The book suggestion of this week is about one of my favorite themes, semiotics. The book is titled Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps, written by Jacques Bertin. Semiotics definition is basically the theory of the functions of signs and symbols, a very important subject for us designers who constantly have to design user interfaces. Originally published in French in 1967, Semiology of Graphics holds a significant place in the theory of information design. Founded on Jacques Bertin’s practical experience as a cartographer, Part One of this work is an unprecedented attempt to synthesize principles of graphic communication with the logic of standard rules applied to writing and topography. Part Two brings Bertin’s theory to life, presenting a close study of graphic techniques including shape, orientation, color, texture, volume, and size in an array of more than 1,000 maps and diagrams. Buy this book now!
The book suggestion of this week is about typography but for the web. The book title is Typographic Web Design: How to Think Like a Typographer in HTML and CSS and the author is Laura Franz. The cool thing about this book is that it Applies decades of typographic theory and practice directly to web design. Typography has long been an invaluable tool for communicating ideas and information. Words and characters once impressed in clay, written on papyrus, and printed with ink are now manifest in pixels of light. Today's web typographers can help their readers find, understand, and connect with the words, ideas, and information they seek. Thus, legibility and readability are the foundations for the typographic theories and practice covered in Typographic Web Design. You'll learn how to choose fonts, organize information, create a system of hierarchy, work with tabular information, create a grid, apply a typographic system across multiple pages, and build a font library. Each chapter provides time-tested typography rules to follow (modified for the web), explains why they work, when to break them, and offers the opportunity to test the rules with hands-on exercises in HTML and CSS. If you don't know HTML and CSS, Typographic Web Design provides a walk-through for each lesson, showing you how to plan and write syntax. Readers are sure to come away with an understanding of typographic principles, as well as the HTML and CSS skills needed to implement them on the web. Buy Book Now
The book suggestion of this week is about designing for mobile devices, more specifically about how to create better and more usable experiences for small screens. The book we are talking about is titled Mobile Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Raluca Budiu. Book description How do we create a satisfactory user experience when limited to a small device? This new guide focuses on usability for mobile devices, primarily smartphones and touchphones, and covers such topics as developing a mobile strategy, designing for small screens, writing for mobile, usability comparisons, and looking toward the future. The book includes 228-full color illustrations to demonstrate the points. Based on expert reviews and international studies with participants ranging from students to early technology adopters and business people using websites on a variety of mobile devices, this guide offers a complete look at the landscape for a mobile world. Author Jakob Nielsen is considered one of the world's leading experts on Web usability. He is the author of numerous best-selling books, including Prioritizing Web Usability and the groundbreaking Designing Web Usability, which has sold more than 250,000 copies and has been translated in 22 languages. Buy Now
The book suggestion of this week is about graphic design, more specifically, about ideas that changed it and that is the title of the book, 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic design by Steven Heller. This book demonstrates how ideas influenced and defined graphic design, and how those ideas have manifested themselves in objects of design. The 100 entries, arranged broadly in chronological order, range from technical (overprinting, rub-on designs, split fountain); to stylistic (swashes on caps, loud typography, and white space); to objects (dust jackets, design handbooks); and methods (paper cut-outs, pixelation). About Steven Heller Steven Heller is the co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism program at SVA, New York. For 33 years he was an art director at the New York Times. He is editor of AIGA VOICE and contributing editor to Print, Eye, Baseline and I.D. magazines. He is the author of more than 120 books on design and popular culture. He is the recipient of the 1999 AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement. Véronique Vienne has worked at a number of US magazines as art director, and is the author of The Art of Doing Nothing and The Art of Imperfection. A frequent contributor to Graphis and Metropolis magazines, she lives in Paris. Buy this Book
