Friday November 21, 2008
Arts & Photography: Graphic Design
Displayed below are the top selling items for today, Friday November 21, 2008 along with the review customers have voted "most useful".
To find top selling items in for a specific category, use the menu on the left or click here to see all categories.
- The Marvel Encyclopedia by Daniel Wallace
- The DC Vault : A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the DC Universe by Martin Pasko
- Things I have learned in my life so far by Stefan Sagmeister
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward R. Tufte
- Thinking with Type : A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs) by Ellen Lupton
- 2009 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market) by Alice Pope
- The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style : Creating Iconic Looks and Making Them Your Own by Kim France
- Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography by David D. Busch
-
The Marvel Encyclopedia
by Daniel Wallace
(based on 76 customer reviews)
-
(Hardcover)
Edition: 1ST
Author: Daniel Wallace
Publisher: DK ADULT
Price: $26.40
You save: $13.60 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
16 out of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 11/27/06
A GREAT READ, but horrible encyclopedia
The Marvel Encyclopedia is a heavy, heavy book rich with tons of information about characters and of course great art for each character. The problem with this book is like everyone says - it has tons of errors, is not always up-to-date, and is missing a lot of key characters (which is strange because there are so many minor characters there).
In almost every entry, they'll talk about another character (e.g., for DIRE WRAITHS, they'll talk about ROM), but every time the other character they mention isn't in the book (ROM isn't in the book, of course). We're not talking about a couple of characters -- we're talking tons of major characters. This does get really, really annoying.
But the pro is that this book is still a fun read (it may be heavy for a bathroom book, but it works). If you're a comic collector or looking for a gift for a comic collector, this is a must-have, especially at Amazon.com's prices (I wouldn't pay the full price for it at Borders or Barnes & Noble). I would get the DC COMICS ENCYCLOPEDIA before this one, because that one was edited much better.
Am I annoyed by the extremely sloppy editing and way this book is put together? Yes. Do I regret buying the book? No. It still gets 4-stars for being such a great book chock full of interesting info. It doesn't get that one extra star for being a little bit annoying.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Marvel Encyclopedia
-
The DC Vault
A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the DC Universe
by Martin Pasko (based on 3 customer reviews)
-
(Hardcover)
Edition: Spi
Author: Martin Pasko
Publisher: Running Press
Price: $32.97
You save: $16.98 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
12 out of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/2/08
A must buy for all DC Comics fans!
I like this even more than the Marvel Vault, which came out last year. The DC Vault has better content as far as the history of DC is concerned, starting with More Fun comics and leading up to recent history. Martin Pasko, who many longtime DC fans will remember as a key writer during the 1970s, wrote the text that accompanies the multitude of pictures and collectibles. He includes numerous typed and handwritten memos from DC Comics writers and editors that give us a fascinating inside look at how certain decisions were made.
The collectibles that are reproduced here are really, really sweet.
For starters, the cover of the DC Vault is a reproduction of Dick Sprang's "Secrets of the Batcave" lithograph that he produced in 1994. Some of the 1940s items are the Junior Justice Society Decoder Wheel, a Wonder Woman Sensation Comics button, and a Batman 1943 mask that announces the newspaper comic strip. There are some never-before seen items, like Neal Adams concept drawings for a "Superman-land" amusement park, where we could have explored the World of Krypton. A sticker reproduces the "Shazam Is Coming" button that announced Captain Marvel's 1970 comeback into the DC Universe. My favorite reproduction is the History of the DC Universe Jam Poster (shown above), where a few dozen DC artists collaborated to draw their famous characters: Carmine Infantino on the Flash, Neal Adams on Deadman, Joe Kubert on Hawkman, Walt Simonson on Manhunter, Curt Swan on Superman, etc. I had this poster when it originally came out and somehow lost it, glad to have it back now. It even has Dave Gibbons doing Rorschach, which must make Alan Moore's head spin around.
If this wasn't enough, the DC Vault contains tons of preliminary cover and character sketches. There's a really cool Hawkman concept cover sketch by Kubert, as well as a Ragman character description. Brian Bolland's pencils to one of his famous Wonder Woman covers is included. There are a number of covers which had to be altered from their original state, and Pasko speculates on the editors reasons for doing so. There's so much in here that I can't possibly describe...if you're any kind of DC fan, you need to buy this book, now. Nuff said.
