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Summary: Great approach to creative thinking and design...
Review: A masterpiece of modern design. Every part of this book has been extensively thought out. From the layout of the pages, to the typographical treatments that evolve and change as you examine each project. At first glance all you can do is flip the pages and view each page as an individual entity. The second glance you envelope your self in the creative thoughts of each project. Every time I pick up the book I find something that I had not noticed before. A great book for any designer or lover of great design.
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Summary: Inspiring and worth every cent
Review: As an educator at Rutgers University and a Graphic Design studio owner, I pour over endless design books and rarely recommend one over another. This book is a rare exception. Not only is it visually engaging and well designed, it explains projects in a concise manner with the concept in mind, not mere style. It covers not only symbol application, but also interactive design, branding and signage to name a few of the wide-ranging applications it discusses. Tolleson Design exemplifies a unique studio style without appearing to be trendy and self-serving. While this book promotes one studio, it doesn't read a promotional book, but an inspiring set of visuals any Graphic Designer would gain insight from. This book contains more images than most annuals and the descriptions give other visual communicators insight into the process and concept. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: shrinkage
Review: book that was designed for an audience that uses microscopes as reading glasses. the original format was larger than tabloid, but there was a computer crash when printing and the whole book shrunk to little, tiny, beautiful, delicate pieces of typography... that no one can read! suggestion: selling a combo that will feature soakwashrinsespin and a stop at the doctor for quick eye-enhancing laser operation. i think 6pt type is beautiful but this pushes it a bit, not necessarily in a good direction.
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Summary: Best book i have ever had
Review: Clean, neat, and well thought design, an example of a method to get a good result
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Summary: Worth its weight in gold
Review: I am a book freak and buy books worth atleast ... in the area of graphic design, web design and experience design every month. My collection is really huge. But this book is outstanding and something totally different from what I have ever seen in last 6 years of my career. This book makes the process of design 100% science than art. This book gives you skills to build you design based on solid logic and still keep it looking good. Plus after having gone through this book I have learnt to get my work approved like never before, as I am able to really make my clients see the reason as to what I have done is correct. This gives me much more time to do better work, read and learn more. Do go in for it. You will never regret. Actually I have bought 3 copies of this book. One for my room, one for my toilet and one for my office. ...
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Summary: design process- with results uninspiring
Review: i had high expectations from this book, and was eager to finally get it. but alas, the designs desplayed are very very midiocre, and trully not inspiring. plus, the layout is confusing and unattractive. but theres a bright side too. the reading. its a great book to read. the design process is brought to us first hand, with all the humor, difficulty and some times agony involved. this book reminds us that behind any design , be it good or bad, there are human beeings struggling, and not just creative minds. i think, therefore, that its a good purchase, as long as you stick to the words and not the works themselves.
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Summary: A superb collection of inspiring design
Review: I was a bit concerned about buying this book after reading complaints about type size, but after some debating I decided to just buy this book and decide for myself... and I'm glad that I did. Sure the type is small and a bit hard to read. But there are only significant ammounts of type on the first twenty pages. The majority of the remaining 268 pages contain mostly images. Some pages contain no type at all, other than page numbers. This one gets 5 well deserved stars. Forget the type complaints and pick up a copy of this valuable addition to any designer's book collection.
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Summary: I have been waiting for a design book like this
Review: I'll admit it. I am one of those people who has gotten used to buying design books to look at pretty pictures (and this book has plenty of them), but I was pleasantly surprised, no, amazed, at the insight Steven Tolleson has given us into his process. This book is a must-have for any designer. It reminds us why we decided to do this in the first place, and it is a wake up call for those of us who sometimes forget there can still be a meaningful approach to any design in spite of a tight budget, schedule, etc.
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Summary: The most practical coffee-table book I own
Review: If I had to choose one book that best elucidates the problem (excuse me: the "challenge") of good graphic design - how to think about it, how to plan for it, how to execute it - this would be it. The material on branding for Urban Outfitters and Liz Claiborne alone is worth the price of admission. The work under consideration pops, and the book itself shows you why - a particularly convincing pitch for the talents of the designers within. If you can't afford to hire Tolleson Design, the best advice I can give you is buy this book and try to implement some of the ways of thinking and seeing it so clearly makes manifest.
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Summary: Beauty in Imperfection
Review: Soak Wash Rinse Spin's typesetting forces you to stop reading after too few pages. You really want to dig in but are quickly demoralized into putting it down. Sagmeister's, "Made you look" was studied in wonder over a 10 hour session immediately after opening the package. I had never heard of him and i was quickly converted into a believer, all other scheduled items became secondary. Long lines of sans serif tiny type are the only thing that stopped this book from having an impact of similar strength. An unrelated note, within one week, the binding cracked. One research misjudgement on my part was to assume the book was published very recently and included their newest projects (see tolleson.com) It was published in 2000 of course, some projects have glimmers of past trends. Nothing compares to the sheer visual firepower Tolleson blasts with both barrels. There is a beautiful logic flowing with every peice and you feel drawn into the scientific precision of the studio's creative process. A printer's eye glass would be a fun attachment to assist in reading this book, which despite it's flaws is a proud part of my collection.
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