The book suggestion of this week is about logos and it's not only one book but three. We are talking about Gestalten's line of books on contemporary logo design: Los Logos, Dos Logos and Tres Logos. Los Logos and Dos Logos documented this unceasing evolution. Expanding on the previous editions, Tres Logos demonstrates how influences from illustration and street art have become increasingly evident in logo design inspiring ornamental patterns with logos replacing the abstract tag. Additionally, companies are becoming more daring and exploiting their logos to identify their brand with a certain style and appeal. Fully indexed and structured thematically, the book draws connections between the applications and the field for which it was intended. Like its predecessors, Tres Logos explores the exceptional visual language and stylistic approaches to logo creation by designers around the globe, exhibiting thousands of examples and simultaneously providing information about the "makers'" personal approach. Get yours Buy Los Logos Buy Dos Logos Buy Tres Logos
This is the RGB Colorspace Atlas, in other words, it's "THE" book of colours showcasing all possible colours that the human eye can possibly see. This atlas has about 3,632 pages of beautiful colours. Created by Tauba Auerbach. For more information about Tauba Auerbach, you can visit his website at Taubaauerbach.com. All Rights to Tauba Auerbach All Rights to Tauba Auerbach All Rights to Tauba Auerbach All Rights to Tauba Auerbach All Rights to Tauba Auerbach All Rights to Tauba Auerbach
This is an awesome project by illustrator Matt Stevens, the project consists of 100 visual interpretations of what he call the greatest sneaker of all times. Check out how creative and awesome it is, enjoy! The Project got funded by kickstarted and became a book of 100 Illustrations of the greatest sneakers of all time by Matt Stevens. For more from Matt Stevens visit hellomattstevens.com PROJECT STATEMENT This project has been a blur of crazy hours, rough sketches, half-baked ideas, and breakthroughs. I’ve had my share of creative blocks, and the exact thought that this is either one of greatest or most ridiculous (or maybe both) things I’ve ever done. My favorite part of the project though, is that now, after all the work is done, I get to show it to you. All those late nights, doubts and moments of unexpected inspiration, you now hold in your hands. No more puzzled looks as I try to explain that I’m "drawing the same shoe 100 times."
The book suggestion of this week is about mobile design and development. I started reading the book but haven't finished yet, however I can say that the parts I read were really good, not only because some of my favorite authors wrote them but they are easy to read, very motivating and provide us some great insights from professionals with deep knowledge of the field. So the book I am talking about is the new Smashing Magazine Book titled The Mobile Book. Our brand new printed Mobile Book features the most important things that you need to know as a designer, developer or mobile strategist for your websites. You’ll dive deep into the peculiarities of the mobile industry, explore responsive design strategy, design patterns and optimization techniques, learn about wireframing and prototyping for mobile as well as the guidelines for designing with gestures and touch... - Smashing Magazine Full Product Description The future is mobile. As more and more people are turning to mobile devices, designers and developers are facing new challenges and opportunities. Web design has to adapt. But before it can do so, we have to do our homework — understand the new medium and discover the right techniques and tools to design for it. Our brand new Mobile Book serves exactly this purpose. When it comes to mobile, there are more open questions than definitive answers. Due to its fragmentation, it's not so easy to understand how mobile market looks and works in general. How to pick the right mobile strategy and select the right approach for your website? What design patterns and what UX techniques can assist you to design quicker and better for mobile devices? What design patterns do you need to be aware when building responsive websites and to optimize the performance for mobile? When you design with mobile in mind, how exactly should your design process be different from traditional design workflow? Our new book attempts to answer these questions. Well-known experts such as Peter-Paul Koch, Stephanie Rieger, Trent Walton, Brad Frost, Dave Olsen, Josh Clark and Remy Sharp have contributed to the book to present the most relevant and valuable insights. - Smashing Magazine Authors Jeremy Keith Peter-Paul Koch Stephanie Rieger Trent Walton Brad Frost Dave Olsen Dennis Kardys Josh Clark Books are always a great gift to give to our friends and to ourselves. Besides that, books, like the Smashing Magazine, help the design community to strive and evolve. We here over at Abduzeedo support not only Smashing Magazine but all designers and enthusiasts that help us to move forward For more information and to buy the book visit http://www.the-mobile-book.com/