Click here to see more reviews for: The DC Vault
-
Things I have learned in my life so far
by Stefan Sagmeister
(based on 39 customer reviews)
-
(Paperback)
Author: Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Abrams
Price: $26.40
You save: $13.60 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
20 out of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 2/16/08
What can I say...
This book just blew me away. The images are powerful, the sentences are inspiring, the formats are innovative and best of all, I had such fun changing the booklets inside to see new covers thru the laser-cut-out case. This is a true magical book.
Click here to see more reviews for: Things I have learned in my life so far
-
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition
by Edward R. Tufte (based on 96 customer reviews)
-
(Hardcover)
Edition: 2
Author: Edward R. Tufte
Publisher: Graphics Press
Price: $28.80
You save: $11.20 (28%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
214 out of 219 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 2/8/00
Extremely well researched book on what makes good design.
You know what's so good about this book? The research, that's what. In showing both good and bad graphic design, Tufte has examples from as far back as 1686, and many examples from the 18th,19th & 20th centuries and from many different countries.Good graphic design, he argues, reveals the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space. Interestingly, some of the best examples of this come from the pre-computer era, when graphics had to be drawn by hand (and therefore more thought had to go into their design, rather than the author just calling up the Bar Graph template on the desktop.) For example, that picture you can see on the front cover of the book is actually a train timetable that packs a whole list of arrivals and departures at many different stations into a single little picture. A better example (and the "best statistical graphic ever drawn") shows Napoleon's route through Europe. It shows a) the map b) where he went c) how many people were in his army at each point and d) the temperature on the way back that killed off his army. At a glance you can see the factors that led to his army losing. AND it was drawn by hand in 1885 and is little more than a line drawing!
He also gives examples of really bad design, (including "the worst graphic ever to make it to print"), and shows what makes it so bad. His examples prove that information-less, counter-intuitive graphics can still look dazzlingly pretty, even though they're useless. In some examples, he shows how small changes can make the difference between an awful graphic and a really good one. My favourite example of this is how he drew the inter-quartile ranges on the x and y axes of a scatterplot, thus adding more information to the graphic without cluttering it up.
In summary, there's a lot more to good graphic design than being an Adobe guru. Reading this book made me feel like a more discerning viewer of graphics!
Click here to see more reviews for: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition
-
Thinking with Type
A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)
by Ellen Lupton (based on 49 customer reviews)
-
(Paperback)
Edition: 1
Author: Ellen Lupton
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Price: $14.93
You save: $7.02 (32%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
157 out of 164 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 4/9/05
A must for the lost
Personally, this has probably been the most influental design book that I own. I felt like I was a better designer after having read half of it, without once touching my mac. i just knew that what I had absorbed was going to come out in my work, and it did. The book takes an overview look at design, and speaks in plain english about many things that I've heard or dealt with. But catagorizes stuff and explains things in a fluid manner so that the different bits of information come together and make sense. It is good for the novice and the struggling self taught. Full of great examples. It's too elementary for the serious designer. But for someone who did not go to Design School, but now works with design, its the perfect basic "education in a book".
Click here to see more reviews for: Thinking with Type
-
2009 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market)
by Alice Pope (based on 6 customer reviews)
-
(Paperback)
Edition: 20
Author: Alice Pope
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Price: $18.47
You save: $9.52 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
12 out of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 7/15/08
Yes, you need this.
While the internet provides writers with almost everything they need to succeed, there is still nothing to be found online that compares to this essential guide. Each year, Alice Pope and her crew deliver the goods, by scouring the publishing world for book, magazine and multimedia publishers that accept work from children's writers. Trust me, every successful agent and submitting author in the children's book field has a dog-eared copy of this book on the shelf. Plus, the articles that accompany the listings are of invariably high quality. A must-have.
Jon Bard
[...]
