Book Description

From an interactive website to a business card, a brand must be recognizable, differentiated and help build customer loyalty. This indispensable resource presents brand identity fundamentals and a comprehensive dynamic process that help brands succeed. From researching the competition to translating the vision of the CEO to designing and implementing an integrated brand identity program, the meticulous development process is presented through a highly visible step by step approach in five phases: research and analysis, brand and identity strategy, brand identity design, brand identity applications and managing brandassets.

From global corporate mergers through entrepreneurial ventures and nonprofit institutions, twenty-two case studies portray the brand identity process in action. They illustrate a range of challenges and methodologies and represent a select group of branding and multidisciplinary design firms.

The scope of material includes history of identity design up to the latest information about online brand identity standards, naming and trademarking, with practical project management resources about decision making, and creating brand briefs.

Alina Wheeler specializes in brand identity. She uses her strategic imagination to help build brands, create new identities, and design integrated brand identity programs for Fortune 100 companies, entrepreneurial ventures, cities and foundations. Wheeler works closely with founders, CEO¹s and senior management to insure that their vision and their brand identity are communicated clearly to accelerate the success of their organizations. She has been the principal of several design firms as well as a consultant to some of America¹s largest business consulting groups. She is a former national board member of AIGA and was named an AIGA Fellow in 1998.

Hallmark Features

• Unlike most books that show identity programs, this book outlines a rigorous, complex and proven process from research and analysis through the design development of a new identity and online standards through launch and brand asset management.
• Comprehensive, easy to understand guide that is organized by spreads bysubject for easy reference.
• An indispensable reference for anyone with responsibility for brandidentity.
• Meaningful and actionable information that will accelerate the success ofany brand identity project.
• A toolkit for design firms and professionals, design students and designmanagers.
• Presents the relationship between effective brand identity and creating,building and managing successful brands.
• Presents case studies from Cingular, Amazon, Citibank, TAZO, Zoom, HarleyDavidson, FedEx and twenty others.

Reviews (11)

A "must read" for anyone interested in brand identity
Too many books targeted to designers err on the side of a "showcase" presentation which exposes designers to the final solutions with little or no substance illuminating the process. This book will provide a comprehensive roadmap for designers and their clients.

"Designing Brand Identity" provides the information and processes to empower designers to transition into a more valuable role as consultants on identity and branding, not just the creator of visual symbols and logotypes. It is a look behind the scenes at a process which others capable of addressing have chosen to protect as proprietary information. Thanks, Alina for sharing your wisdom and experience.

An essential tool for business leaders and strategists
This author has tackled the vital topic of brand identity in a new way. In the beginning of the book Alina Wheeler says that she want to provide "an accessible resource that provides a road map to the process, explains some fundamental concepts, and showcases best practices." The book delivers on this promise!

What differentiates it from other books on this topic is that Wheeler's book really IS accessible. This comes from the unique way in which it is organized. You can simply flip open the book to any spread and have a specific concept explained, illustrated, and illuminated by relevant quotations. This makes it an excellent reference work -- keep it by your desk to quickly look up any topic. For example, you might be advocating a particular course of action at your company that you just know is the right way to go. You can turn to Wheeler's book to marshall specific evidence and articulate rationales to make your case.

In the beginning, she discusses 9 brand identity ideals: vision, meaning, authenticity, differentiation, sustainability, coherence, flexibility, commitment and value. Once you have reviewed each concept you understand how each plays a role in successful brand identities.

However, this is not primarily a book of theory. Wheeler breaks down the practical steps involved and outlines each, from the legal process to signage design. Case studies of successful brand identities take up the final portion of the book.

My one criticism is that book is not completely in color, as the topic demands. (There is a color insert showing many of the brands from the case studies.) No doubt this was a decision of the publisher!

Professionals at agencies or design firms may think they have this material mastered, but this book gives you the distilled essentials that you'll find extremely useful. But the key audience, in my view, should be business students or leaders who seek to better understand that, as Wheeler says, "brand identity is an asset that needs to be managed, nourished, invested in, and leveraged."

The title of this book might mislead you
When I put my hands on this book, I thought I would be adding one more point of view to my knowledge about brand identity, but this didn't quite happen.

This book isn't really about designing brand identity itself, but mostly about materializing brand identity into the visual identity of a company, limiting its whole concept. Furthermore, it is known that mere visual identity doesn't make a brand any stronger, as the title suggests.

Anybody with some previous brand identity knowledge in the marketing sense might get a little frustrated, had this person expected deep explanations about the creation of a brand identity plan (for that I would recommend Aaker's work).

On the other hand, if you are a designer willing to understand how to develop a visual identity linked to a brand identity, this book could be very useful.

It's about identity, but not about the brand process
This *is* a great book when it comes to showing how to put together a coherent, soup-to-nuts identity program. But the title of the book is misleading - there's very little in this book about actually creating, building or maintaining strong brands per se. This wilfully confuses the logo for the company behind the logo. As Paul Rand once said of his logo for the ABC television network, it wasn't a matter of whether his logo lived up to the network, but whether the network lived up to the logo! The brand process involves a lot of non-graphical thought regarding the spirit or essence of what that organization is all about. "Is that an IBM thing to do?" The brand identity is, at best, only the surface expression: the brand is the idea of the company in its customers' minds. In that sense, creating and maintaining a strong brand is really about having clear direction, consistent policies and actions, and understanding that markets are conversations, not about whether the carpet matches the business cards and the Web site.

