Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design: Understanding Form and Function
582765
I've been a Graphic Designer for 20 years. While taking a 2-D course recently, I found this book a well-written resource.
645393
An important new entry in the planting design revolution, this book advances the concept of creating designed plant communities  inspired and informed by how they grow in nature.

Excitingly for me, the book fuses together German perennial design strategies developed over decades with new thinking about ecologically designed plant communities in America.

In their model, what happens below the earth is as important as what grows above. They advocate a rich density of planting from the vegetal layer on up to solve the maintenance challenges of naturalistic gardening.

The core idea is about designing in a series of layers  with a systematic yet liberating approach to how to create, plant, and maintain them.

Aimed at designers and people just getting into garden equally. Great photography, superb plant lists and lots of practical advice on how to think differently in your garden.
2805256
Design for Motion provides a great introduction to the process of design thinking for motion graphics. This book focuses mainly on the creation of styleframes, design boards, and process books, while still covering many other aspects of motion graphics. Inside you will find real world examples, plenty of student work, and input from top industry designers and directors like Patrick Clair, GMUNK, Erin Sarofsky, Daniel Oeffinger, Danny Yount.

What also makes this book standout is its ability to be used by students and educators alike (and of course, active creative folk of any type). Included are a series of creative briefs that can be used to practice the techniques covered in the text. Take them seriously too, many of the student examples came from very similar briefs, and as you will see they yielded some impressive results.

Take aways:
- Great introduction to motion design principles and industry know-how
- Covers wide variety of subjects within motion design (terms, process, pitches, design boards, styleframes, etc.)
- Filled with student and industry examples
- Interviews with many industry leaders
- Built in "projects" for those serious about developing these skills
1075440
Not only the small size, but the content of this volume make it like a manual for architects, designers, urban planners, environmental engineers, and students. The majority of the visual matter is skilled, informative, and sometimes dramatic, in the style of that of many architecture art books; although small in size, this visual matter is patently not for showcasing notable architectural works. Rather, it mostly serves the educational purpose of the book. Some photographs, too, show architects and designers at work; and also working models of projects. Floor plans, computer-model diagrams of design or structural features, and such go beyond the content of the typical architecture book focusing on completed projects.

  The text corresponds to the relatively technical nature of the visual matter. "The building seeks to exploit the material characteristics of the double-skin environmental facade...." And with another building, in reconceptualizing "how space should be prioritised [sic, British spelling]...the entrance doubles as a very large balcony." "Voids cut down behind the skin then break down the interior volume while allowing the exterior massing to remain intact." There are photographs to go with each part of the text. In many cases there are a few showing a subject from different angles and details of parts of it; and there are photographs showing an idea or a work-in-progress if this is the case.

  All in all, this small, manual-size volume offers state-of-the art architectural content on all kinds of urban buildings from prominent architects and visionary designers and urban planners. Despite its diminutive size, it stands out.
2952729
The Design is on both sides. It is 3D effect. Layered pedals. Welcome is machine stitching. Beautiful.
2837241
Dr. Phadke has created a great book as an introduction for Robust Design. I will be using this for a Systems Engineering course in New Product Development at the 400/500 level.
667411
When we design for learning, we need know the learners we are creating for. In this book, Weinschenk applies cognitive research with practical applications to help designers understand how learners see, read, remember, decide, think, and focus their attention. It's written in lay terminology that makes this research accessible, and applicable for the instructional design process. It's great to have all of these concepts in a single volume.
1741593
This is a really well done and exciting book that shows an excellent process to learn about form as a dynamic context in design . Highly recommended for students in any area of design.
3781730
With the increased power and availability of computers, computer aided modeling is becoming more prevalent in various fields of engineering.  One important example is modelling of stress, strain, and flow (plastic solid and liquid) at the continuum level.  Examples of this are finite element analysis, finite difference analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and the random walk. This book covers all of these topics and generally serves as a good introductory textbook to learn about modelling at the continuum scale.  The mathematical treatment is very brisk though, and requires prior knowledge of linear and partial differential equations, linear algebra, and basic computing.
184685
Alex White has hit a home run with his book The Elements of Graphic Design. This definitive introduction to the basics of what makes a succesful visual composition should be in every design classroom and student backpack. The writing is clear and the principals easy to understand and apply. I especially liked the examples and advice on the use of "negative space" and typography. Although the book is geared toward the beginning designer, there are enough advanced concepts and examples to make this a worthwhile reference for designers at all levels. A fine addition to design literature.
164074
This A-Z encyclopedia of contemporary furniture, fashion and graphics designs provides an engrossing survey featuring over a thousand color photos of the works of the finest modern designers. From discussions of  individual contributions to wider-ranging surveys of styles, movements and  innovations, World Design packs in details about the changing, evolving  world and styles of designers.
345566
Review is for both the Kindle and hardcover versions of this book.

An easy to use, high level reference of various design principles. A good reference for students, designers, user interface experts or anyone involved in creating, maintaining or managing a product. The language is concise, the principles are presented in an easy to understand manner.

Each principle is summed up at the highest level in the subtitle with a more detailed description in the body. A list of related principles is included and in some instances visual aids. Footnotes are at the bottom of each section.

The hardcover is an attractive book with the blue spine being a glossy finish and the white part being matt. The paper is a medium weight with a nice feel and a matt finish.

