Customer Reviews

The Adobe Illustrator CS Wow! Book

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The latest addition to Sharon's long list of fabulous 'WOW' books has arrived at the Design-Bookshelf.com, and everyone agrees it's not only the BEST of the WOW series, it raises the bar for illustrator how-to books from this day forward.

Agreed: Sharon has retained some of the lessons from past WOW books. These lessons still hold true to the spirit of essential training, and should never be discarded. The pull-out "Finger Dance" card is indispensable, and no one -- read my lips -- no one does a better job of teaching the Pathfinder tools and the Gradient Mesh. Sharon's visual explanation of Clipping Masks and Opacity Masks in just a few pages goes further than 20 pages in the pulp books.

The new content easily offsets the price with glorious color visions of the most striking Illustrator work being created today. And then you get the insider details on how they were done. It's not just about teaching the software. You can lecture on Envelopes and Warps until dark, but nothing comes close to the "how-did-they-do-that" spark of enlightenment to fully learn the technique. Along with the "how" there's got to be a "WHY" or you're spinning your wheels.

We seriously disagree with another reviewer here who seems to find a lack of "WOW" in the new edition. Hold a mirror under his nose! If the Gallery samples are not wowing you, and the new series on typography doesn't wow you -- and the warping, crunching and filters section doesn't wow you... or the fabulous art and tutorials on the CD don't wow you . . . you may not be breathing!

I fully recommend this book to my "Intro To Digital Graphics" students at James Madison University. And, with each new roll-out of Illustrator, I find the WOW books the most inspiring and most useful teaching aid available today. I encourage the students to have the spine shaved off and the book drilled for 3-ring binder use -- so it lays flat for use during the exercises. They do it and they thank me. I also believe the Illustrator Visual Quickstart books are excellent. I require them as well for use as a "shop manual" -- but the Illustrator WOW book is the one that inspires the students to greatness.

If you've never purchased an Illustrator WOW book, then you MUST. We at the Design-Bookshelf.com believe that no matter how many WOW books are on your shelf, if you paid your blood-money to Adobe for the CS version, your investment in software will go much further by adding this new WOW book!

I have been using vector programs as my main graphics tool almost daily since 1991. I have instructed and trained quite a few people in the use of vector graphic programs. I try to get people to think vector rather than just learning techniques of various vector applications; I believe this will help a designer's thinking and execution in both vector and raster work.

Until last week I never looked at any of the Illustrator WOW Books because the title seems to point to the kind of instruction I don't care for. I recently looked through and then purchased Sharon Steuer's latest Illustrator CS Wow Book. I was very impressed with how she teaches the ideas behind vector art while still covering the application techniques. I recommend this book to anyone wanting a better understanding of vector art. This is about as good as it gets.

Sharon Steuer's approach to vector art builds the users knowledge about how to think in vector. This makes the user more aware and understanding of raster also. Sharon Steuer knows these principles and makes them the foundation of the art she picks and the method of her demonstration. Sharon Steuer is the only writer I have encountered that locks down these concepts from the simplest of her instruction through the most esoteric of her lessons. She will be the first writer I recomend to people at any level of ability that wants to learn or expand their graphic art understanding.

Roger Harris
Eikon Studio

I'm new to Illustrator, having only experience in Photoshop. This book was not designed with me, a beginner, in mind. The first 40 pages are filled with "new & improved in Illustrator CS" tips, which make little sense at all to a person who's never used the program, even when sitting in front of the PC with the book open. The Zen of the Pen section, designed as a finger exercise to get a person used to clicking with the right hand and using shortcut keys with the left hand, is confusing, and lacks enough step-by-step info for a true beginner to get through it and feel confident.

The accompanying CD has lots of finished art on it, but no tutorials, and seems to be organized in an unusual structure. It's as if the author is using her book to showcase her fellow artists' work and not to show exactly how these things were created. There are a few deconstructing exercises, but again, not very beginner-oriented. I longed for bezier curve exercises, how-to's, etc., but was left disappointed. The CD is useless for learning, to be blunt.

I would have given this a 2 if not for the wonderful color illustrations, and the fact that it's probably and excellent book for someone with previous Illustrator experience. I'm using this book for a college class, and about 70% of the class, over half of which HAVE Illustrator experience, are disappointed in the tome's info as well.

For a beginner, I'd recommend Classroom in a book, or some other, 1-2-3 type book. I wanted detailed information on how to accomplish concrete tasks, and instead I got a book that skims over techniques with a lot of pretty pictures.

This book is one of the better books I've come across as far as learning the tricks that you need to make realistic artwork and almost anything else. The tutorials do take a lot of practice and adjusting on your own to really figure out what they are offering. They dont go over things step by step by step like beginner books do so if you dont have the basics down dont bother. Once you get those basics down though, this should be the first book you get. It teaches you all the tricks of the trade that are necessary to be true masters of Illustrator.

This book (and it's many previous editions... which are less expensive, and nearly identical, except for adding "CS" to the title)... are a good way to learn some fundamental AI techniques. Don't let the negative rant by the Photoshop enthusiast (preceeding this post) totally turn you off to the book.

