1. Marks of Excellence: The History and Taxonomy of Trademarks Per Mollerup This text covers every aspect of the trademark, its history, development, style, classification and relevance in today’s world. A brief history is given of the origins of the trademark in heraldry, monograms, owner’s marks and certificates of origin. The proceeding chapters explore corporate identity and communication design with an emphasis on sign theory. The core of the book is a comprehensive classification of trademarks covering name marks, abbreviations and all kinds of picture marks. This is followed by an alphabetical index of trademark themes from animals to word puzzles. The index is illustrated by a selection of the world’s best trademarks - the marks of excellence from which this book takes its name. The final section of the book covers the development of trademarks over time and across the boundaries of language and space.

    Marks of Excellence: The History and Taxonomy of Trademarks

    Per Mollerup

    This text covers every aspect of the trademark, its history, development, style, classification and relevance in today’s world. A brief history is given of the origins of the trademark in heraldry, monograms, owner’s marks and certificates of origin. The proceeding chapters explore corporate identity and communication design with an emphasis on sign theory. The core of the book is a comprehensive classification of trademarks covering name marks, abbreviations and all kinds of picture marks. This is followed by an alphabetical index of trademark themes from animals to word puzzles. The index is illustrated by a selection of the world’s best trademarks - the marks of excellence from which this book takes its name. The final section of the book covers the development of trademarks over time and across the boundaries of language and space.
  2. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Scott McCloud Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.

    Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art

    Scott McCloud

    Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.
  3. Graphic Design: A User’s Manual Adrian Shaughnessy This book offers students, novice designers, and battle-toughened professionals alike an insider’s guide to the complexities of current graphic design practice and thinking. It contains all you 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. Adrian Shaughnessy, author of the best-selling How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, is himself a successful designer, and brings a wealth of experience to this very useful and entertaining book.

    Graphic Design: A User’s Manual

    Adrian Shaughnessy

    This book offers students, novice designers, and battle-toughened professionals alike an insider’s guide to the complexities of current graphic design practice and thinking.

    It contains all you 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.

    Adrian Shaughnessy, author of the best-selling How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, is himself a successful designer, and brings a wealth of experience to this very useful and entertaining book.
  4. Graphic Design: The New Basics Ellen Lupton How do designers get ideas? Many spend their time searching for clever combinations of forms, fonts, and colors inside thedesign annuals and monographs of other designers’ work. For those looking to challenge the cut-and-paste mentality thereare few resources that are both informative and inspirational. In Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton, best-selling author of such books as Thinking with Type and Design It Yourself, and design educator Jennifer Cole Phillips refocus design instruction on the study of the fundamentals of form in a critical, rigorous way informed by contemporary media, theory, and software systems. Through visual demonstrations and concise commentary, The New Basics shows students and professionals how to build interest and complexity around simple relationships between formal elements of two-dimensional design such as point, line, plane, scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency. The New Basics explains the key concepts of visual language that inform any work of designfrom a logo or letterhead to a complex web site. It takes a fresh approach to design instruction by emphasizing visually intensive, form-based thinking in a manner that is in tune with the latest developments in contemporary media, theory, art, and technology. Colorful, compact, and clearly written, The New Basics is the new indispensable resource for anyone seeking a smart, inspiring introduction to graphic design and destined to become the standard reference work in design education.

    Graphic Design: The New Basics

    Ellen Lupton

    How do designers get ideas? Many spend their time searching for clever combinations of forms, fonts, and colors inside thedesign annuals and monographs of other designers’ work. For those looking to challenge the cut-and-paste mentality thereare few resources that are both informative and inspirational. In Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton, best-selling author of such books as Thinking with Type and Design It Yourself, and design educator Jennifer Cole Phillips refocus design instruction on the study of the fundamentals of form in a critical, rigorous way informed by contemporary media, theory, and software systems. Through visual demonstrations and concise commentary, The New Basics shows students and professionals how to build interest and complexity around simple relationships between formal elements of two-dimensional design such as point, line, plane, scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency. The New Basics explains the key concepts of visual language that inform any work of designfrom a logo or letterhead to a complex web site. It takes a fresh approach to design instruction by emphasizing visually intensive, form-based thinking in a manner that is in tune with the latest developments in contemporary media, theory, art, and technology. Colorful, compact, and clearly written, The New Basics is the new indispensable resource for anyone seeking a smart, inspiring introduction to graphic design and destined to become the standard reference work in design education.
  5. Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists Julia Rothman This book shares large full-color images and profiles each of the amazingly talented artists that discuss their sketchbooks and how they use them.  People are fascinated by artist’s sketchbooks. They offer a glimpse into private pages where artists brainstorm, doodle, develop and work on ideas, and keep track of their musings. Artists use these journals to document their daily lives, produce their initial ideas for bigger projects, and practice their skills. Using a variety of media from paint to pencil to collage, these pages can become works of art themselves. They often feel fresh and alive because they are first thoughts and often not reworked. These pages capture the artist’s personalities along with glimpses of their process of working and inspirations. See inside the sketchbooks of artists Jessica Hische, Mike Perry, Jen Corace, Matt Leines, Jill Bliss, Camilla Engman, Anders Nilsen and many more.

