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DESIGN! A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists & Craftspeople
By Steven Aimone
ISBN: 1579903495
Format: Hardcover, 176pp
Publish Date: May 2004
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Incorporated
Price: $19.95 for an autographed copy
Book sales on this website are intended for individuals only.
Bookstores and institutions should contact Sterling Publishing
at 1-800-367-9692.
From the Publisher:
Professional artists, photographers, gardeners, and even chefs and hosts trying to set a pretty table will welcome this user-friendly, handsome exploration of design principles and processes. Through hundreds of photographs, plus an accessible text, even the most abstract design concepts, such as rhythm and balance, become easy to visualize and understand. Find out how to manipulate visual elements, work within the design space, create attractive symmetrical arrangements, establish a focal point, and much more. The sheer number and variety of images that illustrate each concept make it possible for even the most design-challenged beginner to visualize the principles and put them into practice. Examples of good design range from ceramics, jewelry, architecture, and painting to clothing design, hair styling, gardening, sushi, and vintage movie posters. Plenty of easy yet imaginative guided exercises allow you to experiment with each new principle on the spot. Every page offers delight, inspiration, and instruction.
CUSTOMER REVIEWS:
A must have reference for any artist., September 20, 2004
"This book is informative and inspirational. Each page was like a light bulb experience. Steven is generous with his knowledge and talent. This book is a great reference for all artists. One of the best books I have bought!"
-- Lynette S. De Kok (Melbourne, Australia)
Praise for DESIGN!, May 12, 2004
"What I noticed first in DESIGN! were the many beautiful color photos of art on virtually every page. As a fiber artist (with works in the book), I especially appreciate how comprehensive the book is in representing all arts and crafts media. The text is thorough, readable, and complete with design exercises. I recommend DESIGN! wholeheartedly to artists, teachers, and any readers who enjoy the visual arts."
-- Renie Breskin Adams (DeKalb, IL USA)
A well-rounded design book, May 1, 2004
"This book was so inspiring. It got me thinking of how design plays a part in so many aspects of my life. Now when I set a table or plant additional flowers in my garden or paint an abstract painting, I have lots of helpful ideas about what would make these projects successful. I think this book is for everyone, not just artists or designers."
-- A reader, posted on Amazon.com
Excellent resource and great looking book!, April 26, 2004
"This book not only looks great, it is beautifully written, full of real information and amazing examples all types of design. I would recomend it highly and have learned much more that I would have imagined. The visuals really cover the gamet, from architecture to haircuts and tons of art and fine craft."
-- A reader, posted on Amazon.com
Excellent Resource, April 26, 2004
"I found this book to be a great resource that is clear and easy to understand. I even learned a few new things...and I've been an art director for almost 10 years."
-- A reader, posted on Amazon.com
Met the author - loved the book, March 20, 2004
"I saw the proof copy of this book before it was available. As an art teacher, I am always looking for an inspirational book for my high school students. I plan to use this book as a text for my art Fundamentals Class- it is perfect. Very visual, enough text but not too much. Aimone has finally written the design book I have needed."
-- A reader, posted on Amazon.com
MAGAZINE REVIEWS:
FIBERARTS, 2004
"Geared toward novices and artists alike, this book is a wonderful introduction to design, as well as a refresher course on common design concepts. The book is inexpensive and a great tool that’s very accessible. It is filled with examples that encompass the world of design from products to art, advertising to propaganda, hair to landscape, and food to architecture. The book is balanced in its coverage of different disciplines and has a number of stunning fiber examples. Each chapter is filled with provocative images, thoughtful explanations, and useful exercises that clarify concepts."
RAPID RIVER REVIEW, 2004
"Steven Aimone’s DESIGN! A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists and Craftspeople is one of those rare books that is just as beautifully written and illustrated on the inside as its promising cover and well-written jacket-synopsis is on the outside.
The photographs of design elements Aimone has chosen to illustrate his step-by-step approach to gaining those skills needed to put design concepts to work reflect his obviously impeccable personal taste and whimsical sense of humor.
“Want to learn more about design?” asks Aimone. “Simply stop and take a look at the world around you.” He then guides his readers to do just that, first drawing them to the next colorful page of his introduction where artist Susie Ganch’s lollipop-red sugar shoes are well heeled with shiny, solid sterling stilettos. Titled “Decadence,” they are surrounded by more examples of “Fine Art Design’ Aimone has artistically arranged for viewing pleasure: A blue/yellow/green can of red-lettered huile d’olive from France’s Riviera uses tiny yellow stars to polka-dot itself; artist Dale Broholm’s “Writer’s Cabinet” features little alphabet letters tumbling out of its solid ebony round handle to form a delightfully imperfect cascade design upon light, curly ash veneers; Yvette Smalls’ “Ancient Sengalese Twist” reveals the intricacies of ‘modern’ hair design; Kenneth Trumbauer’s whimsical floral arrangement of round, lollipop-yellow crespedia in vodka glasses in a marble-filled glass cooler delights the eye with seeming simplicity. So much richness of illustrative content arranged skillfully and artistically just on one page is only one of the muriad visual delights Aimone’s brilliant merge of text with illustration offers. In short, this is a book about design that will fulfill the wish list of the most discerning, with teaching instructions so well conceived they could invigorate even Art 101’s most bored neophytes."
-- Patrice Tappee
RubberStampMadness, 2004
"Now what? You have your rubber stamps and other supplies at the ready, but the bugaboo of creativity has its grip on you. Not to worry. A top-of-the-class book is available to move you off Square One and into creative self-expression: DESIGN! A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists & Craftspeople, by Steven Aimone.
