Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits (Paperback)

by Steven Heller (Author), Louise Fili (Author) "American poster designer Micah Wright borrows actual vintage posters and retrofits them with caustic new slogans..." (more)
Key Phrases: new typography, object poster, trade characters, Art Nouveau, United States, Push Pin (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
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.

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: 8.6 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #151,023 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 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)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Good, December 30, 2007

By	Bruno L. R. Ribeiro "brunoleo" (Brasilia, Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I recomend style pedia for simple views. If you need to study inside the design moviments, this book help you in view styles, but not to know lot about styles.

I recomend to everyone. =)

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is a great book, April 10, 2007

By	Gillian E. Salit - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

this book gives uncommon histories of graphic elements such as "screaming type" and "show-card". very helpful in terms of usage and idea generation. I highly recommend this book.