A Must for EBusiness
Most people who study ebusiness at universities either focus on website design, marketing/logistics of ebusiness, or systems/software. This book gets to the heart of conducting business over the internet - combining brand recognition with eye catching design and a quality/product or service. University programs and businesses looking to be successful in ecommerce should make this book required reading. ... Read more

Book Description

The One Show Annual Volume 26

Great advertising and design can make the world stop and think. It can make people listen. And, sometimes it can even change a person's life. THE ONE SHOW ANNUAL VOLUME 26 celebrates all of the qualities that go into making a successful ad campaign or design. Considered by many to be the benchmark in advertising annuals, this year's edition features the very best work from around the world from the 2004 One Show and One Show Design. In these pages you'll find over 1,500 four-color images from the finalists and winning entries, insider perspectives from the Gold Pencil winners, a spotlight on the Client of the Year, the college competition winners and a look into the judging process with a Judge's Choice section. Lavishly produced with full-color throughout, this is the must-have annual for creatives, clients, students and anyone interested in advertising and design. Categories covered include print, design, integrated branding, television and radio. 576 pages, 9 x 12, over 1500 full color images. ... Read more

Book Description

The latest edition of Rockport?s best-selling The Best of Business Card Design series features a high-end collection of the most recent and best work by top designers around the world. Organized in a visually focused presentation, this comprehensive collection contains approximately 800 images, selected from thousands of entries from around the globe. Essentially an art collection of today?s most innovative business card designs, this high-quality resource will be sought by both professional designers and marketers whose clients stem from every kind of business. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Tons of great ideas in one book. Bold, stunning designs
I have read the other books in the series (this is #6) and this is the best one yet. The designs selected for this edition are bold, graphically intense, colorful and quite stunning. These designs really make a strong impression. I found more great ideas for card design in this book than all the others I have read combined. Needless to say, I bought this one. The team at BlackCoffee has excellent taste, and has really done a great job.

If you are looking for something to spark your imagination and help you design a killer business card, look no further - this is the book. Bravo!

Boldest, most intense of the series. Stunning designs
I've have read the other books in the series (this is #6) and this is the best one yet. The designs selected for this edition are bold, graphically intense, colorful and quite stunning. These designs really make a strong impression. I found more great ideas for card design in this book than all the others I have read combined. Needless to say, I bought this one. The team at BlackCoffee have excellent taste, and have really done a great job. If you are looking for something to spark your imagination and help you design a killer business card, this is the book. Bravo! ... Read more

Book Description

For more than seven years, Rockport’s annual Logo and Letterhead Design series has been a trusted resource for designers around the world. The eighth edition of this best-selling volume brings logo and letterhead design to the next level of innovation, creativity, and bold sophistication.

Featuring more than 200 stunning logo and letterhead designs—selected from more than 1,500 entries from top domestic and international firms—this handsome volume collects the best-of-the-best work in this challenging arena. From complete identity systems (logos, letterhead, envelopes, business cards, and more) to individual pieces, each work is beautifully photographed and accompanied by information on the designer, client, and tools used in the design process.

Brimming with inspiration, this volume brilliantly illustrates how great design can convey a message clearly, powerfully, and unforgettably. ... Read more

Book Description

What makes an advertisement memorable? Creative Advertising unravels the creative process behind some of the most original and effective campaigns of recent years. Mario Pricken showcases over two hundred examples of international advertising from a wide range of media including magazines, billboards, television, movies, and the Internet.

Each chapter highlights different practical methods for creating innovative and unforgettable advertisements, from finding the elusive "big idea" to reworking classic techniques. The selection covers award-winning work from some of the biggest and most influential names in the industry, such as J. Walter Thompson and Saatchi and Saatchi, along with exciting young agencies such as London-based Mother Ltd. All demonstrate a fascinating range of approaches, including ways of visualizing concepts, the art of illusion and paradox, using metaphor and analogy, and deploying shock tactics and humor. Interviews with international luminaries of the advertising world provide invaluable insights into the working practices of top agencies.

Entertaining and inspirational, Creative Advertising is an indispensable book for designers, art directors, copywriters, and students of advertising. Over 450 illustrations, 380 in color. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

cant believe this book is for $27.17
is the publisher of this book into social service?
what a class apart!!! w h a t a c l a s s a p a r t ! ! !

For the first time I smoked less while reading a book.

Thanks Mario and team for reducing my smoking

Glamourous to Look at --- A Pleasure to Read
This is a handsome book and one you'll want to display for visitors and others you want to impress. Oh, come on. You do want to impress people don't you?

But more importantly, this will be a book that you will refer to often when you need a concept, an idea.

If you are in advertising as a copywriter or artist or in most any capacity, this book will benefit you greatly. Oh you can read it in one or two days. But you will need it handy often. If you are like me, each new project brings a blank slate which must be filled. If you are lucky, you have gobs of ideas. But if you're like most of us, you'll draw a blank. This book will help when faced with that awful blank.

If you are in advertising and depend on your ideas or the ideas of a team, buy this book. You won't be sorry.

Susanna K. Hutcheson
Creative Director
Powerwriting.com LLC

The Un-Textbook for Aspiring Creatives
For any of you preparing for careers as art directors or copywriters, this is a great resource. It's about application. It's about showcasing great work AND revealing the thinking strategies behind it. Kudos to Pricken for going this extra mile and helping to demystify the process. I plan to require the new paperback edition in the portfolio classes I teach.

