Customer Reviews

Creative Sparks: An Index of 150+ Concepts, Images and Exercises to Ignite Your Design Ingenuity

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've never sent a review before, but this is an execptional book and I feel compelled to say something about it. Forgive me if this sounds corny, but I can only describe this book as an explosion of visual exuberance and I am still reveling in its aftershocks. I was unable to put this one down until well past midnight last night. Not everyone will understand this book (it is non-linear and filled with non-stop images, thoughts, exercises, practical advice, etc.), but i think that true designers and those who really, really love art will know exactly what it is all about. Every spread in this book presents a jewel of information and/or inspiration. I would, if i could give a copy of this book to every person I know who creates art (either for fun or professionally). It is absolutely unique, absolutely wonderful.

This book is phenomenal. It contains a lot of lessons, passages, and much more based on the art and design world. Whenever you are feeling uncreative, do yourself a big favor and buy this book. It is not a book meant to be read from page to page. It's a book meant to randomly pick pages and read and so forth. This book will motivate you, get you thinking creatively, bring you back from ur uncreative sense, and much more. It's a small book, but very handy.

My story was I was feeling very uncreative at one point where I couldn't execute my designs and art pieces well. I was desperately looking for a book that would help me find myself within and get back to working creatively. A friend recommended Creative sparks, and i listened. I was glad i did, took it while i was on my way to school, home, everywhere. Even now, that i don't feel uncreative, i still go back to the book and remind myself how great art truly is, and how geeat it is to produce it using your hands and your minds. I would add more, but you'll figure it out as you tune in to this book.

Oh, at first, it may not seem as a great book, but remember to allow yourself to not only know the concepts, but UNDERSTAND them. knowing and understanding are different things, so make sure you understand and let it be part of you. That's all i have to say.

I found this book in a search for something to help challenge and jump start my creative process. This book is a quirky way to challenge yourself and stimulate creative ideas. It is a small, pocket sized package that can be browsed one page at a time. You can literally turn to a random, new page (which is how I read it) and spend a minute or two learning a new lesson. Though it is directed at graphic designers, other disciplines can pull some really good ideas from it, too. I highly recommend this. It stays in my backpack all the time, and when I find myself with a few spare minutes, I'll thumb through a few pages.

This one took me by surprise. I own a lot of design books and this is very different from the "norm"--but then, as designers and artists, WE are supposed to be outside the "norm," right? This is the least "stuffy" book on design I've seen in a while. It's strikes a good balance between eye-candy and practicality. I find the exercises and concepts presented to be very "real world" and practical--not classroom theory. I was especially able to relate to the "Designer's Notebook" section (I can tell that J. Krause has been around the design biz for a while). Great book.

I just got this book and I'm loving it. The book is divided into color-coded sections ( Practical Matters, Designer's Notebook, On The Job, Projects and Exercises, Concepts and Life Practices). When you turn to a page, any page, it is cross-referenced by subject to four other relavent pages. Definitely an inspiring, thought-provoking collection of creative sparks that will stay within reach.

I use this book as a text for beginning Graphic Designers. A great way for student s to get motivated when that idea just won't arrive in time to solve the problem. Great ideas and great graphics too!

Russ D'Anna

I have had the book creative sparks on my shelf for about a year now, I thought it would come in handy when I hit a creative lull. When I bought the book it was on one of my book sprees. I bought 8 or 9 design books ( $300.00). I opened this book and saw 2 or 3 exercises like making a mask another was using a desktop scanner to scan interesting objects. Now in glancing at the book I thought there would be a lot of exercises like this. The book is 310 pages filled with the obvious.

Examples of Content:
So what do you do if your layout hits a rough spot? " Try changing the font size on the header".
I have been working on a project for hours and I am getting no results, what do I do? "Get up and take a walk around the block".

The nuggets of wisdom that take two pages for instance; "A layout or piece of art is finished when nothing can be added to boost the message and nothing that takes away from the message remains". This nugget is paired with the recipe for the "Perfect Martini".

By the numbers:
310 pages
18 artistic assignments / projects
24 Life practices or motherly advice for a healthy designer
268 pages of designer common sense.

By the Design:
The book is a great example of good layout and a cool style for every page. The book may be nice to have as an example layout design.

Content:
Nothing groundbreaking! In fact this stuff should be obvious habits for professionals. If Designers are not already doing this they are not designers. I Really felt this book was low level "well duh" type stuff. I do not think it is irrelevant but it is a book that I would give this book to a Design Student. This book is a good foundation. But for anyone in the industry it is pretty elementary.
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I'm a creativity researcher, so I've read just about every book there is on how to be more creative. This is the first one that actually LOOKS creative. You can't read it from front to back. Instead, the pages are all cross-indexed (each page lists four other "relevant pages") and grouped into six themes, such as "On the job" and "Designer's notebook" (each of the six themes has its own color code, and the pages that relate to that theme are tagged with that color). The pages have more visual images than text, and it's a great looking book.

Now, would this book make you more creative? I'm not so sure about that. The advice in it, as another reviewer has already pointed out, is largely common sense, stuff you know already. Most of what's in the book is aligned with the findings of creativity researchers, so you won't be getting bad advice (see Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration). So I doubt you will be surprised by anything you READ in here; but the visuals will surprise you, they are the strength of this book.

This book came in really good condition from the seller. It was smaller in shape and thicker in dimension than I thought. Great buy.

I love everything about this book! It got my creative juices flowing again and the idea journal nearly burned up from the writing speed. He is an artist and a writer. I bought 15 copies for gifts!

I feel the same about all of his other books too! They are clever, informative, colorful, designed perfectly, inspiring, intelligent, fun, creative, fantastic and fabulous! Truly awesome! READ THEM ALL--NOW!