Alan Fletcher's The Art of Looking Sideways is an absolutely extraordinary and inexhaustible "guide to visual awareness", a virtually indescribable concoction of anecdotes, quotes, images and bizarre facts that offers a wonderfully twisted vision of the chaos of modern life. Fletcher is a renowned designer and art director and the joy of The Art of Looking Sideways lies in its beautiful design. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters with titles like "Colour", "Noise", "Chance", "Camouflage" and "Handedness", Fletcher's book, which he describes as "a journey without a destination", is "a collection of shards" that captures the sensory overload of a world that simply contains too much information. In one typical section, entitled "Civilization", the reader encounters six Polish flags designed to represent the world, a photograph of an anthropomorphic hand bag, Buzz Aldrin's bootprint on the moon, drawings of Stone Age pebbles, a painting of "Ireland--as seen from Wales" and a dizzying array of quotations and snippets of information, including the wise words of Marcus Aurelius, Stephen Jay and Gandhi's comment, "Western civilization? I think it would be a good idea". Fletcher's mastery of design mixes type, space, fonts, alphabets, colour and layout combined with a "jackdaw" eye for the strange and profound to produce a stunning book that cannot be read, but only experienced. --Jerry Brotton

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Top book even for beginners!, 22 Feb 2008
You don't really need an advanced knowledge of Flash to use this book. How to cheat in flash is very, very good. It is targetted mostly at cartoon animators rather than users that will want to do Action Scripting, presentation or web development. This book will guide you through from start to finish for a lot of basic animation techniques and provides a good insight into how to implement your own ideas. it also gives instruction on how to perform commands etc on both the Windows and Mac. Again, I would only recommend this book if you are into cartoon animation mainly, otherwise there are probably better books out there.

Too technical, 19 Feb 2008
Its a good book, but no good for begginers.
It assumes you already know where things are and how to do some things.
If your just learning how to use flash (as I am) this is not the book for you.


Flashtastic, 10 Dec 2007
Firstly I would like to say that when I reviewed this book a few weeks ago there was a post which thankfully has been removed.
Basically it dismissed this book because it suggested that it helps you 'cheat'
I for one am I'm glad I wasn't put off because this book is fantastic!! It covers everything that you will need to know.
From design styles and basic drawing to using video and audio.
It even tackles action scripting very cool! this book is going to save me so much time only wish I had stumbled across it sooner
there's even a cd with the different graphics so you can play around when your reading this book.

Brilliant pot-pourri of flash, 04 Nov 2007
A great little book that is a pleasure to open and read. Well illustrated and presented - a book with high production values. The title (forget the cheating bit) describes the contents perfectly - The art of design and Animation - the knowledgeable author teaches great Flash techniques.

A great addition to your flash library.

Fantastic !!!, 15 Sep 2007
Superb book !! I can see myself using this book for years there are tons of techniques to learn, explained simply with lots of pictures making it great for quick reference. I teach flash animation and will be recommending that all my students buy this book !!

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Top book even for beginners!, 22 Feb 2008
You don't really need an advanced knowledge of Flash to use this book. How to cheat in flash is very, very good. It is targetted mostly at cartoon animators rather than users that will want to do Action Scripting, presentation or web development. This book will guide you through from start to finish for a lot of basic animation techniques and provides a good insight into how to implement your own ideas. it also gives instruction on how to perform commands etc on both the Windows and Mac. Again, I would only recommend this book if you are into cartoon animation mainly, otherwise there are probably better books out there.

Too technical, 19 Feb 2008
Its a good book, but no good for begginers.
It assumes you already know where things are and how to do some things.
If your just learning how to use flash (as I am) this is not the book for you.


Flashtastic, 10 Dec 2007
Firstly I would like to say that when I reviewed this book a few weeks ago there was a post which thankfully has been removed.
Basically it dismissed this book because it suggested that it helps you 'cheat'
I for one am I'm glad I wasn't put off because this book is fantastic!! It covers everything that you will need to know.
From design styles and basic drawing to using video and audio.
It even tackles action scripting very cool! this book is going to save me so much time only wish I had stumbled across it sooner
there's even a cd with the different graphics so you can play around when your reading this book.