Save your job
You need to come up with a killer concept tommorow. Or you might loose your job. And become an advertising outcast. You'll forever be known as the guy with stale ad ideas. You can never set foot in a decent agency again. OMG! Then someone told you about this book. You read it. You save your job.

This book asks all the right questions
When I hit a mental road block I pull out this book. It is the best advertising book that has a focus on CONCEPT! It asks questions of you or your assinment and how to approach it in the most effective manor. It even shows you examples. Now I dont use this book to do my job but it sure has help me produce more conceptual and effective print & tv. If you don't own this book your a fool. Whats the worst that can happen? ... Read more

Amazon.com

Second in a series of books featuring advertising by era, All-American Ads of the 50s offers page after page of products that made up the happy-days decade. The start of the cold war spurred a buying frenzy and a craze for new technology that required ad campaigns to match. The nuclear age left its mark all over the advertisements, with a spotlight on planes, rockets, and even mushroom clouds. Shiny, big, beautiful cars abound, styled to keep up with the space age. Editor Jim Heimann, in his essay "From Poodles to Presley, Americans Enter the Atomic Age," explains: "Car designers came up with exaggerated tail fins for automobiles to express this new accelerated speed." Modernist home interiors look slick and shiny with their molded plastic furniture and linoleum floors. While clothing and furniture styles look strangely contemporary--a testament to our current obsession with vintage--some things have definitely changed. A baby sells Marlboro cigarettes! Also included are chapters on movies, food, and travel. --J.P. Cohen ... Read more

Reviews (6)

You are what you eat - or wear - or buy .....
There are many reasons to look backwards. For one, it may help to figure out where one is by looking at where one has been. For another, one might rethink where one is going by looking at the ideals and goals of the past. One might assess societies as a whole in some grand way, such as its military budget or the outcome of elections, but for us common folk, there is no way to tell what is on our minds better than a look at what we are buying. This book is an absolutely fascinating compendium of the culture of the 50's - of our desires, our habits, our values, as told in its advertisements. On one level it is an amusing recollection of what we once thought was cool. On another it is a profound study of the sociology of America in a time of idealism and innocence. I saw many, if not most of these ads myself when they were originally published.

That being said, I must add that the recollection of the feelings I had at that time is not entirely comfortable. On this other level, that of gut feelings, the book can be is a compendium of an appeal to the senses, to a culture of need, of having. One must look pretty deep to find any spiritual values here, and I think that the conspicuous absense of any moral sense is what is most interesting about it. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned by those of us who look back is that the promises of those who offer us happiness by just one more purchase are really empty. Read this and be nostalgic, amused, reflective, and, just maybe, a little sad.

Excellent
I would have given this book 5 stars, had it not been for the full page ad in the back for a new Taschen porno book, blech (ditto for the '40s book!). Could definitely do without that. The archived ads are wonderful. A great way to study or teach American culture, and a trip down a graphics memory lane. I hope that a '60s ad book is on the way.

A Great Series
This is an absolutely fabulous series -- I eagerly anticipate the remaining volumes. Certainly they are excellent and enjoyable volumes for people interested in American design and popular culture, but I'm also finding them a great way to start teaching my young daughter about American history. Looking at 1950s liquor ads led to a discussion of Prohibition, which led to a discussion of gangster movies, and why everything in the 50s was trying to look like a rocket while consumer items of the 30s and 40s were rounded and "streamlined..." and so on.

It's a great way for children to realize that clues about history (and the hidden agendas of marketers, for that matter) are everywhere around us, and that while wars and the deeds of the great are part of history, there's more to it than that.

Fascinating, amusing, a bargain at this price
Over a 1000 full color adverts from cake mix to cars to computers. If you're a designer looking for inspiration, a historian looking for insight, a collector looking for the original advert for that piece of 50's kitsch you just bought, or you just like the 50's look, get this book. It's so huge I keep finding new stuff every time I leaf through it. I loved the ads for 1950's office computers.

Excellent book, with just one proviso
On reading quite a bit about this book online before ordering, I was convinced that All American Ads of the 50s so thoroughly matched my interests that it was going to be the last book I would have to buy for a while, and certainly the last book on this subject. --Wouldn't it be nice if life really WAS that simple? This book is the ultimate vault of old ad gold, and one is hesitant to criticize at all. But...

The one thing about All American Ads that really bugs me is the big grainy blowups that fill too many spreads here. The full page ads are joys forever. But jumping back and forth between creamy, crisp, photographically reduced perfection of reproduction on one hand, and overextended, grainy enlargements of detail on the other makes for a somewhat disjoint experience.

This one gripe aside, it is a book you absolutely MUST have if you care about old ads and old popular and sociopolitical culture. ... Read more

Book Description

Selling products of all kinds in the world's most successful, most elegant stores has become increasingly creative, subtle, and sophisticated. And if the eyes are windows to the soul, then a shop's windows reveal the soul of the store. They communicate the store's essence in an unblinking front that remains on view long after the close of the business day. Window displays are the retailer's most economical form of advertising: they bring glamour, fun, theater, and art to the streets, while visibly expressing the store's image and aspiration. Long noted for the verve and originality of her contributions to visual merchandising, Mary Portas brings her personal insights to this selection of the world's best window displays, from Barneys in New York, Marshall Fields in Chicago, and Tiffany in San Francisco to Printemps and Cline in Paris, Harvey Nichols in London, Valentino in Milan, and Wako in Japan. Her examples also include little-known shops with special display qualities all their own. A complete and inspirational guide to the subject, the book examines how to use space and props, the effective use of lighting, the essence of styling, the use of color, the key role of mannequins, the special characteristics of seasonal windows, and how to achieve miracles on tight budgets. As the products available to consumers everywhere become increasingly similar, only retailers with the clearest image and the greatest skills in attracting attention will succeed. For anyone professionally concerned with retailing, design, and visual communication, this book will be an essential resource. ... Read more

Book Description

Logos are everywhere. You can't walk down a supermarket aisle, open a magazine, drive down the highway or turn on tv without being pummeled with graphic IDs that shout, "Apple Computers!" or "Nike!" or "Purina!"

