The Designer’s Graphic Stew is a graphic design book I have been kindly given and asked to review. I checked with the company that gave it to me to make sure that were happy that I give my honest opinion and they said they were so here goes -
What is Graphic Stew
Graphic Stew is a book which basically breaks up design elements that you would have on the printed page and shows you lots of different things you can do with them. For example there are pages devoted to possible grid systems, colour pallettes, typeface combinations and options amongst many other items. At the beginning of the book there is also a very good grounding into page layout and good composition that would be ideal for newbies.
First Impressions of Graphic Stew
I have to admit my first impressions of Graphic Stew were not good. The cover was ok but inside the layout and style is very dated, I am not sure if this is intentional as they are playing on the idea of a menu or recipe book. I even turned to look at the first print date as I expected it to be the nineties – but read on the content was better than the look.
What’s Good about the Graphic Stew Design Book
Are you ever working on a design and get stuck in a rut with your layout or trying to get something to look a bit different then Graphic Stew could help you be a little bit more experimental. I know personally that layout for layouts sake is not my favourite thing (I prefer conceptial work) so when a client gives me some text and a few pics I sometimes sit and sketch and think ummm… what can I do different with it this time. This is where Graphic Stew could come in handy, perhaps for a bit of inspiration for a way I could use typography for a blown quote or a heading maybe using a leading symbol or an abstract background. The elements in Graphic Stew may not be works af art (or to be copied directly) in themselves but there to stimulate your creative brain to try out new things. Those small things that can make a difference to your design work are covered too – like different ways of styling folios on your pages.
Graphic Design Examples in Graphic Stew
Nearer the back of the Graphic Stew book are actual pieces of design work with an explanation to the layouts. This is a bit of a mixed bag again, with some of the work looking quite dated.
Should you buy Graphic Stew
If you want a graphic design book which is something you can flick through when you are stuck for what to do on a page layout this book is well worth checking out. If however you are looking for a graphic design book with beautiful typography and imagery this is not the book for you.
Examples of page indexing
Examples of page grids
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12 Comments
A good market for this book would be colleges. You said it early on – its newbie material, “required reading” as they call it.
Maybe they should make it for the iPad but interactive like turning on/off grid systems or interactively changing the fonts. Oh I’m getting ahead of myself
Good honest review.
Hi Jae
I think you could have just come up with a cool ipad app!
I’d buy it.
Thanks
Tara
Believe me! I’d love to learn how to program iPad apps. I’ll put it on my list of things to learn in the next year.
Nice and honest review.
Do you know whats the retail price is and where to get it?
Hi the link takes you through to Amazon UK, but the price depends which country you are buying it from – we always seem to pay a bit more in the UK
Hey Tara, a really nicely done review. Interesting to note that you asked the publishers if you could be honest..which is, uh, very honest of you!! Hahaa! I´m not sure I´d buy the book, but agree with the others that maybe it should be required reading for colleges and universities. It is always disappointing to see a graphic design book set out badly though – doesn´t really say much for the whole concept they´re trying to teach really does it!
Hi Franky
If someone asks me to review something and I am not 100% positive I would prefer to check if they are happy for me to write it or I would rather write nothing at all. I am not prepared to say I like something when I don’t however if someone has given me something for free I feel at least I should give them the option for me to write nothing rather than a mediocre/bad review.
Tara, for a graphic design book, it appears, how should I say, a little “1960s textbook-ish?” Rather blah, to the point and boring! Thanks for the review.
To be fair – I think it looks dated to but it has got some good content.
I’ve been looking for a ‘technical’ book that goes back to basics for a while – this could be it – thanks!
Looks like a great book to learn and use for a resource. I am having a friend of mine design my logo and I was wondering about it. I want it in Graffiti but I wonder if it will be too out there for people to recognize it. I want it to look cool but not like everybody.
Hi Hilary
Its always difficult to get the right look for a logo – you don’t want it to “out there” or modern as you want it to have some longevity