Brilliant pot-pourri of flash, 04 Nov 2007
A great little book that is a pleasure to open and read. Well illustrated and presented - a book with high production values. The title (forget the cheating bit) describes the contents perfectly - The art of design and Animation - the knowledgeable author teaches great Flash techniques.

A great addition to your flash library.

Fantastic !!!, 15 Sep 2007
Superb book !! I can see myself using this book for years there are tons of techniques to learn, explained simply with lots of pictures making it great for quick reference. I teach flash animation and will be recommending that all my students buy this book !!

Brilliant Stickers, 02 Sep 2008
This is an excellent book filled with a massive selection of quality stickers. If you like stickers, you'll love this. Most of them have a graffiti feel to them, but some are like mini works of art and are very detailed.

I've already started putting them on everything I own.

Only gets one star dropped for the books smell- its very strong like varnish. But some people might like that! I'm sure it will fade.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Top book even for beginners!, 22 Feb 2008
You don't really need an advanced knowledge of Flash to use this book. How to cheat in flash is very, very good. It is targetted mostly at cartoon animators rather than users that will want to do Action Scripting, presentation or web development. This book will guide you through from start to finish for a lot of basic animation techniques and provides a good insight into how to implement your own ideas. it also gives instruction on how to perform commands etc on both the Windows and Mac. Again, I would only recommend this book if you are into cartoon animation mainly, otherwise there are probably better books out there.

Too technical, 19 Feb 2008
Its a good book, but no good for begginers.
It assumes you already know where things are and how to do some things.
If your just learning how to use flash (as I am) this is not the book for you.


Flashtastic, 10 Dec 2007
Firstly I would like to say that when I reviewed this book a few weeks ago there was a post which thankfully has been removed.
Basically it dismissed this book because it suggested that it helps you 'cheat'
I for one am I'm glad I wasn't put off because this book is fantastic!! It covers everything that you will need to know.
From design styles and basic drawing to using video and audio.
It even tackles action scripting very cool! this book is going to save me so much time only wish I had stumbled across it sooner
there's even a cd with the different graphics so you can play around when your reading this book.

Brilliant pot-pourri of flash, 04 Nov 2007
A great little book that is a pleasure to open and read. Well illustrated and presented - a book with high production values. The title (forget the cheating bit) describes the contents perfectly - The art of design and Animation - the knowledgeable author teaches great Flash techniques.

A great addition to your flash library.

Fantastic !!!, 15 Sep 2007
Superb book !! I can see myself using this book for years there are tons of techniques to learn, explained simply with lots of pictures making it great for quick reference. I teach flash animation and will be recommending that all my students buy this book !!

Brilliant Stickers, 02 Sep 2008
This is an excellent book filled with a massive selection of quality stickers. If you like stickers, you'll love this. Most of them have a graffiti feel to them, but some are like mini works of art and are very detailed.

I've already started putting them on everything I own.

Only gets one star dropped for the books smell- its very strong like varnish. But some people might like that! I'm sure it will fade.

Very over valued, 29 Jun 2008
I have to say I am extremely disappointed with this. Everyone at college has said you have just got to buy this book, its amazing. Is it?? No it isn't. Sagmeister is nowhere near being the design genius that he has been tagged with. When you compare it to Alan Fletcher, there is just no competition. I have seen far better work being displayed at the various university degree shows this year to be honest. Especially at Stoke, Birmingham and the fantastic illustration work at Bristol which was truly fantastic.
So whatever you do, keep hold of your money and buy something else. He is very over rated and has been built up on a pedestal when he clearly doesn't deserve to be.