Now see where great logos, symbols and icons come from. If you want to understand what makes them "tick"--what makes them good--then look here. This is not your typical collection of neat-and-polished, finished designs. This book steps into the international studios of top designers as ideas happen--to show you what worked, what didn't, and why. You'll even get an up-close and personal look at the making of symbols and icons--two fast-growing, but rarely covered, fields of design.

Inside, case studies illustrate the evolution of logos, symbols and icons created for a variety of clients, from small, start-up businesses to large corporations. You'll get the whole creative story--from the initial client briefing ... through early roughs and intermediary sketches ... to the ultimate, finished design. Don't miss this rare, real-world look at how designers sum up a business or a product in a single, graphic signature. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Process Study
This book is helpful in that it shows you what is involved in the design process of creating a successful logo. It doesn't show you exactly how to make one yourself but gives examples of how certain logo's where produced.

More Coffee Table Than Professional Book
How To Design Logos (Forget about symbols and icons, there is maybe two or three pages on these aspects in the book.) is more for a general audience than the professional designer.

It has 24 studios working on projects from large to small. One thing I immediately noticed was the influence of the "net" design style of most of the projects. Having been published in late 2000, before the dot bomb era: this was where the bread and butter for these shops was developing. Alas, now they must go elsewhere and their designs after only a year or two seem dated.

I believe it is a good book for the non-professional. Each project has a small write up on how the design was done. These write up are no way an indepth study of the rendering of the logo. It does have great graphics and examples of the development of the logos.

For the coffee table or non-professional I gave it three stars, but if you are looking for professional advice I would give it two.

Excellent study of how logos are developed.
Buy this book! This is a terrific resource for any designer, art director or student wanting to learn more about how a logo or brand evolves from the drawing board to the billboard.

I'm making this required reading for my designers!

Response to the reader from Manhattan Beach, CA
I have to say that I do and don't agree with the reader from Manhattan Beach, CA. I agree that reaching a target audience is very important in any identity system. This book, as stated, is designed not just for the art director or the designer, but for student, the entrepeneur, the marketing manager, the high level executive (i.e. CEO, CMO) Etc. According to the review, this book has achieved that goal with flying colors. I have to disagree with the rest of the review. This book's other goal was to enlighten the reader as to the process behind the final logo. To say that the range of logos in the book is average to excellent misses the whole point. It is not a ranking book like so many other logo books. Each logo was simply supposed to represent the very different processes and solutions possible. They were supposed to inspire the creative process and educate the reader (prospective client maybe) on what the process involves. If you follow the purpose of the book, they each stand on their own as excellent examples of creatively tackling the design process. In reading this book, the Philharmonic example was meant to show that although the computer is heavily used today, some ideas still rely on old solutions. In this case, there is no need to show other concepts. It would be hard to illustrate all the concepts and try to make the same point in four pages. Overall, this is a successful book on branding, identity and design.

Average at best
The book starts out with good intentions. However it falls flat with a mixture of samples that range from excellent to average at best.

The text history of marks and logos also seems lacking. A better explanation of the history and taxonomy of marks could be found in the book "Trademarks of Excellence."

A class assignment that seeks to design a logo for the LA Philharmonic is included in the Institutional section. While the mark is good, the book does not show any of the other students design proposals, just the chosen entry.

The book seems to be more appropriate for someone not familiar with the design process-a student or perhaps a CEO. It is not for the serious professional. ... Read more

Book Description

Logo design titles continue to sell the most copies of all graphic design subjects. This hard-working title examines 100 logo designs by illustrating how and why the design works. Sidebars compare and contrast rough drafts of popular logos with their final versions, and short tips address issues such as testing designs, sourcing inspiration, and typography. As well, the evolution of well-known logos are traced by examining why design changes were made and how those changes benefited the client and were successful on the market. ... Read more

Reviews (36)

Cheers!!
This is a terrific book, with information about how the wonderful Absolut vodka advertising campaign began. The real strength of the book is the collection of images. In some cases, looking at an entire campaign all together takes something away from the individual ads. This is not the case for these advertisements -- taken together, they are even cooler than they were in their original magazine contexts.

I just hope they will do a second volume when there are enough new ads to justify it.

Lots of Awful Absolut Advertising
Much as I hate to admit it, editors add more value than authors often appreciate. This book is a good example of missed potential for good editing.

The book contains almost 500 Absolut ads, and some of the rejects. What I did not realize until I looked at this book was how much bad Absolut advertising has appeared. Clearly, this volume would have been greatly improved by eliminating about 450 of the images in it. There is also a lot of text about how the ads are created, with a lot of pats on the back for the importers and agency involved. But there is relatively little about the creative process, and what works and what doesn't.

If you want to learn more interesting details about Absolut, I suggest that you acquire the newer book, Absolut, the History of the Bottle, instead.

Absolut advertising is all built around the formula of the word "Absolut" followed by some other word or words intending to say "Absolute X." While the lines are almost always good, the execution of how well the images fit with the text often leaves something or a lot to be desired. In other cases, the visuals are just plain ugly.