Gorgeous in size and visual smarts, Aimone's book offers hundreds of photographs of art and design concepts and motifs in its plus-sized 176 pages, from the ubiquitous Stop sign to a Lynn Whipple collage. A discussion of rhythm, repetition (especially constructive with stamp art) and balance moves your understanding ahead with your own artistry with rubber stamps and mixed media, so you can "manipulate visual elements, work within the design space, create attractive symmetrical arrangements, establish a focal point" and inform your art with aesthetic depth, whatever your skill or experience. Disciplines include posters, ceramics, jewelry, architecture and illustration, the gamut of arts and crafts, with a section specifically on stamp art, too. The chapter on art examples and professional critiques is most valuable, a worthy model for evaluating your own efforts and honing your talent, from cards to mail art.
At $19.95 and 176 pages, DESIGN! is a worthy and beautiful volume, recommended for all. For more, visit www.aimoneartservices.com or call Sterling Publishing at (800) 367-9692."
-- Art Snyder, Contributing Editor
ACADEMIC REVIEWS:
Columbia College of Chicago, March 11, 2004
"Your book arrived in the mail today, and what a handsome thing it is! You should be very pleased with what you’ve achieved here. Too many of the books on design are focused exclusively on products (toasters, tea kettles) or on graphics (how many logos can you really look at?). It’s a very healthy and refreshing thing to encounter a book that recognizes that there is design in fine art, architecture, fashion, crafts, indeed, in all forms of artistic production. How refreshing as well to find examples drawn from art made in the recent past, rather than just the “usual suspects” (i.e. the Bauhaus and its many offspring or the Russian Constructivists). All around, a really splendid book, a pleasure to look at as well, even if I already know the elements of design.
I also showed the book to my chair, a sculptor with two degrees in design (one from ITT), whose husband is an artist who also teaches design. She’s talking about ordering the book for her class this fall, and wants her husband to see it as well, as he typically stands in front of the shelves of design books in their home and sighs, “The same old books.” Now, there’s a beautiful new on instead.
Best of luck with your work. Perhaps it’s living in what is arguably one of the most beautiful places in the United States that encourages such things! (I was at Appalachian State for a conference in the height of the fall some years ago, and will never forget how achingly lovely the area around Asheville is! I’ve long suspected that was why the folks at Black Mountain College did such good stuff.)"
-- Jeff Abell, Assistant Chair, Interdisciplinary Arts Dept., Columbia College of Chicago
Stetson University, July 2, 2004
"The fundamental concept of Steven Aimone’s Design! A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists and Craftspeople is summed up in a line from the introduction: “Design is something you encounter everywhere, every day of your life.” That principle is underscored on every page of this beautifully produced book. The book has been on my desk for the last two months, and every few days I pick it up and read through a section, stopping to explore and enjoy the images that range from hairstyles and flower arrangements to post-modern and Old Master paintings, from ceramics, quilts and garden plans to drawing, sculpture and oil paintings. The text is clear and straightforward, spare yet eloquent. The real power of the book comes in the wonderful and surprising juxtapositions of images that inform and reinforce the lessons of the text at a subliminal level.
Each section of the book proceeds logically from an overview of a specific concept to a set of examples and concluding exercises. These exercises are both pragmatic and original in the selection of materials and methods. Instructions are kept open ended, so that the exercises can be completed with readily available supplies and uncomplicated techniques. Useful suggestions (“Check your value scale by reproducing it on a black and white copier”) and mundane tools (rubber stamps, scissors, and glue) abound. The exercises could easily be adapted for classes at widely varying levels, as well as for self-instruction.
The final section of the book, “Critique,” puts into practice a method that has been tacitly invited throughout the book. Readers are invited to look at pairs of artworks and try to discern for themselves what design principles are utilized before checking their assessment against the text. The open-ended invitation could readily be expanded to other examples in a classroom setting. The final emphasis on looking as well as making points to the usefulness of this text for an audience beyond the “artists and craftspeople” it addresses directly. At a time when art history and criticism are sometimes dominated by cultural and theoretical approaches, students of these disciplines often lose out on the old-fashioned skills of visual analysis. Design provides an excellent review or remedial lesson in analytical skills that could sharpen the visual understanding of any lover of art, and also enrich his or her capacity to appreciate new aspects of the designed world."
-- Roberta Smith Favis, Chair, Art Department, Professor of Art History
-- Curator, Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection
Warren Wilson University, July 2, 2004
"I want to thank you so much for writing your wonderful book DESIGN. It is the answer to a need that we’ve had at Warren Wilson College in the art department for some time, and that is for a book that would serve as a core text for the art major. Because of the excellent range and quality of images, the extremely useful exercises, and the very readable yet challenging content of the book, we feel confident that this book will serve our art majors well in a number of their courses as well as in their art practice after they graduate. We are adopting the book as the text in our design course (which is a required course for all art majors), and should any student transfer credit for a design course taken at another institution into our program, we are still requiring that that student purchase a copy of the book for reference in other courses.
Our art historian is enthusiastic about your book because of the excellent survey of contemporary design and the range of applications included; our design teachers appreciate the explanations of concepts and the exercises and especially the simplicity of the materials required for the exercises. All of us love the book for its elegant design and spectacular images.
Thanks so much for doing such a fine job, and we look forward to having you come and speak to our classes in the future."
-- Gwen Diehn, Chair, Art Department, Warren Wilson College