Can graphic design touch someone's heart?, 16 May 2008
There are countless books on design and many of them are good, even brilliant. And yet one looks for something that is more than a design book with lots of designers' work. One always searches for a book that would act as a trigger, as a spark than can light a million ideas in one's own brain.
A book to do that was Alan Fletcher's Art of Looking Sideways.
And a book which surpasses everything that I have ever seen is Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have learned in my life so far.
Why? Because it is brutally honest.
It is what design was meant to be.
Sagmeister uses his own learnings and converts them into magic. You turn the pages and you are mesmerised by the immensity, the sheer scale of ideas there.
Your mind begins to fill up with images and words and ideas you never thought existed.
You turn the pages and it hits you: Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
And `now' to me started with the book. This book truly changed my life.
I have read the critics say many things like this book being self indulgent. Well, a man who take pains to go around the world to encourage design and design students cannot be self indulgent. He is honest. And every page of this book is a primer for honesty.
And of course, brilliant design.
Sagmeister's design and typography are stuff legends are made of. I am a mere mortal to comment upon those. But I can say this, I have never seen an explosion of so many brilliant ideas in one place ever before.
Stefan Sagmeister has always asked the question: Can design touch someone's heart?
This book will touch millions.
A priceless book.


Emperor's New Clothes or Design Genius?, 12 Mar 2008
Is Stefan Sagmeister the Emperor's new clothes of the design world, or does he really deserve the genius tag he's so often given?

After reading Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, I firmly believe the latter. Sagmeister doesn't disappoint; he makes design fun and accessible, without dumbing down or losing effect - this book illustrates perfectly, both in content and format, that good design works.

The featured projects are fascinating; my reactions ranged from `oh that's sooo gorgeous,' to `how on earth....?' to `what HAPPENED to him to make him think like that?!'

It's beautifully put together - a design book that's not just for designers, with essays and Sagmeister's explanations of the projects, along with fantastic images.

As Sagmeister says, via the help of giant monkeys, "Everybody always thinks they are right," and I think I am in this case - buy it, swap around the covers to your heart's content, and enjoy your very own piece of Sagmeister!

A True Chameleon, 24 Feb 2008
There are lots of design books that are about design. Design books for designers. This isn't one of them - it's much more than that. The sheer richness of this book takes a while to take in - you will find new things every time you dip into it. This book is inventive, poignant, informative and unusual - but above all it is beautiful. There's such a wealth of ideas executed with style and an individual confidence that it is hard to say which is best, but I would say it's worth buying the book for the Singapore 'Keeping A Diary' section alone. Also there are a lot of monkeys, and that can never be a bad thing. Full marks.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Top book even for beginners!, 22 Feb 2008
You don't really need an advanced knowledge of Flash to use this book. How to cheat in flash is very, very good. It is targetted mostly at cartoon animators rather than users that will want to do Action Scripting, presentation or web development. This book will guide you through from start to finish for a lot of basic animation techniques and provides a good insight into how to implement your own ideas. it also gives instruction on how to perform commands etc on both the Windows and Mac. Again, I would only recommend this book if you are into cartoon animation mainly, otherwise there are probably better books out there.

Too technical, 19 Feb 2008
Its a good book, but no good for begginers.
It assumes you already know where things are and how to do some things.
If your just learning how to use flash (as I am) this is not the book for you.


Flashtastic, 10 Dec 2007
Firstly I would like to say that when I reviewed this book a few weeks ago there was a post which thankfully has been removed.
Basically it dismissed this book because it suggested that it helps you 'cheat'
I for one am I'm glad I wasn't put off because this book is fantastic!! It covers everything that you will need to know.
From design styles and basic drawing to using video and audio.
It even tackles action scripting very cool! this book is going to save me so much time only wish I had stumbled across it sooner
there's even a cd with the different graphics so you can play around when your reading this book.

Brilliant pot-pourri of flash, 04 Nov 2007
A great little book that is a pleasure to open and read. Well illustrated and presented - a book with high production values. The title (forget the cheating bit) describes the contents perfectly - The art of design and Animation - the knowledgeable author teaches great Flash techniques.

A great addition to your flash library.

Fantastic !!!, 15 Sep 2007
Superb book !! I can see myself using this book for years there are tons of techniques to learn, explained simply with lots of pictures making it great for quick reference. I teach flash animation and will be recommending that all my students buy this book !!

Brilliant Stickers, 02 Sep 2008
This is an excellent book filled with a massive selection of quality stickers. If you like stickers, you'll love this. Most of them have a graffiti feel to them, but some are like mini works of art and are very detailed.