As a big fan of Editorial Designs I selected this amazing project to share with you today. It's a limited edition book with the full career review of the Belgium tennis player Kim Clijster. Take a look and get inspired by this great project. The book was designed by Tim Bisschop, to find out more about Tim visit behance.net/houtkaaizeven and houtkaaizeven.be The only authorized, exclusive and limited edition on Kim Clijsters: 250 Dutch copies and 150 English copies, no reprints. Every box is numbered and signed by Kim Clijsters and contains 10 unique bottles with certified souvenirs from the places where Clijsters wrote tennis history: ground from her first tennis court in Bree, Belgium, gravel from Roland Garros, Ryegrass from Wimbledon, a synthetic diamond (Diamond Games, Antwerp, Belgium), real pieces of her gold-plated trophy winner singles, Proximus Diamond Games, Antwerp, 2004, hardcourt from the Australian Open, natural gut tennis string of one of her rackets, pieces of a signed tennis ball from the US Open, 2012, fragments of her shirt worn on her last official match in New York... For this book, Belgium’s greatest ever sports ambassadress has chosen thirty of the most important moments of her exceptional 15-year career: from her first steps in junior tennis, the final at Roland Garros, and her first grand slam title at the US Open, to her successful comeback, and her last match in New York in 2012. All these key moments are recorded by tennis journalist, Filip Dewulf, furnished with comments by Kim herself, and richly illustrated with some splendid pictures, many of which are published for the first time. This full career review makes an ideal book for everyone who still wants to cherish Kim Clijsters as a sportswoman and a person, even after her retirement from tennis. With quotations from top international players: Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Mats Wilander, Andy Roddick, John McEnroe, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Steffi Graf, Victoria Azarenka, Martina Navratilova e.a., and an interview with Kim by the Dutch sports journalist, Wilfried de Jong. Credits Texts: Filip Dewulf and Wilfried de Jong Project: Jan Maes, Gautier Platteau, Stephan Vanfleteren and Karl Vannieuwkerke Design: Tim Bisschop (Houtkaaizeven) Picture selection: Stephan Vanfleteren Picture editing: Séverine Lacante Photogravure and printing: die Keure, Bruges, Belgium Binding: Van Mierlo, Nijmegen, The Nederlands Publisher: ©Cannibal Editors Buy the book here
The book suggestion of this week is about graphic design and the theory behind it. The book is title Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field by Helen Armstrong. Graphic Design Theory is organized in three sections: "Creating the Field" traces the evolution of graphic design over the course of the early 1900s, including influential avant-garde ideas of futurism, constructivism, and the Bauhaus; "Building on Success" covers the mid- to late twentieth century and considers the International Style, modernism, and postmodernism; and "Mapping the Future" opens at the end of the last century and includes current discussions on legibility, social responsibility, and new media. Striking color images illustrate each of the movements discussed and demonstrate the ongoing relationship between theory and practice. A brief commentary prefaces each text, providing a cultural and historical framework through which the work can be evaluated. Authors include such influential designers as Herbert Bayer, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Karl Gerstner, Katherine McCoy, Michael Rock, Lev Manovich, Ellen Lupton, and Lorraine Wild. Additional features include a timeline, glossary, and bibliography for further reading. A must-have survey for graduate and undergraduate courses in design history, theory, and contemporary issues, Graphic Design Theory invites designers and interested readers of all levels to plunge into the world of design discourse. "This book offers a great primer on graphic design theory by collecting 24 essays from design luminaries like Jan Tschichold, Lorraine Wild, Paul Rand, El Lissitzky, Herbert Bayer, and more, culled from writings spanning more than a century on wide ranging topics from typography to the social responsibilities of a designer. " --Jason Santa Maria Buy it Now
The book suggestion of this week is an indispensable one not only for those that are starting out their careers, but to any designer. The book is 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk. We design to elicit responses from people. We want them to buy something, read more, or take action of some kind. Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it you’ll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that matches the way people think, work, and play. The book is about very important topics that every designer should know. It talks about ways to increase the effectiveness, conversion rates, and usability of your own design projects by finding the answers to questions such as: What grabs and holds attention on a page or screen? What makes memories stick? What is more important, peripheral or central vision? How can you predict the types of errors that people will make? What is the limit to someone’s social circle? How do you motivate people to continue on to (the next step? What line length for text is best? Are some fonts better than others? About the Susan Susan Weinschenk has a Ph.D. in Psychology, and a 30-year career in applying psychology to the design of technology. She has written several books on user-centered design. Her 2008 book, Neuro Web Design: What makes them click?, published by New Riders, applies the research on neuroscience to the design of web sites. A popular speaker and presenter, her nickname is "The Brain Lady". She is Chief of User Experience Strategy, Americas, at Human Factors International, and runs a popular blog: http://whatmakesthemclick.net. Buy Now from Amazon
