Customer Reviews

Graphic Eye

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

 

 

As designers, we are generally cultural anthropologists: we love to collect visual bits and pieces, the ephemera of our observable world. We take a lot of photographs. Some of them of seemingly odd things. Feet in a crowd. Found type on a building. So forth and so on.

These photographs are a visual log of our world, the bits and pieces many of us pass over or ignore, things proposed and preserved in new light. They are not only insightful to the process of a designer, but also inspirational. And it is Bucher's goal to collect this mass of anthropological data into one, cohesive volume, a goal he succeeds greatly in.

From the cover and the end sheets to the pages itself, the book is beautifully and transparently layed out, with a strong grid, subtle typography, and beautifully layed out (and printed) images. Bucher shows his more subdued, clean side here (versus the off-the-wall aesthetic of his Daily Monsters), but the style is still, undeniably, Bucher's (take a look at the seemingly random halftone pattern on the reverse of the cover from afar for a lovely visual suprise).

As for the photographs themselves, they are diverse in subject and style, in intimacy and in disconnectedness, internal and external. Whether the photographs be intensely personal or merely snapshots of the surrounding environs of their respective designers, whether they be artistic compositions shot on analog film or quick documentarian snapshots, each one gives new insight into the process and visual mind, and often sometimes the dynamic life, of the designer. Far from the typical detached nature of the photographic coffee-table book, Bucher's collection is intensely personal and individualized. The voices, inspirations, and stories of each designer all ring out clearly and cohesively, whether it be in mere photograph, or additional textual commentary.

A wonderful tome of inspiration and insight for the curious, The Graphic Eye is highly recommended towards any with a visually-inclined mind.

in 2009, adrian shaughnessy and tony brook gave us a rare glimpse into the studios of graphic designers. stefan bucher gave us something much more intimate: an insight into their minds.

"the graphic eye" is not about people who set up a darkroom, painstakingly preparing the perfect shot. this is not a compilation of professional photographers' work.
this book is about people who follow their hearts (and trigger fingers). they show us what interests them, take pictures which expose their obsessions, tell us a story, reveal something intriguing and sometimes take a photograph just because it looks beautiful. it's a compilation of graphic designers' views of the world. (think of it as "being john malkovich" without the disadvantages.)

since it's that kind of subject, its design shouldn't go unmentioned: it is delicate, yet playful with its use of color. the layout is very generous to the images and their sequence invites serendipitous discoveries. utilizing the typeface univers on a solid grid, there's nothing left to second-guess. as they said in the sixties about brubeck: "bravo! bucher!"

"the graphic eye" is not just a demonstration of how graphic designers view the world. it's a manifesto to rediscover our own curiosity in the subtle and often unnoticed things surrounding our daily lives. this book incites us to look for all the beauty we might miss otherwise.

Stefan outdoes himself on a regular basis. Seriously. I am amazed at the constellation of artists and imagery in his latest work: THE GRAPHIC EYE. He has this way of approaching his work with equal measures of reverence for the "thing itself," simplicity and total aesthetic extravagance. Buy two, so you can avoid that awkward moment when one of your closest friends tries to wrestle you for your only copy. [...]

What I love about The Graphic Eye is that you can go back to it over and over and keep discovering. It's beautifully designed, wonderfully visual and it's fun to see how all the different designers think. I keep it on a table with similar compilation books and it's become a daily topic of conversation. It's great to see how a designer approaches photography and get insight into how they incorporate photography into their design. I also really like the brief, but insightful quotes from the various designers. Buy this book! You will enjoy it!!

The photo selections are thought-provoking and beautiful, and the book design
is gorgeous too - everything you'd expect from the brilliant mind behind 344 Design. I'm giving these to all my discerning artist friends this year - photographers and designers and everyone else.

The Graphic Eye is a collection of photographs from a host of international designers. Books on the collected works of photographers are numerous, but it is a rare thing to find one that is dedicated to the "graphic eye" of a group of designers. I found the images collected by Bucher to be inspiring and insightful. Designers see the world in a different way and many of the photographs in this collection represent that. The images make you stop and ask the tough questions: Is this just a pretty picture or is there more at work in this image? What am I supposed to take from it? Without a doubt, the designers in this collection submitted images that they hoped would cause the viewer to pause and think about them, something every designer hopes their daily work does. Nothing changes due to the medium,and just as there are many layers to most successful design pieces, so to are there many layers to the images enclosed in this outstanding book. As a teacher of design, I enjoy any tool (be it a book, poster, web site, video, etc.) that allows my students to delve deeper into meaning, something this book does quite successfully. From a design point of view, this is a serious book from Bucher. His previous titles, "100 Days of Monsters" and "All Access" (both outstanding books in their own right), had a more playful and personal style of design and thought. This book still shares Bucher's touch for clean white space, tiny type, and clever imagery found in his previous titles, but "The Graphic Eye" is a much more serious example of his style. As with all of Bucher's titles, "The Graphic Eye" is thought provoking, intelligent look at a side of design most of us have not taken the time to think about. I have truly enjoyed owning this book and using it within my classroom.

If you only know Stefan Bucher from his ongoing love affair with inky monsters -100 Days Of Monsters (with DVD)- then you're missing out on his equally keen (certainly graphic) eye for photographic material. As a designer, illustrator and photographer himself, he brings his wit and razor-sharp skills along for the ride in this eclectic collection of what other designers have been spying through their own viewfinders.

Although we often bill ourselves primarily as graphic designers, it's no giant surprise to find out that we're all toting some sort of camera with us on a regular basis and producing imagery for more than just the latest layout mock-up that we're passing along to our clientele.

The bigger surprise that "The Graphic Eye" packs is the reveal on all the percolating interests and slightly-out-of-sight fixations so many of us are not only harboring, but capturing through a lens on a semi-regular basis. In the hands of Mr. Bucher, this happy little grab-bag of designer photography turns into an incredibly well metered and sophisticated trip through extremely diverse material.

Whether you flip a bit rapid-fire through the collection to beeline for the "big name" designers' work or slow down to stroll-pace to enjoy images from the folks included (familiar or otherwise), I think you'll be particularly struck by Bucher's work as curator and orchestrator as much as you are by the wonderful crazy-quilt of the whole affair.

Make sure not to miss out on Ruth Huimerind's incredibly lyrical and vividly colorful model photography, Margo Chase's ongoing love-affair with masks and faces, and Ed Fella's ghostly Polaroid work.

If that's not enough, you'll also find out what Stefan's actually been up to for so many years en-route between speaking engagements - likely to inspire the rest of us to start trading our usual seats on the plane for the ones he's sitting in!

Take time to browse this photo-graphic gallery Bucher's concocted - I'm sure you'll find something to linger over within it.

This book is short on text but long on photography and that's the way it should be. This isn't a lesson book on how to improve your photography or graphic design. But, if you learn through observation, there's plenty to pick up from this book. Sometimes you need a creative spark or a new perspective... this book provides both.