    Drawn In: A Peek into the Inspiring Sketchbooks of 44 Fine Artists, Illustrators, Graphic Designers, and Cartoonists

    Julia Rothman

    This book shares large full-color images and profiles each of the amazingly talented artists that discuss their sketchbooks and how they use them.
     
    People are fascinated by artist’s sketchbooks. They offer a glimpse into private pages where artists brainstorm, doodle, develop and work on ideas, and keep track of their musings. Artists use these journals to document their daily lives, produce their initial ideas for bigger projects, and practice their skills. Using a variety of media from paint to pencil to collage, these pages can become works of art themselves. They often feel fresh and alive because they are first thoughts and often not reworked. These pages capture the artist’s personalities along with glimpses of their process of working and inspirations.
     
    See inside the sketchbooks of artists Jessica Hische, Mike Perry, Jen Corace, Matt Leines, Jill Bliss, Camilla Engman, Anders Nilsen and many more.

  6. How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul (New Expanded Edition) Adrian Shaughnessy Published to instant acclaim in 2005, our best selling How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul has become a trusted resource for graphic designers around the world, combining practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers. This new, expanded edition brings this essential text up to date with new chapters on professional skills, the creative process, and global trends that include social responsibility, ethics, and the rise of digital culture. How to Be a Graphic Designer offers clear, concise guidance along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio; finding work; and collaborating with clients. The book also includes inspiring new interviews with leading designers, including Jonathan Barnbrook, Sara De Bondt, Stephen Doyle, Ben Drury, Paul Sahre, Dmitri Siegel, Sophie Thomas, and Magnus Vol Mathiassen.

    How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul (New Expanded Edition)

    Adrian Shaughnessy

    Published to instant acclaim in 2005, our best selling How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul has become a trusted resource for graphic designers around the world, combining practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers. This new, expanded edition brings this essential text up to date with new chapters on professional skills, the creative process, and global trends that include social responsibility, ethics, and the rise of digital culture. How to Be a Graphic Designer offers clear, concise guidance along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio; finding work; and collaborating with clients. The book also includes inspiring new interviews with leading designers, including Jonathan Barnbrook, Sara De Bondt, Stephen Doyle, Ben Drury, Paul Sahre, Dmitri Siegel, Sophie Thomas, and Magnus Vol Mathiassen.
  7. Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design Michael Bierut Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design brings together the best of designer Michael Bierut’s critical writingserious or humorous, flattering or biting, but always on the mark. Bierut is widely considered the finest observer on design writing today. Covering topics as diverse as Twyla Tharp and ITC Garamond, Bierut’s intelligent and accessible texts pull design culture into crisp focus. He touches on classics, like Massimo Vignelli and the cover of The Catcher in the Rye, as well as newcomers, like McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and color-coded terrorism alert levels. Along the way Nabakov’s Pale Fire; Eero Saarinen; the paper clip; Celebration, Florida; the planet Saturn; the ClearRx pill bottle; and paper architecture all fall under his pen. His experience as a design practitioner informs his writing and gives it truth. In Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, designers and nondesigners alike can share and revel in his insights.

    Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

    Michael Bierut

    Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design brings together the best of designer Michael Bierut’s critical writingserious or humorous, flattering or biting, but always on the mark. Bierut is widely considered the finest observer on design writing today. Covering topics as diverse as Twyla Tharp and ITC Garamond, Bierut’s intelligent and accessible texts pull design culture into crisp focus. He touches on classics, like Massimo Vignelli and the cover of The Catcher in the Rye, as well as newcomers, like McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern and color-coded terrorism alert levels. Along the way Nabakov’s Pale Fire; Eero Saarinen; the paper clip; Celebration, Florida; the planet Saturn; the ClearRx pill bottle; and paper architecture all fall under his pen. His experience as a design practitioner informs his writing and gives it truth. In Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, designers and nondesigners alike can share and revel in his insights.
  8. Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities Frank Jacobs An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world. Categories of cartographic curiosities include: • Literary Creations, featuring a map of Thomas More’s Utopia and the world of George Orwell’s 1984 • Cartographic Misconceptions, such as a lavish seventeenthcentury map depicting California as an island • Political Parody, containing the “Jesusland map” and other humorous takes on voter profiles • Whatchamacallit, including a map of the area codes for regions where the rapper Ludacris sings about having “hoes” • Obscure Proposals, capturing Thomas Jefferson’s vision for dividing the Northwest Territory into ten states with names such as Polypotamia and Assenisipia • Fantastic Maps, with a depiction of what the globe might look like if the sea and land were inverted The Strange Maps blog has been named by GeekDad Blog on Wired.com “one of the more unusual and unique sites seen on the Web that doesn’t sell anything or promote an agenda” and it’s currently ranked #423 on Technorati’s Top 500 Blogs. Brimming with trivia, deadpan humor, and idiosyncratic lore, Strange Maps is a fascinating tour of all things weird and wonderful in the world of cartography.

    Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities

    Frank Jacobs

    An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity

    Spanning many centuries, all continents, and the realms of outer space and the imagination, this collection of 138 unique graphics combines beautiful full-color illustrations with quirky statistics and smart social commentary. The result is a distinctive illustrated guide to the world. Categories of cartographic curiosities include: • Literary Creations, featuring a map of Thomas More’s Utopia and the world of George Orwell’s 1984

    • Cartographic Misconceptions, such as a lavish seventeenthcentury map depicting California as an island
    • Political Parody, containing the “Jesusland map” and other humorous takes on voter profiles
    • Whatchamacallit, including a map of the area codes for regions where the rapper Ludacris sings about having “hoes”
    • Obscure Proposals, capturing Thomas Jefferson’s vision for dividing the Northwest Territory into ten states with names such as Polypotamia and Assenisipia
    • Fantastic Maps, with a depiction of what the globe might look like if the sea and land were inverted

    The Strange Maps blog has been named by GeekDad Blog on Wired.com “one of the more unusual and unique sites seen on the Web that doesn’t sell anything or promote an agenda” and it’s currently ranked #423 on Technorati’s Top 500 Blogs.

    Brimming with trivia, deadpan humor, and idiosyncratic lore, Strange Maps is a fascinating tour of all things weird and wonderful in the world of cartography.
  9. The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography Katharine Harmon As seen in O: The Oprah Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Cool Hunting, and countless other media outlets, The Map as Art is available now in a paperback edition. This volume by Katharine Harmon, author of our best-selling book You Are Here, extends that book’s celebration of mapmaking to the world of artists’ maps. It is little surprise that in an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology contemporary artists are drawn to mapsto express their visions. Using paint, salt, souvenir tea towels, or their own bodies, map artists explore a world free ofgeographical constraints. In The Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artists—such as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, William Kentridge, and Vik Muniz—and many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. Essays by Gayle Clemans bring an in-depth look into the artists’ maps of Joyce Kozloff, Landon Mackenzie, Ingrid Calame, Guillermo Kuitca, and Maya Lin. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.

    The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography

    Katharine Harmon

    As seen in O: The Oprah Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, USA Today, Cool Hunting, and countless other media outlets, The Map as Art is available now in a paperback edition. This volume by Katharine Harmon, author of our best-selling book You Are Here, extends that book’s celebration of mapmaking to the world of artists’ maps.

    It is little surprise that in an era of globalized politics, culture, and ecology contemporary artists are drawn to mapsto express their visions. Using paint, salt, souvenir tea towels, or their own bodies, map artists explore a world free ofgeographical constraints. In The Map as Art, Harmon collects 360 colorful, map-related artistic visions by well-known artists—such as Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, Olafur Eliasson, William Kentridge, and Vik Muniz—and many more less-familiar artists for whom maps are the inspiration for creating art. Essays by Gayle Clemans bring an in-depth look into the artists’ maps of Joyce Kozloff, Landon Mackenzie, Ingrid Calame, Guillermo Kuitca, and Maya Lin. Together, the beautiful reproductions and telling commentary make this an essential volume for anyone open to exploring new paths.
  10. Objectified Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. In his second film, director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

    Objectified

    Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. In his second film, director Gary Hustwit (Helvetica) documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. What can we learn about who we are, and who we want to be, from the objects with which we surround ourselves?

Otlet's Shelf theme by Andrew LeClair & Rob Giampietro.