As the text suggests here, the idea was that "Absolut would be a product that could laugh at itself." That position is missed when the image is either almost irrelevant or unattractive. It just makes Absolut seem like it is a reflection of bad taste.

The mood for the ads was supposed to be light to " . . . add a dollop of humor so the 'We're the best' claim wouldn't be quite so boring or prententious." Well, you'll have to judge for yourself, but the ads seemed to have badly strayed from that standard.

Just so you won't think I dislike the campaign, here are my favorite ads in the book (I have eliminated "Absolut" from the titles to save space): Perfection, Joy, Peak, 19th, Harmony, L.A., Manhattan, Haring, and Appeal.

The other thought that bothered me was treating expensive vodka advertising as art. What's the social benefit here?

After you have finished considering the book, I suggest that you examine how you can add beauty to the world through your life and your work.

A votre sante!

WOW!!
This is a wonderful, informative, and beautiful book.
This book is about the Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. How it began, and what it is about. There are many beautiful, and breath taking images which makes you see the entire light of the campaign which looks so simple from the outside. Now, you get the inside looks and it isn't simple at all but an amazing experience.
WOW!!

absolut awsome book!
Wow!This book is an absolut spectacular book!It explains everything from start to finish. This book also includes creative advertisments found in magazines. I may be sounding like a solicetor now, but I'm really too young to do that. Absolut Book is a fabulus book and is definatly going in my shopping cart!

Absolut great book!
Wow! After reading this, I was raving to my friends about this creative book. I've never read anything like it! Richard W. Lewis has written an Absolut awsome story about the making of this company. After the first couple pages of reading, I couldn't stop myself! So I give this book a five star rating for it's creative, informative, and easy to understand literature. I'm also giving it five stars for it's vast collection of Absolut Vodka advertisements. Clearly, this book is not only a book that teaches you things, but is really fun to read! ... Read more

Book Description

In this age of digital media, the handcrafted ethic and aesthetic of a Hatch Show Print poster is beyond compare. Country musicians and magicians, professional wrestlers and rock stars, all have turned to Nashville's historic Hatch Show Print to create showstopping posters. Established in 1879, Hatch preserves the art of traditional printing that has earned a loyal following to this day (including the likes of Beck, Emmylou Harris, and the Beastie Boys). Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop is the first fully illustrated tour of this iconic print shop and also chronicles the long life and large cast of employees, entertainers, and American legends whose histories are intertwined with it. Complete with 190 illustrations--as well as a special book jacket that unfolds to reveal an original Hatch poster on the reverse--Hatch Show Print is a dazzling document of this legendary institution. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Proud to be a Hatch Show Printer
As a designer and printer at Hatch Show Print, this book makes me very proud. Our beloved Jim Sherraden, along with Elek and Paul did an absolutely amazing job collecting, archiving and compiling 123 years worth of incredible letterpress poster history. The images are simply stunning and the stories are engaging. This is a coffee table book that will spend more time in your hands than on your coffee table.
Buy the book and then stop by the shop located in historic downtown Nashville. Get a tour of the shop, see the posters, and have Jim autograph your book!

Beautiful collection of hundreds of years of poster design
Hatch Show Print: History of an American Print Shop is a pleasurable read of over a century's worth of poster design, but the accompanying images are what make this book. Chronicle Books has done an incredible job of reproducing this letterpress artwork while retaining all of the charms and details of this unique process. Definitely one of those books you can pick up dozens of time and find something with each new look. There is rumor of an expanded version to come in the future, unfolding more of this shop's extensive history and possibly a new chapter chronicling the more recent designs. I definitely look forward to that!

HATCH is an amazing place with amazing work.
I haven't received the book yet, but I can tell you that the work done at Hatch, both historically and today, is a piece of Americana rarely equalled. Author Jim Sherraden is an amazing artist and craftsman... and, I might add, an extraordinarily nice guy. He's printed several jobs for me and even let me hang around the shop on a couple of trips to Nashville. His personal paintings based on Hatch posters are nothing short of breathtaking. Buy the book and, if you get a chance, stop by the shop in Nashville. These guys are the real deal.

Show poster art and the American entertainment industry
Jim Sherraden, Elek Horvath and Paul Kingsbury's Hatch Show Print traces the evolution of show posters for entertainers, examining links between show poster art and the American entertainment industry from the early 1800s to modern times. Nashville's long-time Hatch Show Print is the focus of this examination, which blends a survey of popular culture with an examination of letterpress and print evolution. Exceptional.

A good reference for designers...
but it doesn't even come close to comparing with the real thing. You need to see the real paint color and the overprinting to truly understand the poster art form. Still, it's a good cheater's manual for design. ... Read more

Book Description

A business card is more than a piece of paper with your name on it. It's your calling card; a snapshot of your brand identity; a constant reminder in your clients' Rolodexes. Perhaps that's why Rockport's Best of Business Card Design series is so eagerly anticipated year after year. Now, Rockport brings together the very best examples of innovative, standout designs from three of its annual volumes.

Readers will find hundreds of unique and memorable designs for every type of client in a broad range of colors, styles, and shapes. Filled with inspiration for designers and their clients around the world, this creative resource shows how any individual or business can make a tiny space speak volumes about who they are and what they do. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

The "Other" Social History Book
You expect a book like this to be fun, and it is! The hard sell approach, the inflated claims, and the infamous phrase, "It isn't brand X if it doesn't say Y!" (as if your brain is scrambled) ... it's all hilarious now. And even when these techniques get tedious, the drawings and paintings are colorful and well-designed by themselves.