I've already started putting them on everything I own.

Only gets one star dropped for the books smell- its very strong like varnish. But some people might like that! I'm sure it will fade.

Very over valued, 29 Jun 2008
I have to say I am extremely disappointed with this. Everyone at college has said you have just got to buy this book, its amazing. Is it?? No it isn't. Sagmeister is nowhere near being the design genius that he has been tagged with. When you compare it to Alan Fletcher, there is just no competition. I have seen far better work being displayed at the various university degree shows this year to be honest. Especially at Stoke, Birmingham and the fantastic illustration work at Bristol which was truly fantastic.
So whatever you do, keep hold of your money and buy something else. He is very over rated and has been built up on a pedestal when he clearly doesn't deserve to be.

Can graphic design touch someone's heart?, 16 May 2008
There are countless books on design and many of them are good, even brilliant. And yet one looks for something that is more than a design book with lots of designers' work. One always searches for a book that would act as a trigger, as a spark than can light a million ideas in one's own brain.
A book to do that was Alan Fletcher's Art of Looking Sideways.
And a book which surpasses everything that I have ever seen is Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have learned in my life so far.
Why? Because it is brutally honest.
It is what design was meant to be.
Sagmeister uses his own learnings and converts them into magic. You turn the pages and you are mesmerised by the immensity, the sheer scale of ideas there.
Your mind begins to fill up with images and words and ideas you never thought existed.
You turn the pages and it hits you: Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
And `now' to me started with the book. This book truly changed my life.
I have read the critics say many things like this book being self indulgent. Well, a man who take pains to go around the world to encourage design and design students cannot be self indulgent. He is honest. And every page of this book is a primer for honesty.
And of course, brilliant design.
Sagmeister's design and typography are stuff legends are made of. I am a mere mortal to comment upon those. But I can say this, I have never seen an explosion of so many brilliant ideas in one place ever before.
Stefan Sagmeister has always asked the question: Can design touch someone's heart?
This book will touch millions.
A priceless book.


Emperor's New Clothes or Design Genius?, 12 Mar 2008
Is Stefan Sagmeister the Emperor's new clothes of the design world, or does he really deserve the genius tag he's so often given?

After reading Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, I firmly believe the latter. Sagmeister doesn't disappoint; he makes design fun and accessible, without dumbing down or losing effect - this book illustrates perfectly, both in content and format, that good design works.

The featured projects are fascinating; my reactions ranged from `oh that's sooo gorgeous,' to `how on earth....?' to `what HAPPENED to him to make him think like that?!'

It's beautifully put together - a design book that's not just for designers, with essays and Sagmeister's explanations of the projects, along with fantastic images.

As Sagmeister says, via the help of giant monkeys, "Everybody always thinks they are right," and I think I am in this case - buy it, swap around the covers to your heart's content, and enjoy your very own piece of Sagmeister!

A True Chameleon, 24 Feb 2008
There are lots of design books that are about design. Design books for designers. This isn't one of them - it's much more than that. The sheer richness of this book takes a while to take in - you will find new things every time you dip into it. This book is inventive, poignant, informative and unusual - but above all it is beautiful. There's such a wealth of ideas executed with style and an individual confidence that it is hard to say which is best, but I would say it's worth buying the book for the Singapore 'Keeping A Diary' section alone. Also there are a lot of monkeys, and that can never be a bad thing. Full marks.

Pretty, but impractical (2002 Edition), 26 Feb 2008
This is visually very pleasing, but the content is disapointing. I'm happy with the high quality images but what i did not find was a straightforward discussion of design. The text is unnecessarily stylized. For example, a pencil is described as: "the traditional instrument of rapid transfer of thought to a surface". Also, as i read, i often found myself thinking "what is this section supposed to be about?" because the way the chapters are organized sometimes leaves you guessing as to what you re supposed to be reading about. On the up side it did get me thinking about some ideas that were new to me as a non-designer.

