Customer Reviews

The Designer's Guide to Global Color Combinations: 750 Color Formulas in CMYK and RGB from Around the World

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In this companion volume to THE DESIGNER'S GUIDE TO COLOR COMBINATIONS, author/editor Leslie Cabarga has outdone himself; yet, the book is so spectacularly beautiful, witty and fun, that the reader may not initially comprehend just what an colossally ambitious work it is. Cabarga spent 19 months traveling the globe collecting color swatches from an enormous "database" of human tribes, countries and civilizations; rarely fine art, mind you, but the work of craftsmen and women plying their native trades... Cabarga winnowed down his collection to a few which might most closely represent the "inner colors" of a particular nation or people...
It's worth buying this book alone just to study the deep, soulful, mysterious green the Pakistanis cherish. Those already familiar with Cabarga's democratic and catholic (and witty) color eye know that he sees as much charm in a cheap, tacky Chinese toy label as he does beauty in a shimmering, transcendant Tibetan religious painting. Mr. Cabarga has reached that deliciously opportune time in his life and career in which he both thoroughly knows the history of the Old-Old-Old School... yet he is as bleeding-edge Hip-- or Hipper-- than anyone reading the book. (One is tempted to draw a comparison to a Leonard Bernstein and his Young People's Concerts.) Mr. Cabarga is every bit the graphic art genius that R.Crumb is-- but with a more humane and loving pen-- and this book solidifies him as one of our national treasures. Artists of every stripe will benefit from the text and color swatches within this book.

As a big fan of Leslie Cabarga's first book on color combinations, I found this one even better. Not only are the combinaitons vibrant and interesting as well as quite practical , the colors are now shown in both RGB and CMYK formulas. Those of us who work in the world of computer colors, especially the Internet where values are expressed as 6-digit hexadecimal numbers divided into RGB, this addition was quite helpful.

Cabarga's running commentary is clearly uncensored, and you can tell what the author has on his mind regarding the different examples of color combinaitons. The introduction to the book is a good cultural primer on colors from different places, most of which the author traveled to gather examples of interesting color combinaitons.

Like the first book, this one has many lessons not only in color combinations but in color arrangement. By juxtaposing the same color combinaitons in different arrangements, the reader can quickly see what appear to be different combinations but in fact are just different arrangements of the same combinations.

Finally, the best thing about this book is that it makes it easy for me to copy a color combination I like. I don't spend hours or even days agonizing over color combinations. I just go through ths book (or Cabarga's first one) and pick a combination I like and then I use it. It saves me time, it looks good, and I've got enough to do.

I can't imagine anyone looking for a good book on using color going wrong with this gem.

Along with its companion book in the series - The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations, The Designer's Guide to "Global" Color Combinations forms an essential reference for any visual artist or print publisher. I recommend these books to my students for their concept, storyboarding, color design, and animation layout work.

Each page breaks down a period, era, or style, and analyzes its color makeup with color and contrast swatches, CMYK data for each color, and a series of various combinations that are possible using the specified palette.

An artist could spend hours testing and comparing colors. Or they could look through these pages and find a color scheme in minutes.

The first in this series was a marvelous reference book. This one, however, seems more of an excuse for the author to "write" rather than illustrate color usage. The examples in the book are adequate, but not as comprehensive of a treatment of the various geographical locations represented as one would like. The commentary is superfluous and at times irritating.

Not a bad reference for color combo inspiration, but overall disappointing and does not live up to its predecessor.

If I had to sum this second "Color Combinations" book up in one word...indispensable! Both colour combinations books are very obviously works of a great love (and more than a little obsession) with colours from every aspect of the globe.If you've ever walked the aisles of Asian grocery stores and stared at the packageing...this one's for you. Cabaraga's writing style is very personal and humorous and a refreshing change from the dry "facts" of other color books. (A bit like Deke McClelland's Photoshop Bible really!)
As a designer who shares Cabarga's passion for all things design I highly recommend this book for anyone who has ever sat and tried to piece together a great colour combination for a client.
(my one, tiny, miniscule suggestion for the second edition would be to add combinations from England and Ireland...not just Scotland!)

This is the second volume, following The Designer's Guide To Color Combination. I own both and regularly browse them, just for pleasure or for practical use.

For artists, designers and the general public interested in color combinations, this marvellous book offers a cross cultural approach to the use of color. Each page depicts an artists piece, which may be paintings, illustration or fabric, with a small description and why the color use is interesting. The main colors in the piece are then broken down into CMYK and RGB values. (For non computer artists: this means the values you have to type in graphic software to get the colors depicted).

And if all this is not enough, there is also a second example on each page with a variation on the palette of the main piece, but with the main colors structured in a different way, which may give another mood.

Add to each page, even more creatieve variations on the main piece, and you get an enormous amount of color combinations.

However, this book will not teach you color theory. The author takes a intuitive subjective approach which does not go any further than 'this is eye catching'. But when you are from the school 'I don't mind about the theory, just show me the pictures', this book is simply the best you can get.

If there is one negative thing I could say about this book: because the RGB and CMYK values are given for each piece it would be even more practical for computer users to add a cd, so they could straight away add all the palettes as files to their graphic software.

Apart from this: this is book which you'll browse and browse again.

A practical book, a beautiful book and a wonderful resource. Even if you have no need for a graphic design book, this would make a great coffee table book to impress your friends. For the graphic designer, fresh color combinations can (and have for me) changed the direction of an entire project. I work with small business clients in a wide range of businesses and have found this book invaluable for starting new projects, establishing an identity or finding a few neat color combos for a flyer. This book is worth the money!

If you are an artist or designer in need of color schemes and inspiration - this book is for you. Hundreds of schemes are layed out so you can easily envision how your final piece will look. These are unique, unusual, complex color combinations that you won't find in the "Designer's Guide to Color" series. And it is full of examples of many of the palettes in use.
So that's the meat of the book: useful, practical, and inspirational.
But my favorite aspect of this book is the humour. All of Cabarga's books are a blast. I have so much fun reading them that I lose track of time, and the reason I opened them in the first place. Now I've learned to either read them for the fun of it - or give myself a lot of extra time when looking for coor ideas.

I've used this book for years. If you're ever in a hurry, or simply "stuck" trying to get a palette that works, this book can be a real lifesaver. It's clearly laid out, gives you CMYK and RGB builds and will become one of those tools you'll keep going back to.

I was disappointed in this book. It appears to be an ad for Leslie Cabarga's other products, such as his type design. While I find humor can help one learn, I was hoping it would contain more solid information about color and fewer jokes. If I had to do this over again, I would not buy this. There are better books on color theory out there.