From scrolls and sheets of papyrus to elaborate and expensive codices to the mass press-printed volumes as we know them today, books have come a long way since writing was first developed. Although digital technology has impacted how we consume information over the last few decades, book design has survived as a means of showcasing creativity and craftsmanship, as books remain important sources of inspiration, knowledge, and entertainment. A Book on Books showcases some of the best book design work from all over the world in celebrating the designers' contributions to preserving reading culture, as they continue to make books eye-catching and exciting to read or own. It also captures the voices of key influencers from publishing, printmaking, book fair organizing, and bookshop-owning standpoints, as they continue to play a crucial role in keeping the book-making industry alive and thriving even in the unknown future.

Design is a growing and important field these days. Of course, in order excel as a designer, you need to be deeply in touch with your creativity. Being a designer involves looking at something a different way from how everyone else looks at it. But just how do you learn to do that? And what do you know when you're a creative person, but your creative juices just aren't flowing? That's where the advice of The Design Book: A Guide Book for Designers comes in. A Design Book is actually a two-volume collection including two very popular books on creativity and innovation by acclaimed business author Can Akdeniz. The set includes Go Nuts: The Art of Creativity and Innovation and Kill the Normal: The Secrets of Revolutionary Designs.

Discover the key ideas, innovations, and breakthroughs in the history of design. The perfect introduction to the subject, this book explores and explains the big ideas and key principles behind more than 90 of the world's most celebrated design concepts and movements, placing each in their historical, cultural, and stylistic context. The Design Book analyzes the ideas and principles behind history's most pioneering designs, exploring how creativity and innovation shape our lives. Tracing the evolution of design from its roots in early manufacturing to the cutting-edge concepts of the 21st-century, entries profile the individuals and manufacturers behind each groundbreaking development, and explore their influences and inspirations. Illustrating how and why different styles emerged and became popular, the book provides a fascinating insight into design movements, showing how each one began and describing its philosophy and visual style, from the Aesthetic Movement to Mid-Century Modern and Contemporary. Using the Big Ideas series' trademark combination of clear explanation, witty infographics, and inspirational quotes, The Design Book explains what makes a truly great design and reveals the hidden stories behind the designed world.

This guide provides a simple, step-by-step process to better design. Techniques promise immediate results that forever change a reader's design eye. It contains dozens of examples.

The follow-up book to Workbenches: From Design & Theory to Construction & Use Complete plans, expert instruction and rationale for building nine workbench formsInstruction on improving existing workbenches for better workholding and an improved woodworking shop. The Workbench Design Book not only shows how to design a workbenchâ€"it also discusses and presents nine specific designs plus critiques of 10 additional workbenches, with suggestions for making any bench work most effectively for the kind of work the user does. The 9 workbench plans have a range suitable for all workshop needs, from handwork to power tools. A discussion of workbench design rules teach what's effective and why in a multitude of workshop situations. Additional workholding optionsâ€"from shop-made jigs and commercial bench dogs to vise hardwareâ€"are also provided.

This book introduces the concept of worth for design teams, relates it to experiences and outcomes, and describes how to focus on worth when researching and expressing design opportunities for generous worth. Truly interdisciplinary teams also need an appropriate common language, which was developed in the companion book Worth-Focused Design, Book 1: Balance, Integration, and Generosity (Cockton, 2020a). Its new lexicon for design progressions enables a framework for design and evaluation that works well with a worth focus. Design now has different meanings based upon the approach of different disciplinary practices. For some, it is the creation of value. For others, it is the conception and creation of artefacts. For still others, it is fitting things to people (beneficiaries). While each of these design foci has merits, there are risks in not having an appropriate balance across professions that claim the centre of design for their discipline and marginalise others. Generosity is key to the best creative design—delivering unexpected worth beyond documented needs, wants, or pain points. Truly interdisciplinary design must also balance and integrate approaches across several communities of practice, which is made easier by common ground. Worth provides a productive focus for this common ground and is symbiotic with balanced, integrated, and generous (BIG) practices. Practices associated with balance and integration for worth-focused generosity are illustrated in several case studies that have used approaches in this book, complementing them with additional practices.