Customer Reviews

Retro Graphics: A Visual Sourcebook to 100 Years of Graphic Design

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

 

 

I read some criticisms of this book by other reviewers stating that this book does not give any basic information on graphic design. I believe the title of the book describes exactly what this book was meant to provide, and in my opinion, it does just that. This is an overview of the various graphic design preferences throughout the decades, with color and layout choice examples from each time period. It was obviously not meant to be an extensive textbook on the history of graphic design, rather a sample book of the preferred styles throughout the 20th century, and basic information to recreate the "look" of a certain era.

In this regard, I believe this book succeeds in what it set out to do, and I've found it to be well organized and attractive in its presentation.

This is a very useful book on several levels. First, it covers in a succinct and clear manner the major design trends that have influenced a century of print design. Second - and even better - the book a first-rate "how-to-do-it" manual that dissects these designs and demonstrates how they can be an inspiration (or merely cloned if you're lazy) for contemporary graphic designers. Each major trend is explored through fonts, color choices, and tips on mimicking the graphics using software programs like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. A useful addition to your graphic design reference library.

This is a must have for anyone who needs a quick reference in graphic design history. While the book doesn't go into great detail in the explanation of the different movements and style it does provide a good reference for font styles, color palettes and important elements that makes the style unique. The book also includes a color coded time line at the beginning and each brief explanation is in chronological order.

Nice book that tells you about and how to recreate graphic styles from the past, meanwhile giving some nice tips & tricks about Photoshop.

I was looking forward to this book and after getting it, my first impression was not good. Then I sat down and read it. It is a great book to have, why?

A lot of information and research went into the book but it is brief and to the point. Examples are very good. However, the real value of this book for me is font references, spot color, and simple techniques to mimic period posters. That alone is worth the purchase.

However, the book is not a step-by-step tutorial on poster creation.

Even in this digital age designers can't have too many reference books, probably the biggest number are type books then the yearly design annuals and probably least are titles to do with historical graphic styles. Retro Graphics comes into this last category and it could be a handy reminder of past styles but I felt the editorial was rather flawed.

The essence of the book are various style elements from past decades that might be useful if you need to create a period design. The seven decade chapters are keyed in with: alphabets; posters; ads; publications; graphic symbols and even colors (though I can't really see that a particular decade can be pinned down to certain colors). All of this visual material is well chosen but it goes off at a tangent by using the period styles to create contemporary designs using Photoshop and Illustrator. Maybe half the book is devoted to explaining how these designs were created from the historical examples. This seemed a rather pointless exercise. Either the book is collection of past graphic reference or it's a guide to using software.

There are much better user guides to graphic software (my faves are from the Peachpit Press) and I think better visual books on graphic design history. Three that I've found useful and interesting are: Graphic Design Source Book (1987) by McQuiston and Kitts; Design Source Book (1986) by Sparke, Hodges, Stone and Coad; Layout Source Book (1990) by Alan Swann. All three are crammed with reference material and nicely, if you search around the net, they can be picked up quite cheaply.

Retro Graphics was originally published in Britain and so plenty of the illustrative contents reflect a European perspective. The design and production are fine (using a 175 screen) but I thought it was a shame that overall the book didn't really achieve the promise of the cover sub-deck: 100 years of graphic design.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.