The ads don't mention the Depression, but you can see it in the phrases "stretch your dollars" and "these days..." That's a technique auto makers adopted after Sept. 11th, as in "we're getting America moving again with 0% financing." In that sense, ad makers fashioned a social history that belongs alongside stories of travelling Okies and bread lines. These ads showed what people hoped for, what they wanted to become. And that's just as important as where they were. So while post-Sept. 11th ads wanted to get the family back to the dinner table, so Depression-era folks wanted to get their friends back for champagne and elegant dinner parties.

Still, there is enough variety here to reflect many points of view and design style. Some ads were clearly ahead of their time. Some were still mired in Victorian imagery. A few are really shocking, like the public service ad with a drawing of a sinking Lusitania with the headline, "The Lusitania Sank. So What of It?" (It was an ad for World Peaceways.)

I am no historian or designer or advertiser ... but I found this book mind-blowingly fun.

Hucksters in hard times.
Taschen's fourth volume of the All-American Ads series provides a big look back to the day before yesterday. Steven Heller provides a short overview of the decade and explains that despite the Depression magazines, in which most of these ads appeared, had very high circulations. For a few cents readers could escape the reality of everyday life and be entertained by the features and the colourful advertisements. Naturally there is no real mention of the Depression though some of the ads sport the little NRA symbol and the words 'We do our part'

The format of this book is the same as the others, nine sections (Alcohol and tobacco, Automobiles, Consumer products, Entertainment, Fashion and beauty, Food and beverages, Industry, Interiors and finally Travel) provide whole, two or four ads to a page and fortunately none of them are angled or overlap. The digital reproduction of the 1500+ ads is excellent, it is always a problem to reproduce anything that is already printed because it can create screen clash but these are reproduced with clean colors and sharp lines (thanks to 175 dpi).

Most of these ads are copy and picture heavy, stylish use of white space and clever typography was years away, though three ads for Pierce Arrow autos on pages 176-177 stand out because they do seem very modern. Illustrations rather than photography were the main visual elements with headlines and copy used to fill any space that was left.

This as a super book if you are interested in social history or want to see how copywriters created product desire more than sixty years ago or you are just curious about things your grandparents reminisce about. Maybe they remember the 1932 ads for the Pitcairn autogiro, after all no home should be without one! ... Read more

Book Description

60s Americana galore!

With the consumerist euphoria of the fifties still going strong and the race to the moon at its height, the mood of advertising in the sixties was cheerful, optimistic, and at times, revolutionary. The decade's ads touted perceived progress (such as tang and instant omelets-"just add water") while striving to reinforce good old American values.

Stars like Sean Connery, Woody Allen, Salvador Dalí, and Sammy Davis Jr. endorsed everything from bourbon to handmade suits in an attempt by Madison Avenue to urge Americans to open their wallets and participate in one giant consumer binge. Social change at the end of the era brought psychedelic swirls and liberated women and minorities to a newly conscious public. Keep an eye out for some of the more surprising and controversial ads-such as Tupperware billing its storage container as a "wifesaver."

From forgotten cars such as the Dodge Dart, to cigarettes ("This Christmas give cartons of Luckies") to food (mmm! TV dinners!) and much more, this colorful collection of print ads explores the wide, wonderful world of 60s Americana. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Space Age meets the Hippie
Wow! was my first reaction upon devouring these heavy, nearly one thousand, slick pages of incredibly square, hip, liberal, conservative, and completely cool advertising. Some of the fashions, hairstyles, designs, attitudes, and language that you'll encounter will make you laugh, cry, deeply ponder, and wonder how the world could have changed so much since that era.

The book begins with a couple of pages of commentary by the author explaining the power of advertising and consumer consumption in the 1960s. If someone doesn't read English, then he can read it in 4 other languages - German, French, Spanish, and an Asian language (not Chinese, but possibly Japanese or Korean).

Most of the ads are in color, though a few are in their original black-and-white design. The ads are divided into nine categories, starting with the early part of the decade, progressing to the end. There are approximately 60 pages on alcohol and tobacco, 160 pages on automobiles, 100 on business and industry, 160 pages on consumer products, 50 pages on entertainment, 150 pages on fashion and beauty, 100 pages on food and beverage, 60 pages on furniture and appliances, and 50 pages on the travel industry. Thus, the book is not geared towards men or women or any age group.

Inside, you'll find the one-and-only Groucho Marx declaring, "If you don't serve Smirnoff (vodka)....hide the label!"

For those who think that foreign imports are just little toys, an ad for the 1966 Dodge Dart proclaims, "Join the Dodge Rebellion. Stamp out cramped compacts. Up with man-sized Dodge Dart."

One of the more surprising ads was for Motorola television in 1962. About a dozen nude, smiling people (you can't see private parts) are outside in a meadow, all gathered around a tiny television set displaying the face of a little boy.

In 1965, the Hoover company shows a smiling man in a neat little shirt and tie with thick black glasses and a crewcut surrounded by a mop, dustpan, and other household goods. The ad declares, "Chances are you won't marry a guy who cooks, cleans, irons, scrubs, and sweeps." The next picture shows several vacuum cleaners and other household products and says, "We've thought about that."

"How come all non-conformists look alike?" In 1969, with a picture of a Janis Joplin look-alike, Simplicity states, "Sew your own thing."

