i have found this book to be a very useful resource. as a second-year design student myself, i have been able to obtain much information which has helped me in the do's-and-don'ts in terms of appropriation of styles and originality of ideas for projects.

there are numerous pictures shown where possible, to accompany the many examples of design plagiarism, nostalgia and styles discussed in the book.

all in all, an easy and helpful read, as the chapters break up the text, and examples, nicely into their subject matter. And even though the book is *very* informative and concise, providing many 'case studies', I found that i never lost interest in the style of writing, or subject matter.

highly recommended, for anyone who is a (aspiring) designer.

designers might also want to check out 'Design History and the History of Design' by J.A. Walker - also an interesting read, more focusing on the field of design history, and its (mis)interpretations of the past.

Defending graphic design as a full fledged profession just got a little easier thanks to the continuing efforts of Steven Heller. An ambitious writer whose work is having a monumental effect on the formation of graphic design into a definable profession, Heller continues in this vain as editor of a broad collection of recent articles from the AIGA Journal.

The selection of writings in Design Culture cuts a broad path , touching on corporate identity, design as culture and design education. If you are practicing graphic designer who is beginning to feel unsure about the direction your work is taking, take a break and read a few selections from this book - it will remind you of why you entered the profession in the first place. If you are an educator in the field of graphic design, Heller's compilation provides ample sources for use in spurring debate in the studio environment. And if you are a design student you must buy it! Failure to read this collection during your first year in school may permanently skew your view of the profession. Desktop publishing vs. graphic design - there is a difference and Design Culture will give you insight into what is it.

Design Dialouges is a collection of interviews conducted with legends like Paul Rand and Massimo Vignelli and lesser known designers like Dan Solo and Rodney Alan Greenblat. The quality of the interviews are mixed. Bierut, Vignelli, Lupton, Wyszogrod, Wurman, Solo, and Rand are the cream of the crop making the book easily worth its price. Wyszrogrod's story of surviving the horror of concentration camps using his design skills is inspirational and Vignelli makes a great case for his theories on design. To the book's credit even the bad articles are bad in a good way. George Lois' interview may very well be the most grating piece of writing I have ever read. It's ten pages of him describing how talented and important he is to the world, but he gives some good case studies and after five or so pages he becomes the guy you love to hate.

Any student of design should read this book and the Looking Closer book series which are similar in format. This book lets you into the minds of the people who shape the design community. Invaluable information for any up and coming design profesional.

Not only is this a collection of the best and brightest works in graphic design today, it's an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to know the direction in which the field is moving today. This book is illustrated with plenty of pictures of recipients of the AIGA's medals, and is also a good place to go for inspiration because it just contains SO MUCH STUFF!

Good, but most of the illustration are B/W reproductions of color artworks.

The Digital Designer is interesting in that its kind of a survey of who was hot, or doing something in New Media in 1997. Many of the people in this book have no other reason for being in it other than the fact that they are friends of the primary writer, Daniel Drennan. Drennan spent many years as a participant in the ECHONYC.COM BBS system in New York City. It was there that he forged most of these acquaintances.

The book might have been more interesting if he had looked farther afield for his content.

Having worked in digital design and education for nearly ten years I found this book to be interesting and informative. I recommend it to my students as it is broad in its scope and in the work analyzed. In the fast-changing "new media" world many of the individuals interviewed have gone on to do other works/projects of worth. (As a one-time member of Echo, I'm not sure what the other reviewer means -- very few individuals listed were ever Echo members. My guess is that acquaintances were forged professionally and through the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU.)

This text is a concerted effort to trivialize the opposition to the ruthless totalitarian system that took more than 100 million lives. Documents now available show that Lenin created the police state, which was imitated by Mao and Pol Pot. Readers are advised to read Gulag Archipeligo to find out what Communism was.
Barson and Heller would like us to forget the thousands of missiles created destroy not only America but the entire West

As the title suggests, this book deals with propaganda aimed at fighting the "Red Menace" (i.e. communism). Starting with the beginning of the Soviet state and going all through the Cold War, the authors, using a tongue-in-cheek style, show the variety methods used in the US to get the anti-communist message across. These methods ranged from pamphlets and posters to magazine articles and comic books. The book's only serious problem is the downplaying of how much of a menace the communist world was (and still is in the case of North Korea and the other Red holdouts).

