Culture is your local consensus reality; your clothing, cuisine and hairstyle, the music you listen to, the films you see; your values, ideas, beliefs and prejudices. Culture, unlike race, is not a compulsory accident of birth, but an intellectual position.Today culture has a powerful new vector: the internet. Ideas are travelling further and faster, and changing the cultural landscape like never before. In a new electronic democracy of ideas, cultural power is devolving to the creative individual. We will soon all have the means to create; we just have to decide whether it be art or bombs. In our symbol-drenched lives we desperately need a way of decoding the messages that bombard us. Cult-ure is the culmination of a decades research into why and how we communicate. Revealing how ideas are communicated through words, symbols and gestures, how such ideas gain cultural currency via the theory of the meme, cult-ure provides a thought-provoking exploration into media convergence within our digital age and an

In 1997, as George Lucas worked to complete early drafts for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace, he enlisted the talents of some of the greatest storyboard artists of the modern era to illustrate conceptual storyboards that would inform the development of the final shooting script, as well as the finished film. Working from Lucas''s ideas for scenes and sequences, these artists produced beautiful drawings that helped lay the foundations for the worlds, characters, and shots of the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. Together, these conceptual storyboards show early takes on favorite scenes; alternate, unused approaches to character designs and environments; and entirely different approaches to key moments. Like wordless comic books, they have an energy and rhythm all their own that is fascinating to explore. Now, for the first time, Lucasfilm has opened its archives to present the best of the conceptual storyboards for Episodes I, II, and III. Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel

Distinctive hand style lettering is an essential skill for artists and designers. Deftly executed hand crafted letter forms are a nearly forgotten art in an age of endless free fonts. Graffiti is one of the last reservoirs of highly refined, well practiced penmanship. The most reviled and persecuted form of Graffiti, the Tag, is seldom appreciated for the raw beauty of its skeletal letter forms. Most tags are removed immediately, and thus the casual viewer seldom has a chance to discern the difference between entry level and advanced hand styles. Within the pages of Flip the Script, author Christian Acker has systematically analyzed the best graffiti hand styles, contextualizing the work of graffiti writers from around the United States. Acker presents the various lettering samples in a clean organized format, giving the material a proper, formal treatment evoking classic typography books.

Gold and silver always incite a peculiar curiosity in humans with mesmerising glares. Unlike colours perceivable under normal light, metallic colours add lustre to surfaces as they glare even in the dimmest light. Historical uses of precious metals such as gold, silver and bronze have endowed these shiny tones with ideas, such as deity, wealth and brilliance. Advanced techniques and cheaper production costs today however require designers use metallic tones with greater sensitivity. Gold & Silver is the third of viction:ary''s colour-themed series PALETTE which singly focuses on the dynamic play of metallic ink and materials in graphical designs. Featuring a vast collection of direct mails, stationery, catalogues, events, corporate identities, etc., the title surveys how designers capture the essence of commitment, visions, valued traditions or simply the glittery appeal in the different guises of gold, silver and copper tones. Techniques include gilding, pure that are fascinating to touch and see.

Drawing on private and public archives of rare material from around the world, this heavily illustrated book presents an unrivaled collection of punk art and ephemera that incorporates every aspect of the movement, from the earliest occurrences of punk symbolism in posters and flyers for underground bands to the explosion of fanzines and Xerox culture, and from rare photographs of musicians such as the Sex Pistols and the Screamers to the artwork of Crass, Jamie Reid, John Holmstrom, and the contemporary street artist Banksy. With more than three hundred images and accompanying essays by Johan Kugelberg, Jon Savage, and William Gibson, this definitive visual narrative illustrates how the DIY ethic of the punk era inspired a movement in graphic arts and design whose influence is still felt among the most significant figures in the fields today.

Dark Stories by Dark Artists brings together exceptional dark artworks from around the world, covering the fields of illustration, visual art, products and installations in a striking and inspiring collection. We have invited these artists to tell the reader their dark stories and to create original artworks based on these stories. We reveal the inside details behind these dark artists'' creative processes, exposing unknown creative trajectories.

In the early 1960s, Robinson, an illustrator celebrated for his drawings of buildings, documented Paris in his signature style. More than forty years after its original publication, Paris, Line by Line returns to print. Page after page is filled with Robinson''s beautiful, precise drawings.

