of graphic designers became central in the growing consumer goods economy. This book traces the emergence of varied modernist design styles in the early 20th century and then examines the wartime politicization of regional styles through American government patronage and revolutionary Soviet ideas. Richly contextualized chapters chronicle the history of the Bauhaus and the rise of the International Style, followed by the postmodern movement of the 1970s and '80s. After highlighting recent developments in graphic design around the globe, the author discusses the impact of inexpensive, powerful design software and the challenges facing designers now.

    Spanning over a century of sweeping changes, from women's rights to the Great Depression to World War II to the rise of the digital era, this book unpacks the ways in which the world has been--and continues to be--remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design.In this essential text, Kuang and Fabricant map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change--an underappreciated but essential history that's pieced together for the first time. Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, User Friendly provides a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. In User Friendly, Kuang and Fabricant tell the whole story for the first time--and you'll never interact with technology the same way again.

    In Typographic Systems, Kim Elam, author of our bestselling books, Geometry of Design and Grid Systems, explores eight major structural frameworks beyond the gridincluding random, radial, modular, and bilateralsystems. By taking the reader through exercises, student work, and professional examples, Elam offers a broad range of design solutions. Once essential visual organization systems are understood the designer can fluidly organize words or images within a structure, combination of structures, or a variation of a structure. With clarity and substance, each systemfrom the structured axis to the nonhierarchical radial arrayis explained and explored so that the reader comes away with a better understanding of these intricate complex arrangements. Typographic Systems is the seventh title in our bestselling Design Briefs series, which has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide.

    Sahre explores his mostly vain attempts to escape his "suburban Addams Family" upbringing and the death of his elephant-trainer brother. He also wrestles with the cosmic implications involved in operating a scanner, explains the disappearance of ice machines, analyzes a disastrous meeting with Steely Dan, and laments the typos, sunsets, and poor color choices that have shaped his work and point of view. Two-Dimensional Man portrays the designer's life as one of constant questioning, inventing, failing, dreaming, and ultimately making.

    The one-size-fits-all approach to your best life is outdated - you can do better.You don't have to be exceptional (or even the exception) to be successful. You just need to learn the algorithm. Through her own success experiment, Lillian transformed herself from a two-time uni drop-out stuck in a career that paid in burnout, into a highly sought-after media personality FlexMami. And here she shows that her experience hasn't been a fluke. Instead of focusing on what you can't change, spend your time hacking what you can - yourself. This formula combines what you know about yourself with what you know about society. The result? Getting what you really want. (Via Bloomsbury)

    Rod Judkins, a lecturer in creativity at the world-famous St Martin's College of Art, will examine the behaviour of successful creative thinkers and explain how all of us can learn from them to improve our lives. Judkins will draw on an extraordinary range of reference points, from the Dada Manifesto to Andy Warhol's studio, via Steve Jobs, Nobel Prize winning economists and many others, and distil a lifetime's expertise into 90 succinct chapters. Along the way he shares the story of most successful class in educational history (in which every single student won a Nobel prize); shows why graphic nudity during public speaking can be both a curse and surprisingly persuasive; and reveals why, in the twenty-first century, it's technically illegal to be as good as good as Michelangelo.

    It covers getting launched to running a multi-person shop to retiring comfortably, and is aimed at freelance graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, copywriters.