"When your TV screen goes black for an hour, you're watching ABC," the company's ad says in 1969. "Because ABC is five major television stations that are the leaders in community-minded broadcasting. Each one, for instance, is currently involved in programming exclusively for black people. On San Francisco's KGO-TV, it's 'Black Dignity,' an hour program every Sunday. Originated and produced by black people. For black people."

To appeal to the teenage mod community, who apparently were threatening to consume mass quantities of diet colas, the sugar industry began telling us that we need more sugar in our lives. In 1966, we see a girl with a slightly thick midriff in a bikini on a surfboard with the caption, "Lisa needs a sugarless, energy-less soft drink like a kangaroo needs a baby buggy. Lisa's strictly the go-go type. After sunning, shopping, afternoon tennis date, and discothèquing into the wee hours, she's up first thing to catch the early morning surf. What keeps Lisa from washing out? Energy...And sugar's got it. That's right, sugar. Everything in it is go. Note to people on the go: Exhaustion may be dangerous. It can even rob you of your resistance to illness. But sugar helps offset exhaustion - puts back energy fast. Synthetic sweeteners put back nothing. So play safe - make sure you get sugar every day. People need what sugar's got.....18 calories per teaspoon....and it's all energy."

That's all I needed to hear. I'm off to energize my life with some Krispy Kreme donuts. For my health, you know.

Superb!
For the price, I had high expectations of the book - when I received it, it honestly surpassed them by FAR. The color, quality (all have been perfectly retouched), layout & ads they chose for inclusion are fantastic. A real collector's item & treasure in anyone's library. I've bought many "retro style" books and this is the best purchase I've made.

You'll want to look at it over, and over, and over again
This thick book of 60's style technocolor print, on quality paper stock, if so fun to thumb through, you'll never get tired of it. It's so much more than a coffee table book that just stays on the table. You'll find new discoveries in it each time you pick it up. It's a great conversation piece too. Who knew the 60's would be so hip today?

jam packed with cool ads
This super thick book is packed with reproductions of various advertisements from the 60s. Each ad is wonderfully reproduced. Lots of memories will flood back if you are old enough to recall these products and their accompanying ads. Everyone else will simply enjoy how silly we were back in the 60s and how hip we thought we would be if we only owned these products. Especially hilarious are the ads predicting homes of the future! A truly outstanding compilation.

A dazzling Sixties flashback.
Another wonderful knockout edition in the Taschen six volume All-American Ads series, this book is bursting with pages (960) and color ads (well over 2500) and follows the same design format as the first two editions (Forties and Fifties) with ads as whole page or two or four to the page, all beautifully printed.

Unlike the ads from previous decades I found these from the Sixties show a new awareness of design. Shapes and the use of white space is much more creative than in the past, typography, with increased use of photo-setting for headlines and text, gave the hard sell a crispness not seen before. Also Madison Avenue happily turned trend spotter and used psychedelic and op-art, for instance, to convey the message to the reader.

There is something for everybody in the nine chapters, my favorites are in Automobiles (164 pages) where twenty-four ads use the painting skills of Arthur Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman to sell Pontiac cars, these pictures still look great today. In Consumer Products (166 pages) I can even remember one ad, for MasterCard, from Christmas 1969, it showed a realistic model of a city square with some of the buildings made from everyday products, when you get the book turn to pages 428-9 and be amazed.

If you lived through the Sixties you'll enjoy this huge book, if you didn't you'll have a chance to catch up on some interesting popular culture. ... Read more

Book Description

A profusely illustrated survey of the next big trend in typography: the handcrafted letter.

Hand-drawn graphics mark a return to the creator's immediacy and craft. Increasingly, advertising campaigns, CD covers, and branding are adopting the rough-hewn style of manually created typography. Notable recent examples can be seen in the Calvin Klein campaign designed by M/M, Paris, the self-inflicted body marks of Stefan Sagmeister, and the painstaking illustrations of Pentagram partner Paula Scher.

This is the first publication to offer a complete overview of handwritten typographics, drawing on an extensive array of examples from around the world. At the heart of the book are hundreds of graphics, presented in creative themes: "Scrawl" (letterforms that are raw, splotchy, untidy); "Scratch" (scraped, cut, gouged fonts); "Script" (type that is sinuous, curlicued, ornate); "Simulate" (typefaces that have been redrawn or copied); "Shadow" (dimensional, voluminous, and monumental letterforms); "Suggestive" (forms that suggest the metaphorical, surreal, and symbolic); "Sarcastic" (the ironic, comic, and satiric in lettering); and "Stitch" (letters that have been sewn, sutured, embroidered).

In an age of characterless digital typography, Handwritten returns to the values of craft. This outstanding collection of unusual, meticulously wrought, and often breathtaking designs is a must for students and practitioners of design. Over 500 illustrations, most in color. ... Read more

Book Description

The poster was the popular art form in Cuba following the Cuban Revolution, when the government sponsored some 10,000 public posters on a fascinating range of cultural, social, and political themes. ¡Revolución!, produced with unprecedented access to Cuban national archives, assembles nearly 150 of these powerful but little-seen works of popular art. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the posters rallied the Cuban people to the huge task of building a new society, promoting massive sugar harvests and national literacy campaigns; opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam; celebrating films, music, dance, and baseball with a unique graphic wit and exuberant colorful style. With an introduction illuminating the rich social and artistic history of the posters, and rare biographical information on the artists themselves, this striking volume offers a window into the story of Cuba—and a truly revolutionary chapter in graphic design. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Excellent Cuban revolutionary art...
This book has excellent Cuban revolutionary art in it... Page after page covering many different artists and styles... My favorite piece is one which has a man crucified to the dollar sign = $... So true, so true... Money over all, even living a real life... I highly recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in revolutionary artwork since this is very high quality, or a place who does book exchange, or indie book stores to stock it for sell, etc... I'm going to buy this for a friend who is a political comix artist, who I'm sure will love it - Savannah Skye...