An essential Graphic Design handbook!, 15 Jan 2003
This is an excellent handbook that attempts to cover every aspect of Graphic Design. The chapters are short and managble, with a wide range of visuals that are excellent for research.

This book has been very useful and helped inspire many of my ideas. It is a great size (220mm x 180mm) which is an ideal reference book to transport to and from Uni or college.

I would reccommend this book to anyone who is aiming to persue a career in Graphic design, but seeks guidance deciding which specific area to specialise in.

This book is an ESSENTIAL item for any serious graphic designer!

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatics.

Inspiring, 09 Jan 2008
For anyone who loves creating sketchbooks, a great collection of artist's/designers edgy, thoughtful, and dripping with talent. Definatley reccomended.


The contemporary sketchbook, 29 Nov 2007
An outstanding new book on the subject of art. This book looks at the often overlooked subject of the sketchbook as integral to the artistic process. The images and artworks included are contemporary and provide a new perspective on the subject. This book is written with creativity, commitment and integrity and would be an invaluable resource for all art students and artists.

Top book even for beginners!, 22 Feb 2008
You don't really need an advanced knowledge of Flash to use this book. How to cheat in flash is very, very good. It is targetted mostly at cartoon animators rather than users that will want to do Action Scripting, presentation or web development. This book will guide you through from start to finish for a lot of basic animation techniques and provides a good insight into how to implement your own ideas. it also gives instruction on how to perform commands etc on both the Windows and Mac. Again, I would only recommend this book if you are into cartoon animation mainly, otherwise there are probably better books out there.

Too technical, 19 Feb 2008
Its a good book, but no good for begginers.
It assumes you already know where things are and how to do some things.
If your just learning how to use flash (as I am) this is not the book for you.


Flashtastic, 10 Dec 2007
Firstly I would like to say that when I reviewed this book a few weeks ago there was a post which thankfully has been removed.
Basically it dismissed this book because it suggested that it helps you 'cheat'
I for one am I'm glad I wasn't put off because this book is fantastic!! It covers everything that you will need to know.
From design styles and basic drawing to using video and audio.
It even tackles action scripting very cool! this book is going to save me so much time only wish I had stumbled across it sooner
there's even a cd with the different graphics so you can play around when your reading this book.

Brilliant pot-pourri of flash, 04 Nov 2007
A great little book that is a pleasure to open and read. Well illustrated and presented - a book with high production values. The title (forget the cheating bit) describes the contents perfectly - The art of design and Animation - the knowledgeable author teaches great Flash techniques.

A great addition to your flash library.

Fantastic !!!, 15 Sep 2007
Superb book !! I can see myself using this book for years there are tons of techniques to learn, explained simply with lots of pictures making it great for quick reference. I teach flash animation and will be recommending that all my students buy this book !!

Brilliant Stickers, 02 Sep 2008
This is an excellent book filled with a massive selection of quality stickers. If you like stickers, you'll love this. Most of them have a graffiti feel to them, but some are like mini works of art and are very detailed.

I've already started putting them on everything I own.

Only gets one star dropped for the books smell- its very strong like varnish. But some people might like that! I'm sure it will fade.

Very over valued, 29 Jun 2008
I have to say I am extremely disappointed with this. Everyone at college has said you have just got to buy this book, its amazing. Is it?? No it isn't. Sagmeister is nowhere near being the design genius that he has been tagged with. When you compare it to Alan Fletcher, there is just no competition. I have seen far better work being displayed at the various university degree shows this year to be honest. Especially at Stoke, Birmingham and the fantastic illustration work at Bristol which was truly fantastic.
So whatever you do, keep hold of your money and buy something else. He is very over rated and has been built up on a pedestal when he clearly doesn't deserve to be.

