Review: 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs
 by: [email protected]

All graphic and print designers, professional or amateur, need a spot of inspiration now and then to let out the more innovative and creative ideas. Just imagine a world where graphic and print designers come up with monotonous and boring creations that’s terribly lacking in entertainment and flares of excitement.

There are certain details in graphic and print designing that contribute greatly for a designer to come up with sensational masterpieces. In fact, too often, the small and delightful details are what make a design piece shine. Even in practical everyday life, let’s say a unique button on a white shirt gives the shirt an entirely new look or a piece of artwork in a sparse wall makes the wall less dull. These examples only show that minuscule details add in making the whole effect of something, perfect. This concept is very much applicable in the field of graphic and print design.

This was the concept Wilson Harvey wants to emphasize in his book, 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs. In this book, Harvey explores 1,000 of these added extras, details that are diminutive but important, made available for graphic and print designers. We are saying “made available” because the book has exacting photography that focuses on these details, accompanied by credits and outlining the vendors and materials used. The content of the book is organized by type. Looking for unusual bindings? Well, dig into the bindings section of 1,000 Graphic Elements Special Details for Distinctive Designs and open your mind for a wide collection of fresh ideas.

Designers handling all kinds of projects – books to brochures, invitations to menus, CDs to annual reports will have interesting reference from this book. Actually, it even invites them to literally shop for ideas. If you’re a print designer, you would be familiar with many techniques, but this book makes you see interesting variations of what you know and see them used on a myriad of different projects.

Wilson Harvey, a London-based integrated designer in a marketing agency that focuses on producing high-end communication for a wide range of clients, showed refreshing and contemporary work in this book. It goes without saying since Harvey has already designed more than 500 books for a variety of publisher, his experience outshone some other design books which drag out old projects.

Other topics covered include fasteners, graphics, unique materials, embossing, debossing, specialty inks, type treatments, interesting color usage, add-ons, die cuts and more. The index lists stock and materials used for each project are also very good. To sum it up, if you are a designer who loves print/finishes – unusual finishes, at that, then this book is for you.

About The Author

Lala B. is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns -- imagined and observed, to bear witness.

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