Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits [Paperback]

Steven Heller (Author), Louise Fili (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2006

A chunky, distinctive object of brilliant design in and of itself, Stylepedia is the first handy, cross-referenced desk guide to the kaleidoscope that is modern design. In hundreds of illustrated entries, Heller and Fili, the award-winning authors of Euro Deco and numerous other popular design titles, survey the designers, schools, and movements that comprise the practice today as well as take a fascinating glimpse back at some of the seminal early leaders. From the first Santa Claus to appear on a Coca-Cola bottle to the increasingly ubiquitous camouflage tee shirt, iconic everyday items of yesterday and today provide valuable inspiration to designers and design aficionados. As quirky as it is useful and positively packed with lavish color illustrations, this designer's design compendium is the only one of its kind.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Heller is the art director of the New York Times Book Review and the author, co-author, or editor of over 90 books on design and popular culture. He is the recipient of the 1999 AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement.

Louise Fili has co-authored fourteen design books with Steven Heller. Her design work is in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and she is a member of the Art Directors Hall of Fame. The authors live in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (November 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811833461
• ISBN-13: 978-0811833462
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A richpedia of graphic, schmaphic, February 10, 2007

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits (Paperback)

The two authors have scoured the rural routes of the graphic landscape to come up with 113 interesting entries for their book, from Agit retro to Zanol. If you haven't heard of Zanol, join the queue. It turns out this thirties founded company was an early style setter in having a corporate identity for its consumer product packaging and judging from the illustrations shown with the entry they probably worked, too.

The entries, as the authors rightly point out in the introduction, are their own choice for what they consider worthwhile graphic styles from the last hundred years or so. I thought the selection, at times, seems rather esoteric. What styles can be derived from the entries on Mini mannequins (seen on shop counters) Chinese calendar girls or Ripley's Believe it or not? Here they are though and it's certainly worth reading about them. No doubt readers will have their own worthwhile contributions to graphic styles missing from the book. Mine would be: Champion Papers 'Imagination' paper sample books, Twen magazine (the very influential German title) Blue Note record covers, Pentagram, Photolettering Inc and the USA Today weather maps.

The book is nicely designed but rather text heavy. I would have preferred more illustrations in a book dealing with essentially visual themes and I wish the authors had gone to the trouble of including, where practical, a suggested book at the end of each entry. There is a bibliography in the back with titles that have a generalised overview of the subject. The word conceit in the title blurb is very apposite because the book has its own conceit: finger tabs in a book of 336 pages. With so few pages the tabs have to be in three stages making it needlessly difficult to flip over the pages while using the cross references, so it gets four stars.

I found Stylepedia an interesting read for revealing lots of historical background to graphic styles that are taken for granted today. A book that complements it could be The Dictionary of Graphic Images by Philip Thompson and Philip Davenport. A reference guide with over 1500 commercial graphic items mostly designed in the forties to the seventies. Like Stylepedia it is arranged alphabetically with captions and designer credits.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have reference and a good read, April 28, 2010

By 

E. B. MACDONALD "Evan Enlow" (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits (Paperback)

I picked up this book at a bookstore on a bit of a whim. I hadn't looked at it much when I purchased it but when I got home and dove in, I was very pleased!

The book is an alphabetical listing of styles and design movements from victorian to today (and maybe a few further back in time). The information written about each movement/style is concise but more than enough to give you a the context you need.

The articles are short enough that this book would be a great bathroom book for your studio or even just to read one-a-day. Keep it close to your desk cause it is a very accessible reference book. Looking up stuff on the fly is easy.

I think this is a must have for anyone who wants to be informed. By knowing about style, you can use styles smartly in graphic design and the stylings will actually function as content, augmenting the messages you're trying to communicate.

5.0 out of 5 stars Style Pedia, November 6, 2011

By 

owl love - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits (Paperback)

This is a great book written to give an accumulation of histories of different styles of art. This is perfect for the aspiring designer who wants to look to the past to see how specific styles were created and what they focused on. I've used it for a project about Push Pin Studio's style and it helped me further understand their love for textures and crazy typefaces.