Customer Reviews

Northwest Coast Indian Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive)

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

 

 

The contents of this book are useless to the graphics professional. They are hand-drawn illustrations of some other art form, but they are not art themselves. They are sloppy. Wobbly, clumsy line art without a hint of the sophisticated thick-thin line quality that is characteristic and key to northwest native art. At best I'd say this book is full of "cartoon" representations. Don't judge the craftsmanship of the venerable native artists by this book. Their skill was far superior. The images in this book, although 100-300 years the younger, appear much more primitive than the original art that it is supposed to represent.

Who might find this book useful? Kids making book reports about native American art. Maybe a crafter looking for some vague sense of inspiration. An artist might find some reference on the composition of PNW native art here, but specific elements are wobbly, sloppy and poorly rendered, so you would need some other reference to see get a complete picture.

If you are a professional designer, architect or an artist looking for actual images or even elements that you can use in graphic design such as packaging, or interior decor - or perhaps a jewelry designer, sculptor or painter, there is nothing of use to you in this volume. Maybe it's not intended for that audience.

We liked the book as a number of the designs are ones remembered from childhood. They are easy for us to follow when making are native crafts. As we try to be as authenic as possible. It is one of the best books we have found for Northwest Coast Indians Designs. Madeleine Orban-Szontagh's Books are all good books.

Does not explain what the designs are, if you don't have another book to explain them you will be lost. Drawings do not reflect true designs.

When this book came out, there were surprisingly few books about Pacific Northwest Coast artwork, and many of the books that had been written were out of print.

I suppose it's possible that the author or publisher honestly felt they saw a niche that needed to be filled, and intended to produce a simple, helpful book. But regardless of their intent, the impression I came away with was that this book was thrown together in order to cash in on the rising interest and, at that time, paucity of reference material related to this artform.

The book is remarkably short, there is a lack of useful information about the artform or its elements, and many of the designs that are included in the book do not even appear to be native to this style of art.

I hate to pan a book, because I'm a part-time writer myself, but facts are facts. Regardless of what you are looking for when it comes to Northwest Coast Art - how to understand it, style variations amongst different northwest tribes, how to draw this type of art, etc. -- this book will not provide it for you. The only reason I can think of for buying this book is because you want a copy of every book ever written on the topic. Otherwise, don't waste your money on this one.

[...]

...is what you get. No surprises, then. 280 designs printed on 48 pages and a CD with all those designs and motifs in six different image files. No information about culture, art or anything else. Plus, the designs shows a "hand made" bordering, which gives a more authentic flavour (I assume that this can be something not wanted for some of the buyers).

Perfect for artists, designers, and northwest coast art admirers!

All the best from Barcelona!!

Unlike most Dover books, this one was a clunker. The art was all roughly drawn and of little or no use to me. Had I known, I wouldn't have made this purchase. Save your money on this Dover book.

Not only is the content of this book, poorly rendered and amateurish, but the same book is available with a different cover design, so if you're not careful, and buying hastily, you can buy the same waste of paper TWICE!

The images in this book are simply unusable, and I doubt even inspirational. They are poor-quality, sloppy illustrations that sort of "refer to" a wonderful native art form, but do not mistake, they do not do it justice. If you are looking for a source of actual, usable graphics for a project needing some NW native art - for jewelry design, graphic design, architecture, etc - this is NOT that book. Looks like it was drawn by an inexperienced and lazily teenager, not a professional designer or illustrator. The original native artists who created the work that this book is attempting to represent were a thousand times more careful and talented, with steady hands and impeccable eyes to design, composition, line quality, contrast and overall visual effect. None of that comes though in the pages of this graphic disgrace.

I TRIED TO BUY A WATCH RECENTLY AND WHEN I WENT TO PAY, I WAS REQUESTED TO JOIN AMAZON WITH MY OWN
CREDIT CARD. I JOINED AND THE WATCH SALE WAS DROPPED. THIS DOES NOT SPEAK WELL FOR YOURSELF. THIS
WATCH WAS "SUPPOSED" TO BE A JOINER PREMIIUM REWARD AT $40 FOR JOINING. I TRUST YOU CAN CORRECT THIS
SITUATION.

MARY ANN SFORZA