The political cartoons published here would make this book worth five points. The political analysis given would make it worth zero. Hence the average is 3. As is the case with most liberals, the author Barson is blind to the nature of Communism and only condemns what he considers the "hysteria" produced by anti-Communism. This is rather like warning people to be afraid of firefighters and firetrucks while saying nothing about the dangers of house fires with people inside. Barson even asserts that the fear of Communism almost destroyed American free speech. That is utter nonsense. And, far from being a time of hysteria, the Fifties were a relatively quiet time in US history. Anyway, since when is fear of a mortal enemy a form of hysteria? Typical of liberals, Barson has more concern about McCarthyism, under which not a single person died than he does of Communism, under which tens of millions were murdered. And the involvement of Communists (mostly covert ones) in the US is well documented. The Hollywood Left is well known to this day. And it was the extensive network of Communists and fellow travelers in Roosevelt's administration that allowed Roosevelt to call Stalin "Uncle Joe" and to subject Poland and the other eastern European nations to a half-century of servitude under the Soviet Union. The chief flaw of McCarthyism was the fact that it came at least twenty years too late. One of the cartoons shows Nikita Kruschev saying "We will bury you." Does Barson suppose that Kruschev was only kidding? After all, to Barson, the threat of Communism was only imaginary.

I think that the book showcases work that would normaly place third in a design show. The idea of New Simplicity is simply a nice way of saying little color, little visual metaphore, little interest. If you are buying this book because you think that this is a swiss simplistic book DON'T! If you are buying this book because you think it's of the likes of Jan Tischold, or of the Bauhause regime, DON'T. This is a book that can add another inch to your design library, and give you a few ideas for how to make a few colors, and minimal design have some minimal impact.

I sent the book back because it did not offer me any new information. However, someone just starting out, may find it to be a helpful primer to their Graphic Design foundation.

The maxim "less is more" has long been associated with Modernism, while a more appropriate slogan for Postmodernism (said Robert Venturi) is "less is a bore" or "more is more." This is hardly a new dichotomy because, as this book explains, the primary squabbles in art and design have been about complexity (more) versus simplicity (less). "The histories of art and design are replete with epochs, movements and styles that employ clutter as an ideological or aesthetic reaction to purity," the authors argue, and since the 1980s (Postmodern, Retro, New Wave), "visual clutter has reigned supreme." Using scores of examples of graphic design, the authors predict that the pendulum has caromed off "more is more" and is now swinging back toward a simpler, less layered approach to design. If so, this is one of the earliest books to announce the new paradigm. (Copyright © by Roy R. Behrens, from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000.)

What a terrible disappoinment it was to read this book. The secrets of sex as a tool in advertising and design are talked about in this so-called exploration of erotic and exotic media. The want to be interviews with what they call leading figures in mainstream marketing tries to focus on sex and innuendo, but from a very bad point of view. They bring in pornography of Calvin Klein ads, graphic and advertising design from music, art, film, packaging, and publishing. SO WHAT! What are they really trying to get across, only an idiot will know. I thought this book was stupid, shallow and totally senseless. I DO NOT recommend it to anyone.

Heller has done a superb job exploring the emergence of super-sexy figures and the ultra-erotic images used in modern advertising.

The average grocery store-sold magazine of today has more sex in it than any male magazine sold during the 1960s or 1970s. Why? Because people love sex and they love sexual images.

The allure or sexual advertising has become a fixture in the weaving of personal and societal fantasy. And this is one of the reasons why sex is such an effective selling and marketing tool. Heller illuminates the forces behind the drive and explores the mystery behind why sex sells so well.

This book is just "okay." The book itself is not designed in a way that I find particularly handsome (can a graphic design book be judged by its cover?). Similarly, some of what's inside is not very impressive, but the things that strike me (maybe a quarter of the things in the book) are really great.