Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

The Home Within Us: Romantic Houses, Evocative Rooms Review

The Home Within Us: Romantic Houses, Evocative Rooms
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The Home Within Us: Romantic Houses, Evocative Rooms ReviewThis book gives a lovely glimpse of the select output from architect Bobby McAlpine and his firms. His body of work is more akin to a talent and style not seen since the early last century with architects like Harrie Thomas Lindeberg or Mellor, Meigs & Howe. These are gracious, intricate, lovely and very inviting structures inside and out.
He's been served well by clients who must have the resources to build such structures and more importantly appreciate the stately old world feel. Not a hint of McMansion or chest-thumping loud architecture that so many homes of today sadly exude. McAlpine could design and build a dog house and I suspect it would be more visually inviting then most homes, even those of the 'well heeled', built in the last 50-years.
A comparable contemporary firm would be Fairfax & Sammons, who also have had a book issued in the last decade on their output. If you have that publication you'll certainly appreciate this one.
Some publications such as Southern Accents and Veranda have showcased his work (he's been based in Alabama) but otherwise he's not receiving the widespread accolades he deserves. Perhaps this book will change that. 'The Home Within Us' is not without some quirks - no detail accompanies the homes shown so no idea when they were built or even where they stand. Some of the pictures appear to have been sourced from prior photo shoots so sometimes the pictures themselves look dated. And perhaps a good thing as it reflects well on what he's accomplished I was hungry to see even more exterior and facade detail shots.The Home Within Us: Romantic Houses, Evocative Rooms Overview

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Downtown Chic: Designing Your Dream Home: From Wreck to Ravishing Review

Downtown Chic: Designing Your Dream Home: From Wreck to Ravishing
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Downtown Chic: Designing Your Dream Home: From Wreck to Ravishing Reviewhave spent every minute poring over my copy of DOWNTOWN CHIC since I got it , which chronicles the design evolution of Robert and Cortney Novogratz of NYC, and their seven (!) kids. It is a combination of cool ideas that work for anybody who wants to upgrade or change their living environment, and a great aspirational story from people who seem to be able to have it all. Darn them! Personally, the book really spoke to me when it constantly urges the reader out of their safety zone when it comes to home decoration. Try a bright color of paint, dare to have mismatched chairs, mix cheap pieces with your fancy stuff. And don't settle for something boring and predictable just because you are parents! Or have a heart attack if there is a scuff or a stain. There are plenty of helpful hints, like how to get rid of clutter, and while I don't really have the time or the budget to travel the world looking for design objets, finding flea market treaasures is an activity I can do close to home and on any budget. Robert and Cortney have written a fun and funny book chock full of ideas of how to have the home of your dreams, with or without lots of cash. Their ideas are easily translatable to anybody to go boldly into home improvement, letting us know where it is fine to cut corners and where it isn't. I love this book and not at all ashamed to admit I needed a kick in the butt to get my unrealized dreams about my own living space to a place where I now feel I can actually make it happen.

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Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps Review

Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps
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Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps ReviewHere's why: it's not only a great guide to what makes iPhone apps successful, but what will increasingly be the way to make successful software for any platform. Josh does a fantastic job of getting the reader into the right mindset for creating successful apps.
This is an interface, big-idea, that's why that design works book, not a coding book. Nor is it a "how to market your iPhone app book". That said, the interviews alone with designers of big important iPhone apps about how they really designed those apps is worth the price many times over.
Warning: you will probably spend more on buying apps Josh uses as examples of what he is talking about than you will on the book itself - I guess the skills he developed writing his last book, "Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders", gave him five star ability for picking great to awesome apps.
Also, while I almost never buy anymore actual paper books, this one is worth it - the color, gloss stock, painstaking layout and content structure would not be done justice as a .pdf.
I could write a longer review, but I'd rather go back to reading, re-reading, mulling and thinking about the what Josh covered in this book. Can't wait for the iPad book!Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps Overview

