Customer Reviews

D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (Design Handbooks)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know a little about Lupton's career -- teaching, writing, and curating shows. She seems very intelligent, but I don't understand who this book is really for. Beginning or advanced people? Crafters or designers? Some of the ideas in this book (wrapping paper) are so obvious that I think anyone with an ounce of creativity has already figured them out. Some things (commercial embroidery) seem very advanced and specialized, and not useful to most people. The layout of the book is nice, but the content is very inconsistent. Was this really a student project, as someone mentioned? If so, I think Lupton should have made more of an effort to make sure that everything came together and made for a coherent whole. I think there are better DIY books out there.

This is a terrific book for ideas all across the board! I bought this book after flipping through it at a friends and was excited to see so many hip and unique ideas. I modeled my wedding invitations after an example from the book and have gotten compliments from all of the invitees! This is an amazing "get you thinking" book. The only drawback, there are no instructions or tips for carrying out the projects, so... you should have some crafting/design knowledge before picking this book up. I would highly recommend it for adventurous souls who want to create something out of the ordinary, or for anyone looking for fresh, new ideas. I've even purchased another copy to give as a gift to a design-oriented friend!

It's a good book for a good price, nothing too special. There is not too much of a good text in it. This book reminds me a British design magazine "Computer Arts", especially its tutorial section, with a lot of pictures and very few words describing it. This book will be a good source for a beginner designer. But for intermediate and pro designers it will probably won't be useful at all, in my opinion it would be much better to buy one of "Communication Arts" Annuals. But as I said before, for starting-out designers it will be a great book.

DIY is probably my favorite do-it-yourself book I've ever bought! When I first got it I was like, "oh, great some expensive, useless, technical stuff to read about. What a waste of money."
But, once I started reading it, I realized how great this really was. having my own clothing brand was something that I've always dreamed of, but it seemed so far away from me. But, DIY made it look so easy and inexpensive.
I've tried lots of the projects and there are so many awesome ideas in this book. I love the ideas for postcards, books and t-shirts.
Though most of the projects are for the more technically inclined, I loved this book and I am using some of the ideas for hangtags, business cards, and logos for my own brand, These Days.
I ended up finding something I wasn't even really looking for: The greatest design handbook ever!!!

This inspirational book was born and bred at Baltimore's Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), under the direction of its graphic design director. There's no doubt that DIY design has been on the rise over the last twenty years, and this handbook does an excellent job of introducing the concept to the uninitiated. It starts with two sections, "Why DIY?" and "DIY Theory" which serve to set things up nicely without being overly dense. The excellent design and outstanding photography showcases tons of nice examples in 28 categories across a range of media, from blogs to zines. This is definitely not a step-by-step guide that holds one's hand through processes -- but it will help anyone understand how to start seeing the world as a designer. It's not perfect by any means, and experts in particular fields will find small details to quibble with. For example, the embroidery section doesn't provide complete DIY details, instead directing the reader to outsource it to commercial embroidery firms. Another example is in the web site section, which advocates the use of nested tables, a technique long out of favor in the web development community. But these are very minor quibbles about an excellent book that belongs in the hands of anyone (especially kids and teens) with the slightest interest in self-expression.

This really is a geat book that gives hundreds of ways to take normal items and make them stylish, and a T to your tastes. Learn how to customize clothing, learn how to make your own journal, or even scrap book and make your own post cards. These are really just a few of the things gone over this book and to truely understand some ingeniousness I really do suggest getting this fabulous buy.

I bought this for my 16 year-old. It has great ideas and explains them in simple terms. Not just a follow the directions book - it explains concepts and encourages experimentation.

I'd had the impression that I would learn some techniques on creating my own stuff: business cards, websites, t-shirts, stationary, etc. They touch on all these subjects, and more, in the book. But I was disappointed that it is really more just a collection of ideas and work that MFA and graphic arts students have created, with very little technical detail of how to create designs for yourself. I was looking for a how-to, not a see-what-we've-done.

This is a really awesome book. It is full of great project ideas and full color pages. Sure, its not very detailed, but it is really just an overview of everything one can do with design. This book has inspired me to go out and buy more detailed books on specific areas of design that it touched on. Overall, a great buy!

-Peter

I found this book recently and I just loved it. This book is full of ideas on designing your own stuff like t-shirts, businness cards, gift wrapping, stationery, blogs, zines, etc. The "look inside" gives a good view of what this book is about. It covers a lot of stuff, not in details, but enough to give a good start and a lot of new ideas.
I'm an analyst wishing to become a graphic designer and designing my own stuff like t-shirts and this book makes me think I CAN !!!