This book is a guide to the use of type in design for print and screen. It provides a creative, informative and practical introduction for those studying all pathways of graphic design. The authors discuss who uses type, where and when type is employed, audience and appropriateness of type and communication. The book includes basic information about type and its terminology, using typefaces, designing and communicating with type, colour and movement, experimentation with type and production issues. Throughout, examples are drawn from design for both print and screen. How to Use Type includes illustrated activities and case studies linked to key issues discussed in the text. This book offers an invaluable overview of an essential aspect of visual communication.

Creators'' love for black and white is a constant. Used to be the height of imaging and now a creative attitude, the austerely simple yet expressive black and white enthral designers for their stack contrast and evocative power in graphics and body of text that no other colours can attain. Black & White is an all-new edition focusing on monochromatic graphic art. Be it a brand element, an aesthetic statement or a low-cost solution, the 130 showcased print art, brand design, art installations and fashion items in this book manifest the versatility and dramatic appearance of black and white blended with photography, special printing, and sometimes shadows and light. In words and selected creative projects, the hard core of this global movement today expounds on their conscious decision to fix on this limited palette to create, despite the exhilarating colour trends and the many quality colour printing options to hand.

Pattern recognition is one of the earliest skills taught in elementary school -- both how to recognize patterns as the occur and how to predict their occurrence. Designers regularly make use of patterns to produce graphics for their clients that are at once appealing, recognizable and brand worthy. Utilizing everything from photography, geometry and typography to vintage and animal prints, a wide array of motifs is possible. Infinite Pattern includes a variety of stunning examples produced for annual reports, bags, business cards, clothing, invitations, menus, packaging, walls and more.

Shapes have long been a muse to designers of all specialties. The basic structures of quadrilaterals, circles and triangles have consistently lent their proportionate qualities to logical and stylish patterns and figures, causing them to be a focal point for artists, designers, typographers and architects for centuries. With attention to each designer''s originality and unique artistic philosophy, Geo/Graphics surveys the omnipresence and versatility of simple shapes that lead to their broad application in road signs, infographics, typefaces and architectural design. The showcase will examine how flat token shapes of space and volume are reinvented by avant garde designers around the globe, resulting in unprecendented creativity in a variety of mediums.

This volume is a tribute to the vinyl album and celebrates 101 of rock s most influential records - from The Beatles'' 1963 debut Please Please Me - through the Sex Pistols'' Never Mind the Bollocks (1977.) Alongside the big names Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac are lesser-known but highly influential artists including Laura Nyro, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Captain Beefheart and The Stooges. An essay on each album accompanies reproductions of the original vinyl cover artwork, with rare variations from around the world (including the first-ever Beatles LP, valued at $5,000, and an alternate issue of Bob Dylan s Freewheelin , worth twice that amount.) Also included are thought-provoking interviews with musicians who discuss the albums and artists who changed their lives.

This publication demonstrates that an ephemeral product like a daily newspaper is composed with great attention to details, which although visible go often unnoticed by the daily reader. Koos Staal, graphic designer, conducted over fifty redesigns of newspapers in the Netherlands, Europe and Asia. ''Paperworks NL'' is a reflection of his varied experience in linking the designer studio with the newsroom, illustrated by examples from his portfolio.

The physical book is alive and well. Under pressure in recent years from the growing prevalence of electronic formats, the book has reasserted its dominance first and foremost as a tangible object, capable of arousing our senses through the skillful interplay of materials and techniques and just a little magic. More than the sum of its content and packaging, a book has a life of its own, imbued...

Identity Suite captures the vanguard work in branding from across the globe. Here logos, letterhead, business cards and correspondence designs effectively capture the aesthetics of the products and entities they represent. The designers behind each of the 97 featured brands convey their clients'' corporate identity through stationery with deliberation and concision. An envelope becomes an attaché case, a stamp a signature. And in addition to the wide array of examples that comprise Identity Suite, the latter portion features in-depth case studies tracking seven companies'' successful ventures in brand extension through creative use of stationery. From Wanderlust, the Singapore design hotel, to S. J.C., creator of unique domestic art objects in Sweden, Identity Suite demonstrates how ephemeral concepts surrounding a brand can be harnessed and made concrete utilizing as unlikely a toolkit as the office supply closet.