Book Reviews

Book Reviews and Recommendations

Inspirational Books

Latin American Graphic Design



Published by Taschen, Edited by Felipe Taborda and Julius Wiedermann

Take a look at vibrant and expressive works from Latin America. After decades of censorship and political dictatorship artists are being recognized nationwide for their energetic reform messages and at times politically sensitive work. This collection of works will definitely inspire you. Viva el arte!

The Printmaking Bible



By Ann d'Arcy Hughes and Hebe Vernon-Morris

This book illustrates step-by-step valuable instructions for the would be printer. The book gives an in-depth analysis on lithography, screenprinting, monotype, and monoprint. It also showcases artist interviews and invaluable resources.

Shapes for Sounds



By Timothy Donaldson

Timothy Donaldson, a type designer and professor of design at Straffordshire, examines all the different aspects of the alphabet delving into the sound representations of each letter. He dissects each of these sounds and analyzes how the mouth and other participating body parts form them. The most interesting concept that Donaldson charts is the visual representation of each letter including it's photo, diagram of the mouth sounding it out, it's soundwave pattern, phoenetic spelling in five languages, its rank in frequency of appearance in the different languages, morse code representation, progression of shape, sign language representation, and much more.

Indie Publishing



By Ellen Lupton

This how to book on self publishing focuses on design - scale, cropping, pacing, type, and more. It gives samples, tips, and advice that will surely motivate anyone that has thought of starting a book. Great motivational inspiration piece.

Instructional Books

Illustrations with Photoshop: A Designer's Notebook



By William Rodarmor

Innovative digital creations in Illustrations with Photoshop. This is a great resource for any illustrator. The images in this book will energize image professionals, graphic artists, photographers, computer graphics designers--all creators of images, whether still or animated--and will forever change the way you see and perform your design work. Photoshop is best known among photographers as a photographic image manipulation tool; it is used largely for retouching and photomontage. But Photoshop is also a powerful and highly sophisticated tool for creating quality digital drawings and artwork. Artists, like the ones showcased within, use it to realize their unique vision through illustration.

Representing the very finest of French creation in the world of graphic design and digital imaging, this notebook leads you into the heart of each author's artistic approach, guiding you through the inception and making of nine unparalleled works of art that spring from widely varying sources of inspiration. But you'll come away with more than ideas and inspiration--you'll find detailed, step-by-step information on making Photoshop do anything and everything you want to accomplish your ideal digital illustration. Unlike any other available, this visually stunning book will give you the creative license and technical know-how you need to create one-of-a-kind digital illustrations with Photoshop that are limited only by your imagination.


From Photoshop to Dreamweaver



By Colin Smith

This book will show you how to combine the power of Adobe Photoshop 7 and Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, both the premiere applications in their field and both recently updated.

The book's core purpose is to teach the fundamentals of designing for the web using Photoshop and Dreamweaver, through a combination of theory and practical examples. You will start with a brief look at the history of the internet and some design theory, to lay the groundwork for what follows. Projects and step-by-step examples will form a large part of this book - so that you can see the theory and good advice put into practice. Great for starting web designers.


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