Rating: 
Summary: Eeeesh!
Review: The book itself is stunning. Plastic covers with heavy binding, on heavyweight non-glossy paper. Over 400 pages of sampled work and lots of copy to support each piece. The layout is experimental, and most of the time exquisite. The work, as found in other reviews, seems less relavant than the layout of the book itself. It is difficult to tell which "version" of the artwork is the original. It is hard to figure out where the editors added their own cropping to a piece of work, or whether it really appeared that way. Overall, the edition commands respect, but I believe that the work was compromised, and it is difficult to know if i'll refer back to this volume as much as I do other annuals and such for inspiration and knowledge.
Rating: 
Summary: Great vision with slightly limited results
Review: The book itself is stunning. Plastic covers with heavy binding, on heavyweight non-glossy paper. Over 400 pages of sampled work and lots of copy to support each piece. The layout is experimental, and most of the time exquisite. The work, as found in other reviews, seems less relavant than the layout of the book itself. It is difficult to tell which "version" of the artwork is the original. It is hard to figure out where the editors added their own cropping to a piece of work, or whether it really appeared that way. Overall, the edition commands respect, but I believe that the work was compromised, and it is difficult to know if i'll refer back to this volume as much as I do other annuals and such for inspiration and knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Try and use this..I dare you!
Review: The book itself looks wonderful, with a nice, strong design on all of the pages. The sad part is this design comes at a price, and that price is the content it's trying to display is completely truncated, and ineffectual. As far as inspiration books go, this is definitely one of the worst books I've purchased. You can tell that there are some real gems located within, but the sad part is you only see the top corner, or little snippets. Maybe next time AIGA should focus on letting us see why the winners are in the book, instead of trying to make an artsty statement in and of itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Overdesigned
Review: The previous reviewer is right on the mark. The book designer intruded into the pieces that are supposed to be the highlight of the book, it took me a few page turns to realize that the grids on top of the full page images were in fact not a part of the pieces on display. What bothers me most about this book is the pretentiousness of the books editors/judges in making this the book that will forever divide the web designers from the print designers. This book is being used by the print firms to suck projects back into their court by putting a "manifesto" of sorts in the back explaining why there are no website projects profiled. They really show their colors by saying websites are poorly designed because the designers are not a big part of the process anymore. What a great way to convince clients that will be looking at this that they need go with a "print firm". They also say that the web suffers from the Jakob Nielson usability first, design last effect. I suggest that other designers (i work in print and the web) follow my lead and burn your AIGA membership cards and forget about collaboration. It seems that the judges do not like working on an even playing field with developers and site arhitects (I would like to see Michael Beirut design global flash narratives across a 6000 page intranet)... hopefully this book will have little effect on our community.
Rating:
Summary: 365: Great pieces but poor book design
Review: This annual is a good example of how pretentious, self important design of a book can ruin it. Otherwise (probably) terrific examples of the latest in American design are reduced to irresponsible unreadable game of the apparently self-important book designer (J. Sterling?) who thinks that her design is more important than the actual pieces selected for this prestigious contest. A complete parody of the functionality of graphic design. 4 stars for the work itself, 1 star for the interior editorial design. Sorry spectacle AIGA.
Rating:
Summary: art not design
Review: This book is a good example of where art and design go their separate ways. It's a beautiful book, clearly put together by a very creative individual. But it's "designed" very poorly, it doesn't serve it's function. It's hard to read, you can't see the pieces it's supposed to highlight, and the binding breaks very easily because of the chosen materials. Again, they look great, but they don't do their job. Design that's honored by the AIGA should live up to higher standards in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: art not design
Review: This book is a good example of where art and design go their separate ways. It's a beautiful book, clearly put together by a very creative individual. But it's "designed" very poorly, it doesn't serve it's function. It's hard to read, you can't see the pieces it's supposed to highlight, and the binding breaks very easily because of the chosen materials. Again, they look great, but they don't do their job. Design that's honored by the AIGA should live up to higher standards in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Cutting Other People Work...
Review: To show your design skills is not what design is meant for when you have over a hundred other designers whose work you are trying to showcase. I really felt that the pieces that were shown in this book where destroyed by cutting them up into different sections and not showing the whole. How could you get a sense of the pieces as they are not shown in their entirety? Many of the pieces I have seen in other publications so I know this is the case. I love what they chose to be included and agree with them on their beauty, but how can you not show the whole work? Would you show four different pieces of a Ray and Charles Eames piece of furniture, part of a Frank Gehrey building or a little of one of Phillip Starck's industrial designs? No, people would be upset....and that is my point. This isn't the designer of the books work but a collection of other peoples work . If the book was a Photonica catalog (which it strongly resembles) then I would say great job! This is just another designer (whose work I love) stepping on other peoples toes...sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Design Arrogance
Review: Very dissapointing book overall. Although creative, it doesn't do what is suppose to do -- communicate. It shows off the the designer's trendy style, but does no justice to all the winning participants. If my work were shown in this book in little distorted details, I would have asked for my money back.
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