I'm an Art Director and designer, who also comes to Adobe Illustrator from Adobe Photoshop. I've used Photoshop just about every day for 10 years. And for the record, I was a member of NAPP too, until I learned about all I could after 4 or 5 years (it's really just a magazine subscription). Anyway. If you're coming to Adobe Illustrator from Photoshop, as many of us do... here's what you ought to know:

Illustrator books are not as "cool" as Photoshop books. There aren't nearly as many people writing them... there aren't nearly as many people reading them. The average guy or gal on the street will never have to use a vector based illustration program. So keep in mind the Illustrator Software, and most books which cover it, are intended for a small group of dedicated professionals. Not like Photoshop books which are written to a huge audience (anyone with a digital camera).

We have been, perhaps, so spoiled by an abundance of truly outstanding Photoshop books (and magazines... and videos... and training software... and club-memberships... hello NAPP) that our expectations are bound to fail us, when it comes to learning other software.

All things considered... this book is the closest thing I've found to helpful instruction and eye-opening techniques for beginning and intermediate Illustrator users (I've got 5 or 6 Illustrator books lying around). Where it really excels is in its use of beautiful, full-color illustrations. That said... it's no Photoshop book... it doesn't spoon-feed you the techniques... but I really feel that's because Illustrator is simply a much harder program to learn. This book is good, for what it is. I'd rate it 3.5 stars... but 4 will have to do.

I've been faithfully buying each Illustrator WOW! Book since they came out and am generally pleased with the amount of content covering the new release. I can't say the same for the CS version of this book. I was a bit underwhelmed with the focus they put on the 3D features. Nothing really WOWed me and I felt I could find the same examples and information via the Adobe site.

On the other hand, if you're just starting out with Illustrator and have a good understanding of the basics, this is a good book to get for a look into seeing what most of the tools and commands can do.

The Bad:

I had heard in many reviews that the cover would seperate from the pages, and vice versa. I got the book, and noticed it right away. Thankfully, I remembered a trick back in undergrad: set the book on its side so you can pour Elmers Wood Glue were the cover meets the base of the pages: carefully seperate the cover from the back of pages just a little bit (with a pencil tip, pocket knife, whatever); now pour the glue back there, and let it flow all the way through to the bottom side. This way there is glue between the book cover and the base of the pages where they meet the book cover.

When done, compress the book and let dry over night. That's it!

The Good:

Graphics, layout, and effective illustrations - Excellent!

Despite not knowing a single thing about Illustrator, chapter one got me up and running faster than any book. Moreover, I have a better understanding of Photoshop now.

I then jumped up to chapter 5 on layers. I felt that was important for me - I never quite got it in Photoshop. I felt it did an extraordinary job of training me on layers. And it had many pages of tricks that were very useful. I'm really liking this Illustrator! Who would have knew?

And then finally, I went to chapter 6: fonts. The real reason I wanted illustrator was to work on great fonts for logo's. Then export them to photoshop for final touches.

Im just beginning in Type. But now I clearly see why Illustrator is where you want to be to make our type! Not photoshop! Incredible stuff! I can also see where the Wacom tablet would be great to have!

OVERALL:

Shame on Peach Pit press! You can't get away with sending out books that are already falling apart upon delivery! I am certain that many people, not knowing how to fix it themselves, will likely never opt for another 'Wow' book again! If you aren't going to do it right, then don't do it at all. I can just imagine how many people you made very angry! You have likely hurt your future sales, and will spend untold money refunding this crappy binding.

Book writer and editor: Bravo! I wish all subjects were taught your way: great clearity, thorough, and wonderful illustration for those of us who hate reading much stuff anyway!

If it weren't for the rotten cover, I would have given it 5 stars!

Funny, I recently got this book....the cover design is different than what I am looking at now on this Amazon screen...despite purchasing it from Amazon.

I had the 9.0 Wow book and it helped me tremendously. This book has done the same thing. Despite some other books I have recently purchased targeting folks like me that have purchased the entire Adobe CS Suite, this book does a good job in highlighting the significant new features in Illy CS. Especially the 3D area. The supplemental CD-ROM is helpful also. I only gave 4 stars because of the book cover artwork (makes me suspicious) and, out of Sharon's control, but the residual techniques from prior versions are delivered in the same format I think. Sorta copy-n-paste.

This book has a lot of artworks inside it, every artwork are used to explore advanced tecnics, some of then are avaible on the cd so you can explore it.
To use this book you have to know the basics of this software. For novices I recomend the Anessa Hartman "Exploring Illustrator CS".

I LOVE this book. I got this one as a gift in pdf format & ended up buying CS2 hardcopy one.
I really love the work by Yukio Miyamoto that is included in book.
Just including his illustration of his niece in book, helped me learn to create amazing things with the mesh tool! I was able to see his mesh lines & practice recreating the illustration. I went from a complete novice to actually being able to create complicated illustrations that look real.....I really can't understand how the poster above (the quick learning, Photoshop certified one) could not find this book useful...I'm NOT that quick of a learner & got tremendous use out of this book! It's exactly what I wanted because they have enough "For Dummies" type books if you just want to learn the program....BUT if you want to create ART,,Then look at this!
CS2 Wow is basically the same but I love it still.
It has lots of good info but I'd still love more on gradient meshes because there aren't enough people writing things on Illustrator :(