The Kindle version faithfully follows the book but has the added benefit that e-books have such as search, contents viewable alongside page views, bookmarks, highlights, links, notes etc. which of course makes it much more effective as a reference.

I generally use the Kindle version more often on my laptop where the reader is in color and there is greater viewing space for graphics. When reading it on the Kindle Paperwhite the experience is still enjoyable but not to the same level.

Pros:
- Covers a wide range of design principles
- Information is presented in an effective way
- Text is concise and clearly written
- Related principles are presented for further study
- Graphics are informative and directly demonstrate the principle
- Hardcover is attractive and has a nice feel to it

Cons:
- For the hardcover there could be a quicker way to look up principles. The contents do a good job however something like tabs might help for quicker reference without having to return to the contents page
- For the Kindle version, the graphics and illustrations often fall well below the text and so lose some of the effectiveness they have in the hardcover edition where they are easily viewed alongside the text.
450441
The interesting thing about "reading" a book like Living SMALL is that the book presents the reader with a multimedia three-dimensional experience.  As such, the book invites the reader to participate and really experience small spaces.

First to study the detailed illustrations and see the architectural relationships on a printed page and read the captions and footnotes as they are directly related to the images.  Then to use the books CD to view animations and listen to commentary about objects and spatial relationships that cannot be explained on a two-dimensional page.

And finally to use the SketchUp modeling program to walk through the spaces, place people and furniture, add rooms and experience each of the 16 little buildings.  The two dimensional drawings and three dimensional models for each of these buildings are even included on the CD.

Important is that this book is not a simple straight read.  "Readers" must be prepared for a full interactive three-dimensional experience to truly understand what it means to begin Living SMALL.  This book invites hands-on user participation as part of a learning experience -- perhaps redefining what a book can be for all of us in the future.
4974229
This is an odd but fascinating book about the business of industrial design in 1930-50's US. It promotes a perspective to design which later generations know as human-centered design. It does not talk about user experience, usability, innovation or design thinking with the terms we have for them today, but it surely gives an interesting perspective for a 21st century reader on the past thinking on these topics.

An interesting comparison is contrast Designing for People to Tim Brown's&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Change-by-Design-How-Design-Thinking-Transforms-Organizations-and-Inspires-Innovation/dp/0061766089/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation</a>&nbsp;released 54 years after. It seems reasonable to ask if the field of design has developed at all, maybe except for branding. It seems that the office of Dreyfuss was essentially practicing all methods under the mindset of "design thinking" Brown presented as the holy grail of organizational innovation.

The book holds a quite detailed account of the operation of Henry Dreyfuss and one might call it an autobiography. Biography in a form of a vitae and an industrial design business cook book. This is also the problem of the tome. At best, it provides insights and details, reports from the past which would be otherwise unattainable. At worst, it reads out as a (poorly) guided tour to a trophy room. A short story after short story in an identical format, describing yet another Dreyfuss victory in some exotic field of design. This is emphasized by the result-oriented style of the narrator, which always describes the glorious outcome of the design process, where as the process receives less attention.

The biggest problem I, as a design scholar, have with the book is about the rather mystified design process view. Although Dreyfuss does provide a lot of examples on how they as a design agency repeatedly used research, prototyping and some intuition to solve even the toughest problems, there is awfully lot missing. Even though chapter 15 does document some humoristic irks on the detail level, there is not much talk about failures, temporary set backs or the confusion usually associated with a creative process. Much of the success ends up being attributable to character of the designer(s). Designers appear as god like infallible creatures capable to undertaking and overtaking any design task better than the client company they are hired for. And the writer is very clearly depicting himself as one such uomo universal for instance in his description of transforming McCall's magazine. I'm exaggerating, but bothers me most is the complete credit for the mutual efforts of design company personnel.

I hate to say it but this book fails to give any real credit to a great number of people who must be responsible for the great achievements of Mr. Dreyfuss. Coming back to 21st century, for the defense of Mr. Brown and his fellow IDEOans, they do acknowledge the team performance making design possible. It is not just whoever and however that the visions of design can be harmonized and executed successfully, there is an appropriate combination of the right type of skills and personalities needed at the job. Of course, the prototyping techniques introduced in Dreyfuss' book and their modern equivalents are important but they are not the only source of magic.

I recommend this book for post-modern reader with an interest in the history of design business. It gives a nice modernist view on design, one which is surprisingly timely in our post-modern times. It provokes lot of thought, in good and bad. The prophecies and war stories of Dreyfuss can be boring, but there is lot of very practical information here and there to be found, making it a mostly pleasant reading.
1303672
Judy A. Juracek's ARCHITECTURAL SURFACES: DETAILS FOR ARTISTS, ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS  comes with a cd-rom and provides students and professional practitioners alike with a new addition to the 'Surfaces' series. Hundreds of different architectural features are portrayed in well over a thousand color photos which capture details and provide a subject organization for quick, easy reference. Professionals and students alike will appreciate the illustrated glossary of technical terms, and the wealth of illustration packs four to six good-sized photos on almost every page.
954709
I used this book as the foundation for the course on spatial and temporal design that I teach at Northeastern University. The author has created a book that delivers a solid foundation in applying architectural theory to many aspects of game and level design.
3348064
The Language of Space and Form is a must for anyone interested in understanding the foundation principles of design in architecture.  The breakdown of the book is well organized and introduces basic vocabulary needed to describe .  Photographs of student work at various architecture programs compliment the written descriptions, offering a better visual of the descriptions.