Swiss Graphic Design

Rating:
Summary: nice coffee table book
Review: A very handsome cover at first glance, and quite extrodinare inside also.

Some awesome work from buro destruct, francois chalet, norm, remo, etc. you know... the elite swiss guys that have a nack for detail.

Overall, if your into graphics design, and currently have designers block, pick it up for a while, and get inspired again. But don't expect anything other than that. If not, it's still worth it in your graphics library for reference, and makes a nice coffee table book.

Rating:
Summary: Exhibition of bad taste
Review: Good things first - "Swiss Graphic Design" is well put together and well designed. However, while this book contains a high level of creative work and page after page of bright pictures, I found much of the content rather shocking and explicit. Rather than classic, beautiful design, this book focuses on very trendy material. But if that's what you want and sexually explicit work doesn't bother you, then you might enjoy all the interesting design work.

Rating:
Summary: a buy?
Review: I got this book as a gift. At first, I found it very interesting however, there's always better ones.Though, this is a good book for those who don't like to read... pictures and pictures of stuff. It's somewhat inspirational.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous New Typography from Switzerland
Review: Who knew they still had it in them? Excellent examples of young Swiss typography abound in this handsome volume.

The truly beautiful work is loosely grouped by style, which works surprisingly well and makes for enjoyable browsing.

The only thing vaguely disappointing about the book is the 20-page essay lead-in, which, for me, falls into the "Impenetrably Lofty Writing on Design" category. Blah blah blah. It looks very nice on the page, but it's painful, joyless reading. Turn to the informative writing in Intro's first "Sampler" volume and Ginko's "Visible Music" to see it done right. (Mind you, this is all personal bias. I may just be too dense to comprehend this particular piece.)

Who cares, anyway? It's a design book. No one reads design books. They're all about the pretty work. And there's plenty of it here.