Can graphic design touch someone's heart?, 16 May 2008
There are countless books on design and many of them are good, even brilliant. And yet one looks for something that is more than a design book with lots of designers' work. One always searches for a book that would act as a trigger, as a spark than can light a million ideas in one's own brain.
A book to do that was Alan Fletcher's Art of Looking Sideways.
And a book which surpasses everything that I have ever seen is Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have learned in my life so far.
Why? Because it is brutally honest.
It is what design was meant to be.
Sagmeister uses his own learnings and converts them into magic. You turn the pages and you are mesmerised by the immensity, the sheer scale of ideas there.
Your mind begins to fill up with images and words and ideas you never thought existed.
You turn the pages and it hits you: Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
And `now' to me started with the book. This book truly changed my life.
I have read the critics say many things like this book being self indulgent. Well, a man who take pains to go around the world to encourage design and design students cannot be self indulgent. He is honest. And every page of this book is a primer for honesty.
And of course, brilliant design.
Sagmeister's design and typography are stuff legends are made of. I am a mere mortal to comment upon those. But I can say this, I have never seen an explosion of so many brilliant ideas in one place ever before.
Stefan Sagmeister has always asked the question: Can design touch someone's heart?
This book will touch millions.
A priceless book.


Emperor's New Clothes or Design Genius?, 12 Mar 2008
Is Stefan Sagmeister the Emperor's new clothes of the design world, or does he really deserve the genius tag he's so often given?

After reading Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, I firmly believe the latter. Sagmeister doesn't disappoint; he makes design fun and accessible, without dumbing down or losing effect - this book illustrates perfectly, both in content and format, that good design works.

The featured projects are fascinating; my reactions ranged from `oh that's sooo gorgeous,' to `how on earth....?' to `what HAPPENED to him to make him think like that?!'

It's beautifully put together - a design book that's not just for designers, with essays and Sagmeister's explanations of the projects, along with fantastic images.

As Sagmeister says, via the help of giant monkeys, "Everybody always thinks they are right," and I think I am in this case - buy it, swap around the covers to your heart's content, and enjoy your very own piece of Sagmeister!

A True Chameleon, 24 Feb 2008
There are lots of design books that are about design. Design books for designers. This isn't one of them - it's much more than that. The sheer richness of this book takes a while to take in - you will find new things every time you dip into it. This book is inventive, poignant, informative and unusual - but above all it is beautiful. There's such a wealth of ideas executed with style and an individual confidence that it is hard to say which is best, but I would say it's worth buying the book for the Singapore 'Keeping A Diary' section alone. Also there are a lot of monkeys, and that can never be a bad thing. Full marks.

Pretty, but impractical (2002 Edition), 26 Feb 2008
This is visually very pleasing, but the content is disapointing. I'm happy with the high quality images but what i did not find was a straightforward discussion of design. The text is unnecessarily stylized. For example, a pencil is described as: "the traditional instrument of rapid transfer of thought to a surface". Also, as i read, i often found myself thinking "what is this section supposed to be about?" because the way the chapters are organized sometimes leaves you guessing as to what you re supposed to be reading about. On the up side it did get me thinking about some ideas that were new to me as a non-designer.

An essential Graphic Design handbook!, 15 Jan 2003
This is an excellent handbook that attempts to cover every aspect of Graphic Design. The chapters are short and managble, with a wide range of visuals that are excellent for research.

This book has been very useful and helped inspire many of my ideas. It is a great size (220mm x 180mm) which is an ideal reference book to transport to and from Uni or college.

I would reccommend this book to anyone who is aiming to persue a career in Graphic design, but seeks guidance deciding which specific area to specialise in.

This book is an ESSENTIAL item for any serious graphic designer!

A must read, 29 Aug 2008
Guidelines for Online Success is a book going through different phases of the do's and don't of creating a website. This is not a tutorial on how to create a website but a book filled with tips and examples of websites and also includes top input from the top people from all over the world and is put together by Rob Ford (founder of fwa) and Julius Weidemann(Taschen editor). owners of the top agencies such as Micheal Lebowitz if the Big Spaceship to David Hugh Martin of Fantasy Interactive. In this book all the work shown are award winning and if you visit them and also learn to what the people have to say then maybe you can become FWA site of the day, month or even year.

Stuck for an idea? Dive in here..., 24 Mar 2008
Alan Fletcher was one of the creative powerhouses of design from the 1960s on, and this book puts together some of his musings on life, the Universe and everything. The book is designed to spark ideas and thought, so even the paper used changes from page to page.

