18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of examples, little guidance, December 5, 2007
This review is from: Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (Hardcover)
I bought this book expecting to find guidance on how colors work and how to use them. The book provides this, but not in the way I expected.
If you are looking for:
- A deep discussion of color theory with specific examples of what works and what does not or
- Insights from industry about how the choice of colors can affect production costs, choice of material, etc or
- Information about tools that can help with color selection, matching or proofing,
DON'T buy this book.
This book is about color palettes only and its approach is to give you lots of examples from the real world, from which *you* must build your own understanding of color. As a survey of the use of color by many well-known designers for clients of all kinds, this book excels. The most valuable parts are not the examples themselves, but the text accompanying them where the designers outline the reasons for their choices. All this is perhaps clear from the title, but I didn't think so.
A severe shortcoming of this book is it provides no examples where a choice of colors failed--for whatever reason.
Since readers have consistently criticized Rockport's use of the word "Workbook" for books in this series, let me suggest a way of looking at it that justifies it. The way I used this book was to go through an example, look at every line, fill, shading or photograph and use the color palette in several ways in some designs I cooked up-- constantly experimenting--until I felt I understood how those colors interacted and changed their overall feel. That's the workbook aspect that totally worked for me so I have no problems with this book being called a "Workbook".
If you regularly read graphic design sites/blogs, you won't find anything new in this book. But if you are starting on the path to understanding color in graphic design, this is a great resource.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear, concise and practical..., January 22, 2006
This review is from: Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (Hardcover)
This book rocks. Color Design Workbook is exactly what it's title suggests: A Real-World approach to color theory. It breaks down color theory in a totally useful way and has plenty of eye candy for inspiration. It has a bunch of sample projects to walk you through actual applications of the theories it describes. It's like a really smart, down-to-earth graphic designer (and in the case of this book -- world-class graphic designers) whispering trade-secrets into your ear. Definitely one of my favorite books on this subject.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book that inspires me to get to work!, February 26, 2007
This review is from: Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design (Hardcover)
I love colors... probably too much... but I always seem to pick the same color palette when I'm designing things, and can't seem to stray to far from them, so I needed this book. It's fantastic. It shows color palettes that have been put to work in real-world settings. It also has nice explanations on color theories and the meanings of colors. The book is well organized and detailed-- I haven't found an AdamsMorioka book that I didn't like. Great job! PS I got my book from an amazon subsidiary-- it was a used book from warehouse_deals for a smashing $17.08 + nominal shipping. You'd never guess that this book had ever been used. I ordered two other books from warehouse_deals, too... if you can snag a book from them at such a great price, you won't regret it. Their shipping is as quick as amazon's standard shipping. :)
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