Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents [Paperback]

Adrian Shaughnessy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2006

Printed brochures, catalogs, and multi-page documents form the bedrock of many graphic designers' daily practice. Most printed literature is disposable: todays hot communication document is tomorrow's landfill. But the best brochures, catalogs and documents have a permanence and organic completeness that has become essential in this ephemeral, and increasingly electronic, world of instant communications. This book features the best of contemporary printed literature design. It offers a critical survey of current work by leading practitioners from the U.S., Europe and the Far East. Arranged in a designer-by-designer format and accompanied by interviews, this book offers a complete and informative picture of this popular subject.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adrian Shaughnessy is co-founder of London design consultancy Intro. He writes for numerous design journals, including Eye, Creative Review and Grafik, is a guest contributor to Design Observer, the leading design blog. His previous publications include three books on record cover design and How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Laurence King Publishers; 1st. edition (November 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856694690
• ISBN-13: 978-1856694698
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 29, 2010

By 

Allison Johnston (NY USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents (Paperback)

I was horribly disappointed by this book. I bought it in 2010, well-aware that it was published in 2006 and therefore, had the potential to feel slightly outdated. But I suppose my faith in Adrian Shaughnessy (who is highly respected in the design community), convinced me I should give the book the benefit of the doubt. Here's my advice to you: don't. The design examples are all one-note and stale, the writing good (though non-persuasive), and the photography lackluster. I wish I could say I found the paragraphs on the background of each project to be interesting, but I didn't. I was left feeling as though I just sat through a 2 hour-long design critique where all the designers talked about wanting to "convey this" and "evoke that", but their designs did little to inspire.

If you're a fan of minimalism, post-modernism and swiss design, you'll no doubt find a few examples in here that are desirable, but not enough to justify purchasing the book. And if you're not -- well, you'll probably just be miserable.

1 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simplemente un libro, July 25, 2007

By 

Jose Solano (Barranquilla, Colombia, Latin America) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Look at This: Contemporary Brochures, Catalogues & Documents (Paperback)

Yo creo que este libro no es más que una muestra simple de trabajos realizados por reconocidos artistas, pero no profundiza en nada y aún si no lo hiciera, debería incluir más material gráfico o más muestras, osea, un libro para ver en una cita odontológica, creo que debería llamarse, look at this 30 designs....