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Pattern Magic Review

Pattern Magic
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Pattern Magic ReviewIt has been a long time since I have found a pattern making book that I have found as exciting as this book.
Once you get beyond the basics of creating patterns that fit, commonly called slopers, what do you do with them? Most designs I see on the street, in catalogs, and in the stores are so easy to execute that the design process is not challenging at all.
But there are a few designs that have me scratching my head thinking "How did they do that?" I have taken to calling them "Pattern Puzzles." This book is full of these designs. Each one is uniquely different but beautifully illustrated and explained in anywhere from one to three page spreads. Tomoko never takes more than three pages of illustrations to show how to make even the most complex and unusual design from a fitted sloper.
I am pleased to see her using the front bodice sloper for women that I now use in my online patternmaking classes. It has one dart for the bust to the waist and one to the armscye (arm hole). In my experience this configuration for the darts provides the optimum way of achieving an accurate custom fit. I also believe it is the best sloper for visualizing how to create the lines of original designs so you can convert from a two dimensional form to a three dimensional one.
She uses a technique for evaluating pattern shapes that I have found invaluable in my teaching which is to prototype design ideas in paper so you can assemble the shape before you even touch needle and thread.
Tomoko also shares another passion of mine for developing design ideas using dress forms in scale. All the photos in this book are of the designs on a half scale manikin.
Caveat #1: These designs are unusual. If you are looking for the conventional, this is not for you. But if you step beyond "I wouldn't want to wear that" and move on to "What can I learn from this pattern design technique," I believe you will increase your pattern design skills exponentially.
Caveat #2: There are no sewing instructions. I would recommend when you try these ideas out you do what Tomoko does and try them in scale first. If you don't have a scale dress form, fashion dolls such as the ones Tomoko works with are an excellent medium to experiment with.
Bravo Tomoko--I can hardly wait until your volume 2 is translated into English. Although your illustrations are so clear, I am almost tempted to get the Japanese edition.
Don McCunn
Author of How to Make Sewing PatternsPattern Magic Overview

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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality Review

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality ReviewWhen I started reading Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky, I had grand hopes. I wanted this book to single-handedly pick my ideas off the dusty shelf in my brain and turn them into million-dollar businesses (or something like that). Maybe that is a little extreme, but I was instantly drawn to this book because I have a hard time making my ideas happen. I suppose I was looking for inspiration and a hidden secret on how to turn any old idea into something of functioning brilliance.
Of course, no book can accomplish that. But Making Ideas Happen is probably going to change my life. Here's the thing. This book is not filled with flowery prose or motivational stories meant to get you off your butt. Instead, this is a college course in taking your idea somewhere. Belsky mines the experiences of a lot of visionary people who all have one thing in common, they were able to make their ideas happen.
If you are still in love with the idea of your idea, you are going to want to get over that pretty quickly. The idea is not the thing, Belsky argues, the execution is the thing. Ideas flow freely, while doing something about them takes a lot of hard work and focus. Making Ideas Happens spends most of its time talking about the nuts and bolts on exactly how you can bring your idea to reality. Warning, it is not easy. Things will stand in your way. Heck, you will get in your own way. You will need great passion and determination. If you can muster those things, then the tips in this book will serve you well. If you just want to be creative all day, well Belsky has advice for that to, get a partner who is a doer.
Scott Belsky argues that you need three things to make any idea happen. He says, "you just need to modify your organizational habits, engage a broader community, and develop your leadership capability."
Getting Organized
If you ever want to move your ideas forward, you need to figure out how to organize them and then how to manage the process of working on them. Belsky spends a lot of time talking about how to manage tasks better. His suggested system involves three main categories, Action Steps, References, and Backburners. One of the problems with ideas is that they hit you at the most inconvenient times. You need a place to store new ideas while you move ahead on current ones.
Belsky suggests that you take a project-based approach to making ideas happen. Each major idea should be a project. Each project should have action steps (the things you currently need to do to move the idea forward), references (the information that feeds the idea but is not necessarily action oriented), and backburners (things for future consideration). Belsky and his team at Behance have actually developed a task management system that incorporates these ideas. It is called the Action Method, and I am currently using it with great success. Look for a review on it soon.
Being organized is the first step toward execution. Creative people have a tendency to flit about from one thing to the next. When a new idea strikes, we leave off on an old one. With a project based approach and a way to organize and create action steps around an idea, you can stay focused and stay creative at the same time.
Collaboration
The next major piece of making ideas happen is collaboration. Belsky argues that all good ideas need a team to move them to completion. I am sure you can find examples where this was not true, but Belsky has great examples of when this was true. Teams make more progress than individuals.
In the book, Belsky spends a lot of time explaining the importance of collaboration. One of the surprising benefits he brings up is skepticism. Having someone on hand to thoroughly vet your idea, to poke it to see if it holds water, is actually a very good thing. One of the best things you can do to make ideas happen, it seems, is to kill the bad ideas quickly.
Of course, there is a lot more that collaboration can get you. When you can get more people than just you excited about your idea, you can take it places. Layer that on top of your ability to organize your idea into a linear project, and you will soon be moving quickly toward final execution on your idea.
Another thing that Belsky brings up is the dynamic of the dreamer and the doer. If you are the dreamer, it may be in your best interest to find a doer to partner with so you can take your idea to market. A dreamer is creative and challenges the status quo. A doer may not see the big picture as well, but they sure can see all the little details needed to get the job done. Gary Vaynerchuk shares similar advice, and this is something that I personally (as a dreamer) have been pondering for a while. Dreamers are sometimes afraid of doers, because they think that they will have to compromise their dream. However, without a doer, sometimes their dream will never see the light of day.
Be the Leader
Finally, to bring your ideas to fruition, you need to step up to the plate and lead. You lead yourself first, by getting organized. Then you create excitement around your idea and build a team. To keep that team motivated and moving your idea forward, you must learn how to work with them, to make them feel important to the process. In the last part of the book, Belsky gives a lot of advice (again, taken from people who have had great success) on how to lead.
There is one big twist in Belsky's advice on leadership. For the most part, this section of the book could be in any leadership or management manual. But Belsky always ties it back to the idea. The idea is the engine that makes everything else possible. So when you lead, you are not doing it as a fancy-pants CEO. You are doing it as the person with the idea, and you are instilling passion every step of the way. Earlier, I pointed out that execution is the thing, not ideas. This is true, but in the end, good execution needs a great idea.
This book is for you:
If you have a great idea (or ideas) but can't get it off the ground
If you are already working on your ideas and want to execute better
If you need to learn a better way to manage tasks and organize projects (read the first part of the book)
If you want to create a dynamic team that buys in to your idea 110%
If you want to enable your team to get more done and achieve more creative resultsMaking Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality Overview