Click here to see more reviews for: 2009 Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market (Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market)
-
The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style
Creating Iconic Looks and Making Them Your Own
by Kim France (based on 14 customer reviews)
-
(Paperback)
Author: Kim France
Publisher: Gotham
Price: $19.80
You save: $10.20 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
22 out of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 10/9/08
forget the other fashion guides and buy this
I have many of the more recent fashion "how to" type books (US Secrets of Celebrity Style, The Pocket Stylist, Victoria Beckham's That Extra Half Inch, Glamour's Big Book of Do's and Don'ts, Harper's Bazaar Great Style, etc.). What makes this book different is that instead of telling you how to pick a hot designer bag (ugh) or how to dress according to your age, this book explains clothing according to overall iconic styles; ie, American Classic, Euro Chic, bohemian, etc. Each chapter has the "must have" pieces for a particular look, outfits, and people who are interviewed as being representative of that type of style. The whole look and feel of the book is so beautiful and inspiring, I could barely put it down the day after I bought it.
Click here to see more reviews for: The Lucky Guide to Mastering Any Style
-
Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
by David D. Busch (based on 70 customer reviews)
-
(Paperback)
Edition: 1
Author: David D. Busch
Publisher: Course Technology PTR
Price: $19.79
You save: $10.20 (34%) off the list price!
click for more info
Most useful review as voted by customers:
136 out of 145 people found the following review helpful.
Review Date: 4/22/08
Navigating the Menus
I've been shooting Nikon cameras since 1960. When I look at the collection of buttons, dials, switches, screens and menus on Nikon's D300 digital SLR, I wonder if I would have become a photographer back then if faced with so many choices.
All these choices are good. They let you customize the D300 to be used exactly the way you would want. And the embarrassment of riches means that one camera can do many things, for many different photographers, so that ultimately a highly sophisticated machine can be delivered more cheaply to photographers whose styles vary markedly.
Some of the choices seem really important. Do you want to set up focus so that you are better able to capture a sitting portrait subject or a flying bird? Other choices seem more trivial. Would you rather review the last image you captured by pressing on the left side or the top of a multi-selector switch?
To deal with all these choices, Nikon provides a manual of several hundred pages that explains the options that are offered with some very small, sketchy illustrations, but without explanation of which options might be better for a particular type of photographer.
David Busch set out to bring a little more clarity to the bewildering field of choices, and does a relatively good job of it. Unfortunately, that means going through each menu and selection step by step. The illustrations are larger than the manual and in color, and Busch actually makes recommendations about items to select. For example the D300 allows you to elect to have either 51 or 11 focus points available (which is different then selecting a focus point, once you've made the choice). My first instinct after reading the manual was to ask why everyone wouldn't select the maximum number of focus points, but the author pointed out that 11 points is faster for selecting a focus point for large subject matter, like photographing some sports.
After going through all of the options, Busch returns to several key subjects that usually require the integration of several choices, like getting the right exposure or the best focusing for particular kinds of photography. There's a chapter on lenses that experienced photographers can skip, but that any beginner bold enough to purchase a D300 for his first digital single lens reflex will find useful. The chapter on lighting contained a good explanation of Nikon's Creative Lighting System that allows for an integration of electronic flash in a more useful way then ever before. I only wish Busch had been able to convey the joy of being able to dance around the subject without any kind of tether while your flashes responded. It's easy to feel like David Hemmings with Veruschka in "Blow Up", without all that hot continuous lighting.
The book finishes up with a quick glance at the software available for post processing, which, other than listing the names of software, really didn't provide much help in making a choice, and then covers some maintenance issues like updating firmware and cleaning the camera's sensor.
By its nature this is not an exciting book, since the author eschews any effort at telling us about the artistry possible with the camera, but that's the nature of manuals. One should also note that occasionally Busch falls from grace in small ways, as when he suggests that the D300 can control up to four groups of lights in CLS, when what he probably means to say is that you can transmit your signals on four separate channels, or that four groups can be controlled if you use an external flash. These errors are small and quickly identifiable to anyone trying to use the menus. On the other hand there are a few subjects on which I would have liked to see more material, like AF Fine Tune, where a discussion of the use of targets to select the tuning would have been useful. And I was sorry the chapter on lenses didn't mention the use of focal length to control perspective, especially since there was a set of full page illustrations that showed this so well.
All in all, this is an excellent introduction to the options that are available to photographers with the D300. Although early adopters may already have figured out most of the possibilities, there is probably still something for an experienced user to learn, and, if you've just picked up a D300, this is lot easier to use then the Nikon manual.
Click here to see more reviews for: Nikon D300 Guide to Digital SLR Photography
Books
(display all categories)
Adjust text size.