The book suggestion of this week is an excellent read, it's called Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman. The book provide great insights about cognition, why some things are better than the others.Did you ever wonder why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses? Why sales of Macintosh computers soared when Apple introduced the colorful iMac? New research on emotion and cognition has shown that attractive things really do work better, as Donald Norman amply demonstrates in this fascinating book, which has garnered acclaim everywhere from Scientific American to The New Yorker.Emotional Design articulates the profound influence of the feelings that objects evoke, from our willingness to spend thousands of dollars on Gucci bags and Rolex watches, to the impact of emotion on the everyday objects of tomorrow.Norman draws on a wealth of examples and the latest scientific insights to present a bold exploration of the objects in our everyday world. Emotional Design will appeal not only to designers and manufacturers but also to managers, psychologists, and general readers who love to think about their stuff.More About Donald A. NormanDon Norman is a voyeur, always watching, always on the lookout for some common-day occurrence that everyone else takes for granted but that when examined, yields insight into the human condition. (If you are rushing to catch a train, how do you know if you got to the station on time? Empty platform? You probably are too late. People milling about, looking at their watches,peering down the tracks? Probably OK. Who needs technology when people are so informative, even if as an accidental byproduct of their activities.Buy Now Buy Kindle Version
The book suggestion of this week is about design, the title is Universal Principles of Design by Willian Lidwell. As the title says, the book is a collection of principles that will help designers to make better design decisions. Universal Principles of Design is the first cross-disciplinary reference of design. Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, this book pairs clear explanations of the design concepts featured with visual examples of those concepts applied in practice. From the 80/20 rule to chunking, from baby-face bias to Ockham's razor, and from self-similarity to storytelling, 100 design concepts are defined and illustrated for readers to expand their knowledge. Whether a marketing campaign or a museum exhibit, a video game or a complex control system, the design we see is the culmination of many concepts and practices brought together from a variety of disciplines. Because no one can be an expert on everything, designers have always had to scramble to find the information and know-how required to make a design workùuntil now. Buy Now Get Kindle Version
The book suggestion of the week is about poster, more specifically, gig posters as its title is called. Gig Posters Volume I is a great collection of poster of all sorts of styles. The Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop, Dance, Folk, Metal, Electronic, Indie Music Spectacular. Here are more than 700 extraordinary posters from the archives of GigPosters.com—the Internet’s premier destination for concert poster art. 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. About the book 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. Buy Now
Book Suggestion: The Grid - A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newpapers, Magazines, and Books
The book suggestion of this week is again about grids. The book is called The Grid: A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newpapers, Magazines, and Books and despite the fact that it's an old book we can apply the concepts to our design for the new medias From earliest history man's close kinship with nature has guided him toward a sense of proportion in the shaping of his world. Just as mathematics began with the measurement of objects in harmonious relationship to each other and to space they occupied. The linkage of mathematical systems and design can be traced to the earliest cultures, and science and art have frequently found a common denominator in the search for the perfect form throughout history. Buy Now
Although most people think that comic book artists work mainly for big companies as Marvel or DC, this is actually untrue. Dan McDaid, for example, is more about a commissioned comic book artist, working more on freelance projects than regular issues. I really admire him for this, as he has lots of freedom to mix and remix elements of the comics universe. You can check more about Dan at his Blog.
The book suggestion of this week is about one of the most important parts of visual design, the grid. The book we are talking about is Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop. For designers working in every medium, layout is arguable the most basic, and most important, element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. About the book Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applies to real-world projects. Text reveals top designers' work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice. Buy Now