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Privacy and Big Data Review

Privacy and Big Data
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Privacy and Big Data ReviewI found this book a real eye-opener. It is more than likely a quick read if you purchased the paperback, but I had the digital version (94 pages), in which all references (and there are a lot of references) are clickable. Which makes it too easy to get lost in all additional information. I think most of us, in our haste to "get to the content", rationalize that it is only an email, birthday, or zipcode and that's no big deal. If we only knew what was really going on. That is where this book comes in, in a big way. I feel that Terrence and Mary did a great job in presenting the "facts", each covering their share of a wide spectrum of (global) opinions, in respect to their own views. They actually share their own point of view at the end of the book, which an attentive reader would catch a hints of throughout the book. As for me, I was too caught up in disbief in how our data is actually being used. I can see why it's an absolute gold mine for big businesses, governments and the like. The Internet truly is the modern version of the wild, wild west, and though there are those who would try to regulate it, there is just too much data already out there. In fact, both authors are pretty much in agreement on this point, "Once your information is out there, it is too hard to control who uses it, and what it's really used for..." (paraphrased). I would say this is a great read, I loved it, and it leaves me wanting more (information, that is). At the very least, the readers of this book will be MORE aware.Privacy and Big Data Overview

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MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site Review

MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site
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MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site ReviewI wish I had this book when I first set out to design a MediaWiki skin for my own wiki. It would have saved me so much time and trouble. Nothing like this existed to my knowledge when I set out to make my skins. Documentation is often the weakest link in the open source community. This book fills an important gap that should democratize MediaWiki even more, making it more appealing to a wider swath of the web population.
The book follows my favorite format for a technical guide, taking the reader step by step through an example that resembles the kind of thing you'd want to do in real life. It breaks down everything thoroughly with plenty of pictures. Topics covered include not only CSS but also MediaWiki PHP functions that are integrated into a MediaWiki skin. As a bonus, there is information on adding on some of the latest widgets that Web 2.0 has to offer, from thickbox to twitter. To make your skin a real professional class act, you can even learn exactly how to use licensing and copyright options and exactly how to make your skin printer friendly. If you're going to be spending any time messing with MediaWiki skin design, and you're like me and don't have time to spend hours spinning your wheels, do yourself a favor and get a copy of this book.MediaWiki Skins Design: Designing attractive skins and templates for your MediaWiki site Overview

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