Colorful, Interesting, Excellent
This is a very nice and entertaining work on a fascinating subject. Cushing has done his homework, preserving a bit of Cuban heritage that otherwise might have been lost to history. A fine book for any artist's collection, or just to flip through on a rainy day at home.

Just a Review
Composed of a beautiful assemblage of colors, organic contours, prideful expressions of international solidarity with various exploited peoples, cutting edge graphic design techniques, and politically charged subjects, most of the posters presented by Cushing draw artistically from both the traditions of the broadly based, international design styles popular during the late sixties and early seventies as well as those historical subjects, civic concerns, pedagogical projects, and cultural traditions specific to the newly articulated aims of a developing Cuban socialism. Readers familiar with the design styles popular during the time periods in which the posters were produced will recognize that many of the posters reflect the coloring schemes and typographical advances developed internationally during this time. For example, the San Francisco style of design, comprised of bubbling fonts and vivid color arrangements that graphically mirrored the visual experiences of LSD users and hippy culture, can be found in the work of Fernandez Reboiro and Raul Oliva. Aside from overt political proclamations and anti-capitalist polemics, there to exists a wide range of stylistic inventions, visual juxtapositions, humorous 'in jokes' and embedded satire. In describing the thematic cohesion of the selected posters, Cushing also brings attention to the surprisingly "low quotient of socialist realism-the relative absence of heroic, amped-up superworkers and production equipment so prevalent in the revolutionary artwork of the Soviet Union, China and other communist countries." Not only an intensely beautiful collection of historically significant poster art, Revolucion: Cuban Poster Art presents an important work that deepens our understanding of Cuban culture, politics, and artistic achievement at a time when the Bush administration intensifies its venomous attacks upon all things public, collective, non-commodified, and autonomous of U.S. militarism, aggression, and imperial supremacy.

This beautifully compiled text constitutes a rethinking about Cuban aesthetics that expands and challenges rather than limits our understanding of the role of poster art in the social transformation and historical trajectory of a problematic yet dynamically contoured socialist project; the meaning and significance of which is of vital importance to those deeply concerned with the articulation and formulation of an ethico-political vision rooted to the struggle to obtain basic social provisions, expanded forms of dignity, and socioeconomic justice for those people and countries historically rendered silent under the cacaphonic chorus of imperial capitalism's triumphalist babble.

The pedagogical importance of such a work derives in many ways from its potential to rejuvenate and widen our understanding of the cultural and political life of Cuba. Secondly, having been archived, researched, and designed by a librarian whose active commitment to transforming both the library profession and reorientating reductionist perceptions regarding Cuban culture toward a richer, more nuanced reading, we're better able to appreciate the quality of the book and its contents from multiple perspectives.

In these intellectually uncritical times where the shallow end of ideologically suspect, Manichean binaries continue to render pluralistic and reflective forms of dialogue and investigation mute, Cushing's book represents a refreshing rupture with conveniently amnesic and unreflective standpoints regarding Cuba/U.S. relations. In order to further our knowledge of Cuban political and artistic culture without the cemented weight of baseless hysteria and moral absolutism's as is commonly constructed and circulated by those Yankee imperialist supporters and pro-globalization apologists in both the "politically quarantined" academy and corporate media; scholars, journalists, cultural workers and educators must begin to extend their understanding of Cuban/U.S. relations beyond merely the accented points of the dominant, either/or rhetoric that ultimately functions to mute alternative and radical readings that bring to bare the complexity of ideological and material factors.

Silkscreen the Revolution!
I'm a Reagan-loving conservative, but I've got an enormous fondness for communist propaganda art. I went to see Mr Cushing's talk at Black Oak Books in Berkeley on June 30, and his passion for the subject in person was infectious. Certainly, in his brief talk to give some historical context to the posters, many in his audience -- largely Berkeley radicals -- shuffled uncomfortably in their seats when he suggested that "things aren't perfect" in Cuba, but while Mr Cushings general support of the Revolution in Cuba was really quite secondary to his brilliant -- and inspired -- explanation of the history of these fantastic works of art.

The book itself is simply beautiful -- with scores of pictures representing each of the major poster styles produced in Cuba since the Revolution. There is sympathy for the Revolution, but no preachyness about the glory of equally available state-rationed asprin or the easy equality of justice in the tropical gulags.

But the book is only about the revolution to give these art works context. It is a book about the brilliant visual artists who provided the color and design splash to their Communist revolution. Each of the posters is a visual treat -- I especially like the Army Chess Tournament poster (a hand-grenade forming the body of a Knight) and a few of the abstract Vietnamese-solidarity posters.

Mr Cushing has done a fabulous job learning about the authors of the posters and he has made a brilliant first effort to understand and celebrate communist poster art in an increasingly non-communist world.

Once you get beyond the tedious and slavish devotion to French Belle Epoch posters among the poster art chattering class, there are too few great poster books as it is -- even of WW2 propaganda posters -- this clearly ranks among them. And to have it be about such a great and underrepresented area of poster knowledge is doubly terrific.

This is a first rate art book and a first rate history book. And if you like poster art at all, this ought to be on your shelf.

Viva Cushing! ... Read more