Design Art: Books

Digital Design Theory bridges the gap between the discourse of print design and interactive experience by examining the impact of computation on the field of design. As graphic design moves from the creation of closed, static objects to the development of open, interactive frameworks, designers seek to understand their own rapidly shifting profession. Helen Armstrong's carefully curated introduction to groundbreaking primary texts, from the 1960s to the present, provides the background necessary for an understanding of digital design vocabulary and thought. Accessible essays from designers and programmers are by influential figures such as Ladislav Sutnar, Bruno Munari, Wim Crouwel, Sol LeWitt, Muriel Cooper, Zuzana Licko, Rudy VanderLans, John Maeda, Paola Antonelli, Luna Maurer, and Keetra Dean Dixon.

This book offers students, novice designers, and battle-toughened professionals alike useful information they need to know to survive and prosper in the complex, ever-shifting world of graphic design. Set out in A-Z style and written in a realistic, conversational, and insightful way, the book provides advice on the fundamental topics and issues that face designers in their daily lives. It looks at everything from kerning to presenting, from budgeting to dealing with rejection, from annual reports to interface design.

This collection of groundbreaking campaigns and industry insights from the world's leading design studios shows how today's graphic designers are thinking, collaborating, and breaking the rules. This guide explores ways in which graphic designers can successfully collaborate with other creative professionals and sectors, whether it be a more sophisticated logo for a product, a better-designed lookbook for a fashion brand, or a more intuitive wayfinding system for a museum. The book features exceptionally conceived design solutions across a variety of industries--from architecture and product design to art, fashion, and film. This visually arresting and informative volume shows how excellence can be achieved when creative minds work together.

Graphic Design Theory presents groundbreaking, primary texts from the most important historical and contemporary design thinkers. From Aleksandr Rodchenko's "Who We Are: Manifesto of the Constructivist Group" to Kenya Hara's "Computer Technology and Design," this volume provides the necessary foundation for contemporary critical vocabulary and thought.
A must-have survey for graduate and undergraduate courses in design history, theory, and contemporary issues, Graphic Design Theory invites designers and interested readers of all levels to plunge into the world of design discourse.

A trusted resource for graphic designers around the world, this book combines practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers, with chapters on professional skills, the creative process, and global trends that include social responsibility, ethics, and the rise of digital culture. It offers clear, concise guidance along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio; finding work; and collaborating with clients.

Josef Albers's Interaction of Color presents a selection of close to sixty color studies alongside Albers's original text, demonstrating such principles as color relativity, intensity, and temperature; vibrating and vanishing boundaries; and the illusion of transparency and reversed grounds.

This book presents the first comprehensive introduction to arts-based research (ABR) practices, which scholars in multiple disciplines are fruitfully using to reveal information and represent experiences that traditional methods cannot capture. Each of the six major ABR genres--narrative inquiry, poetry, music, performance, dance, and visual art--is covered in chapters that introduce key concepts and tools and present an exemplary research article by a leading ABR practitioner. Chapters include checklists to guide methodological decision making, discussion questions, and recommended print and online resources.

In this title, the author analyzes the profound influence of emotion in user perception of a product; if a product is aesthetically pleasing to a user, then the user will form a positive emotional connection to the said product and will favor the product more. The author also provides more explanations for this idea by drawing on a wealth of examples and the latest scientific insights.

This title describes the skills needed to become an exhibition designer, including developing a brief and working with clients; design principles for graphics, circulation, lighting, and accessibility; presenting ideas to clients; and the practicalities of production. A wealth of visual material includes photographs of completed exhibitions by world-renowned designers, concept drawings, computer renderings, charts and tables of information--all for a wide range of exhibitions around the world, permanent and temporary, including museums and galleries, visitor centers, brand experiences, festivals and trade fairs.

RoseLee Goldberg explores contemporary artists' approaches to politics, tradition, social engagement, and the art world itself while evaluating the changing status of performance and its ever-increasing relevance to artists and audiences. Featuring recent work by leading performance artists such as Marina Abramovic, Walid Raad, Francis Alys, Pierre Huyghe, Tino Sehgal, and Sharon Hayes, the book covers a century of the medium.

Background Noise follows the development of sound as an artistic medium and illustrates how sound is put to use within modes of composition, installation, and performance. Brandon LaBelle's book is informed by spatial thinking - weaving architecture, environments, and the specifics of location into the work of sound, with the aim of formulating an expansive history and understanding of sound art. At its center, the book presupposes an intrinsic relation between sound and its location, galvanizing acoustics, sound phenomena, and the environment with the tensions inherent in what LaBelle identifies as sound's relational dynamic. Intersecting material analysis with theoretical frameworks spanning art and architectural theory, performance studies, and media theory, Background Noise makes the case that sound and sound art are central to understandings of contemporary culture.

To date, there has been minimal scholarship directed towards the intricacies of our experiences of sound that occur within the bounds of this purportedly 'visual' art space. Kelly addresses this gap in knowledge through the examination of historical and contemporary sound in gallery environments, broadening our understanding of artists who work with sound, the institutions that exhibit these works, and the audiences that visit them.
Gallery Sound argues for the importance of all of the sounds to be heard within the walls of art spaces, and in doing so listens not only to the deliberate inclusion of sound within the art gallery in the form of artworks, performances, and music, but also to its incidental sounds, such as their ambient sounds and the noise generated by audiences. Gallery Sound turns its attention to the ways in which the acoustic characteristics specific to gallery spaces have been mined by artists for creative outputs, ushering in entirely new art forms.

Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how--and why--some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

Designing without understanding what makes people act the way they do is like exploring a new city without a map: results will be haphazard, confusing, and inefficient. This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it, you'll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that match the way people think, work, and play.

In this title, the author traces the progress of design from its beginnings in the late 19th century, through the most significant movements of the 20th century up to those recent developments in biological engineering which will shape the 21st century.

The most important fundamental principles of design theory and methodology are presented, looking in particular at the communicative function of products and highlighting aspects such as corporate and service design, design management, strategic design, interface/interaction design and human design.

In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design--guidelines for needing less and actually getting more. Maeda--a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer--explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of "improved" so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on.

Hooked is based on Eyal's years of research, consulting, and practical experience. He wrote the book he wished had been available to him as a start-up founder--not abstract theory, but a how-to guide for building better products. Hooked is written for product managers, designers, marketers, start-up founders, and anyone who seeks to understand how products influence our behavior.