With communication comes responsibility; are designers aware of the meaning and impact of their work? An image or symbol that is acceptable in one culture can be offensive or even harmful in the next. A typeface or colour in a design might appear to be neutral, but its meaning is always culturally dependent. If designers learn to be aware of global cultural contexts, we can avoid stereotyping and help improve mutual understanding between people.Politics of Design is a collection of visual examples from around the world. Using ideas from anthropology and sociology, it creates surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual communication. The examples relate to the daily practice of both online and offline visual communication: typography, images, colour, symbols, and information.Politics of Design shows the importance of visual literacy when communicating beyond borders and cultures. It explores the cultural meaning behind the symbols, maps, photography, typography, and colours that are used every day. It is a practical guide for design and communication professionals and students to create more effective and responsible visual communication.

    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.

    Graphic Design which fulfills aesthetic needs, complies with the laws of form and exigencies of two-dimensional space; which speaks in semiotics, sans-serifs, and geometrics; which abstracts, transforms, translates, rotates, dilates, repeats, mirrors, groups, and regroups is not good design if it is irrelevant.Graphic design which evokes the symmetria of Vituvius, the dynamic symmetry of Hambidge, the asymmetry of Mondrian; which is a good gestalt, generated by intuition or by computer, by invention or by a system of coordinates is not good design if it does not communicate. - Paul Rand For the design student, teacher, professional designer, and, indeed, for anyone interested in the creative communication of ideas, Paul Rand: A Designer's Art is certain to be a book that is both provocative and enlightening.

    This book is about building a deeper understanding of this rangy mental terrain so that you can more productively think about and discuss aesthetic phenomena and experience in your life and in your work. Until now theoretical aesthetics has been a rather unwieldy and impractical subject. This lucid and easy-to-read book—rendered in a graphically engaging format—should be of genuine value to museum-goers, professional artists and designers, and students of the arts and crafts.This book should be of particular interest to those who have enjoyed Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, also by Leonard Koren.Leonard Koren trained as an artist and architect. He is the founder and publisher of WET: The Magazine of Gourmet Bathing, one of the seminal avant-garde publications of the 1970s. Koren writes and consults about design- and aesthetics-related issues.

    music explosion of the late '70s through the '90s with groups like Joy Division (soon to be the subject of an Anton Corbijn movie), New Order, and Happy Mondays leading the New Wave. At Factory, musicians and designers commingled creatively, with innovators such as Peter Saville, Den Kelly, Mark Farrow, 8VO, and Barbara Kruger elevating album covers to a new art form. The label broke further ground when it opened its own disco, the legendary Hacienda. Factory Records is the ultimate and only collection of Factory's complete graphic output, including every single piece it produced: extremely rare record sleeves, club flyers, and posters all gathered together for the first time. A must for collectors and enthusiasts, Matthew Robertson's meticulous compilation of underground ephemera is poised to introduce a new generation of music and design fans to the creative genius of Factory.

    With their unique perspective, the Japanese have a way of looking at the world that has long been a source of great interest for the Western mind. Here, Japan’s most talented creative professionals strut their stuff in the form of posters, advertisements, print media, visual identity, and print design. Divided into chapters by media type, this highly visual guide presents a diverse selection of graphics and includes an index of designers, complete with website addresses and contact information.

    It is difficult for us now, even with all our engineering and architectural skills, to imagine the extraordinary ways these medieval houses of worship were constructed. Midway through the twelfth century, the building of cathedrals became a crusade to erect awe-inspiring churches across Europe. In their zeal, bishops, monks, masons, and workmen created the architectural style known as Gothic, arguably Christianity’s greatest contribution to the world’s art and architecture. The style evolved slowly and almost accidentally as medieval artisans combined ingenuity, inspiration, and brute strength to create a fitting monument to their God. Here are the dramatic stories of the building of Saint-Denis, Notre Dame, Chartres, Reims, and other Gothic cathedrals.

    They consider the problems posed by a wide range of projects—selection of a book’s size and shape, choice of typeface for text and display, arrangement of type on the page, and determination of typographic details for all parts of the book within manufacturing and budget limitations.As omnipresent as books are, few readers are aware of the “invisible” craft of book designing. The task a book designer faces is different from that faced by other designers. The challenge, says Hendel, isn’t to create something different or pretty or clever but to discover how to best serve the author’s words. Hendel does not espouse a single philosophy of design or offer a set of instructions; he shows that there are many ways to design a book. In detailed descriptions of the creative process, Hendel and the eight other designers, who represent extensive experience in trade and scholarly publishing in the United States and Great Britain, show how they achieve the most effective visual presentation of words, offering many examples to illustrate their choices. Written not only for seasoned and novice book designers, this book will fascinate others in publishing as well as all readers and authors who are curious to know how books end up looking the way they do.

     Homeowners and renters of all means dream of having a beautiful home. The media makes it look so easy, but many of us have less to work with and still long to live in style. Affordable Interior Design makes luxury an affordable reality. In this DIY home decorating handbook, Helmuth reveals insider tips and her tried-and-tested methods for choosing colors, creating a gallery wall, how to use accent tables, entry benches, rugs, and more! Helmuth has shared her affordable design advice and step-by-step approaches with millions through live teaching workshops, guest columns, television appearances, and interviews. Now, she has distilled her expertise into this practical guide. The chapters follow her secret design formula and include creating a design budget, mapping out floor plans, selecting a color palette, and accessorizing like a stylist. It’s time to start living in the home of your dreams without maxing out your credit cards. Learn how with Affordable Interior Design!

    "The Language of Graphic Design "provides graphic design students and practitioners with an in-depth understanding of the fundamental elements and principles of their language--graphic design--what they are, why they are important, and how to use them effectively. Organized by the building blocks of the graphic design language, this reference includes work by some of the most successful and renowned practitioners from around the world and how they have applied these fundamental principles to their work. By examining both student and professional work, this comprehensive handbook is a more meaningful, memorable, and inspiring reference tool for novice design students, as well as young designers starting their careers. To understand visual communications one has to first understand by seeing. To develop this discipline or visual sense is similar to learning a new language with its own unique alphabet, lexicon (vocabulary), and syntax (sentence structure). This book provides clear, concise information that will enhance visual literacy, while using dynamic, memorable visual references to inspire and reinforce the skill of seeing.

    He encouraged the fledgling painters, musicians, writers, and dreamers to break rules and think outside the box. Most of all, he encouraged them to make good art.The book Make Good Art, designed by renowned graphic artist Chip Kidd, contains the full text of Gaiman’s inspiring speech.

    Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger (†)--which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible--or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (¶) and everyday (&).From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (‽) and as divisive as the dash (--). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts.Richly illustrated, ranging across time, typographies, and countries, Shady Characters will delight and entertain all who cherish the unpredictable and surprising in the writing life.

    Chock-full of tips, hints, and step-by-step illustrations, Modern Cartooning gives artists of all ages the tools they need to let their imaginations run wild.

    

    The team behind the inspirational design sites Gardenista.com and Remodelista.com presents an all-in-one manual for making your outdoor space as welcoming as your living room. Tour personality-filled gardens around the world and re-create the looks with no-fail planting palettes. Find hundreds of design tips and easy DIYs, editors’ picks of 100 classic (and stylish) objects, a landscaping primer with tips from pros, over 200 resources, and so much more.