Looking Closer 5

The final installment in this acclaimed series offers astute and controversial discussions on contemporary graphic design from 2001 to 2005. This collection of essays takes stock of the quality and profundity of graphic design writing published in professional and general interest design magazines, as well as on blogs and Internet journals. Prominent contributors include Milton Glaser, Maud Lavin, Ellen Lupton, Victor Margolin, Mr. Keedy, David Jury, Alice Twemlow, Steven Heller, Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel, Michael Bierut, Michael Dooley, Nick Curry, Emily King, and more. Among the important themes discussed: design as popular culture, design as art, politics, aesthetics, social responsibility, typography, the future of design, and more. Students, graphic designers beginning their careers, and veterans seeking fresh perspective will savor this anthology gathered from some of today’s top graphic design writers and practitioners, as well as commentators from outside the profession. From the series that helped launch the design criticism movement and was the first to anthologize graphic design criticism from key sources, this volume promises to be the most provocative of all! Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Looking Closer 2 offers more of the best recent writing on graphic design, covering new and important issues in design language, education, intellectual property, new media, the state of the business, and the place of design in society. The collection presents a stimulating look at how design issues are affected by and affecting changes in contemporary culture. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

“Wildly entertaining.”—New York Times Book Review From the bestselling and award-winning author comes a wickedly clever and fast-paced novel of greed, revenge, obsession—and quite possibly the perfect murder. Simon and Vicky couldn’t seem more normal: a wealthy Chicago couple, he a respected law professor, she an advocate for domestic violence victims. A stable, if unexciting marriage. But one thing’s for sure: absolutely nothing is what it seems. The pair are far from normal, and one of them just may be a killer. When the body of a beautiful socialite is found hanging in a mansion in a nearby suburb, Simon and Vicky’s secrets begin to unravel. A secret whirlwind affair. A twenty-million-dollar trust fund about to come due. A decades-long grudge and obsession with revenge. These are just a few of the lies that make up the complex web... and they will have devastating consequences. And while both Vicky and Simon are liars, just who exactly is conning who? Part Gone Girl and part Strangers on a Train, Look Closer is a wild rollercoaster of a read that will have you questioning everything you think you know.

The most stimulating installment yet in the acclaimed Looking Closer series! This enthralling collection of essays assembles some of the most intriguing critical commentary published in professional and general interest design magazines from 1997 to 2000. Over thirty contributors, including Rick Poynor, Kathy McCoy, Lorraine Wild, Veronique Vienne, Jessica Helfand, and others discuss such important contemporary themes as the rise and fall of the dot.coms and its influence on salary expectations, the ongoing controversy over the First Things First Manifesto, the call for greater responsibility in the design profession, and the antibranding protests that ignited demonstrations during recent World Trade Organization meetings. From current events to design principles, and aesthetics to ethics, graphic designers everywhere will savor this anthology of fresh perspective. Allworth Press, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, publishes a broad range of books on the visual and performing arts, with emphasis on the business of art. Our titles cover subjects such as graphic design, theater, branding, fine art, photography, interior design, writing, acting, film, how to start careers, business and legal forms, business practices, and more. While we don't aspire to publish a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are deeply committed to quality books that help creative professionals succeed and thrive. We often publish in areas overlooked by other publishers and welcome the author whose expertise can help our audience of readers.

Capture your subjects on paper like never before. Look Closer, Draw Better will transform the way you see the subjects of your artwork, lighting the way with practical techniques in a range of mediums. Are you looking to make a leap in the quality of your artwork? Are you looking for new perspectives on the art of drawing? Or maybe you want to bring more poetry and presence to your work. Look Closer, Draw Better will help you reach your goals with projects that explore graphite, charcoal, ink, and watercolor wash, emphasizing techniques that Kateri Ewing has refined over years of practice and teaching. Ewing teaches by training your eye to see subjects clearly in contour, line, and shadow, while you learn to make marks with tools that are expressive of what we really see. Her focus is on nature—birds, flowers, and plants that can be closely observed. Discover the techniques for capturing the delicacy of feathers, the natural blemishes on a piece of fruit, the veins and velvety texture of a leaf—all the tiny details that enhance the realistic quality of a drawing. Ewing takes you carefully through every step. Let Look Closer, Draw Better inspire and transform your artistic eye.

Ever since Tegan's father died while serving overseas, she's been numb. She quit the swim team, and without her best friend around to distract her, the weight of her father's death feels like it will crush her. Then one morning random letters are circled on her cereal box, letters which spell a name. Teagan doesn't know what to make of it, but tracks down that boy—only to witness him commit suicide. Teagan is devastated. But when she meets Edge, a friend of the dead boy, at least someone seems to understand how she feels. Except she sees another name...and another. And a pattern forms. Together, Teagan and Edge set out to find those people, to try to save them from their fate. With a renewed purpose, Tegan is determined to save lives that summer, just like her father used to. But can she save herself?

Kevin Spacey is considered one of the most talented thespians of his generation. Voted Greatest Actor of the Nineties by Empire Magazine, placed third in a 2001 FilmFour poll of the hundred greatest-ever movie stars, he is a double Oscar winner and has been equally successful on the stage, being appointed Artistic Director of Londons Old Vic Theatre in 2003. Yet like his most famous screen character, Keyser Sze, he has remained a shadowy and mysterious figure, notoriously protective of his private relationships and giving few intimate interviews. Looking Closer, the first published biography of Spacey, explores the background and career of this enigmatic man.

In recent years, the media landscape in the United States has followed a pattern similar to that of the physical landscape by becoming increasingly suburbanized. Although it is a far cry from reality, the fantasy of a perfect suburban life still exists in the collective imagination of millions of Americans. This dream of suburban perfection is built around a variety of such ideologically conservative values and ideals as the importance of tradition, the centrality of the nuclear family, the desire for a community of like-minded neighbors, the need for clearly defined gender roles, and the belief that with hard work and determination, anyone can succeed. Building on the relationships between suburban life and American identity, Look Closer examines and interprets recent narratives that challenge the suburban ideal to reveal how directors and producers are mobilizing the spaces of suburbia to tell new kinds of stories about America. David R. Coon argues that the myth of suburban perfection, popularized by postwar sitcoms and advertisements, continues to symbolize a range of intensely debated issues related to tradition, family, gender, race, and citizenship. Through close examinations of such films as American Beauty, The Truman Show, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith as well as such television series as Desperate Housewives, Weeds, and Big Love, the book demonstrates how suburbia is used to critique the ideologies that underpin the suburban American Dream.