In typically quirky fashion, only the left hand pages are given a number so if you buy this book you actually get over a thousand pages of inspiring graphics, calligraphy, typography and photographs collected over the course of a long and illustrious career: he founded Pentagram; he designed logos for Reuters and the Victoria and Albert museum. The book gives a glimpse of the thought processes that went in to that work. For the money it's an astonishing bargain.

A homage to concept-driven design and thinking, 27 May 2007
This book provides so many examples of both the mechanics of a good concept and the power of lateral thinking. A great feat to have documented and communicated such an eclectic range of thoughts and ideas.

Inspirational, 27 Jan 2007
This is the book to have next to your desk: dip into it, when you need escape or inspiration. Or start from the beginning and work your way through it: whichever way you do it: I defy you not to find something interesting on virtually every page!!

Rowland Jones

A fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and a good dose of self-indulgence by the author, 31 Dec 2006
What a wonderful title for this book of more than 530 pages. The target is visual awareness and it has 72 chapters devoted to themes such as "ideas", "thinking", "seeing", "camouflage" and "handedness". The author claims it is "a journey without a destination", and he is probably right, the implication being that it is the voyage that counts in life. It is truly a massive collection of bits and pieces collected by the author, thrown on to a basic structure, and presented "shaken not stirred" (to misuse a common quote from James Bond). Her lies the books major asset and its major defect. It is full of interesting images and text bites, yet at the same time it is full of bits of useless or uninteresting trivia. There are times when you get the impression that the author has been overly self-indulgent, but it is certainly a lesson to us all - collect every little bit of dross since it could become a book one day. Yet it also a fantastic collection of interesting "factlets" and for the price it is certainly worth having on your shelves. I suspect it is also a book that I will go back to occasionally just to skim through the odd 100 pages. I was planning to give this extravagantly over-indulgent book only 3-stars, but in writing this review I've convinced myself to give it a solid 4-stars for its fun content and the gall of the author in thinking his lifetime collection of "odds and bods" would interest others. It did.

dont just see it - look at it!!, 21 Oct 2006
We're all told to do it at design college (and usually dont) then we end up doing it through our creative careers.. and that's find things that inspire us, amuse us, or that we just plain and simply like. why? so we can use them on days when we have no inspiration. This book is one mans fascinating collection of explorations - an intelligent way to really look at things. Come on - open the book, I bet you'll find something in there you like. I bet you.

Not enough pictures :), 26 Jun 2008
As I work best with pictures rather than words. I love graphic design books packed with large images full of inspiration. This has images, but not enough- plenty of writing tho! (hahaha) Guess its good for contextual studies though.

Great over view, 29 May 2002
Organised by country and date, this book is a great introduction to where Graphic Design is coming from. Not expecting you to know anything about the topic, this book can be used as a history, or as a quick contextual refrence book.

An excellent introduction to the history of graphic Design, 15 Jan 2002
This is the best introduction to the history of Graphic Design I ever read.
The book is very well organized (chronological and geographically), and despiste the amplitude of the subject tries to reach the roots of the cultural and technological context of the big mutations of the contemporary graphic Design.
Easy to read contains reprodutions (however small in size)that help to visualize the essencial movements and authors, and doesn't stop at the Bauhus but goes to just yesterday.

amazing , 12 Feb 2008
if you only buy one art book this year i recomend this one it is amazing! everypage is filled with amazing full colour pictures with information on the artists and designers. it actually feels like you are flicking through someones sketchbook which is totally awesome

pictures for all, 10 Feb 2008
Simply put, this is a fantastic array of street styles. From an artists perspective, it's always great to have images lying around for inspiration. Sketchbooks are frequently a fairly intimate form of an artists work, where ideas are collected, and as a result these pages really give great insight into these selected artist's work, both in terms of process and how their final ideas are formed. With a perfectly concise preface, and only a little explanation from the artists on their own work, the images are left to speak for themselves. Particular favourites were Amose, Blu, turf one and Will Barras, but so saying, all artists featured were intriguing, and none felt out of place. Just a great coffee table picture book for urban art fanatic