Books of the month

We receive loads of great books into the Creative department offices at Imagine Publishing, which inspire and educate. Here we take a look at the best ones that we’ve had on our desks for the last month.

Threadless
Jake Nickell
www.threadless.com/book
£16/$22.50
Threadless has been supplying amazing T-shirt designs to the world for ten years now, and this book is a visual guide to the popular designs from each year throughout the decade. It includes images of the T-shirts with their community rankings, interviews with designers and behind-the-scenes features. All in all, it’s a wonderful collector’s item for anyone into custom T-shirts. Also, watch out for an interview with the Threadless team and more information about the book in Advanced Photoshop magazine, issue 76.

Print Formats And Finishes
Edward Denison, Roger Fawcett-Tang, Jessica Glaser, Carolyn Knight, Loewy and Scott Witham
www.rotovision.com
£18/$25
This title is for print designers of all disciplines and looks at brochures, packaging, catalogues, bags and much more. It’s a showcase of the best examples of work in each of the many categories inside, which are split into formats and finishes, such as four-colour, spot colour and die cut.

How To Create A Portfolio And Get Hired
Fig Taylor
www.laurenceking.com
£20/$30
This title is aimed at students of illustration and graphic design who need to make the first steps into putting together a professional portfolio that will help them to get work after graduation. There are loads of examples as well as in-depth notes on the many different formats available, including quirkier options like greetings cards. There is also advice on networking and approaching potential clients.

Dragons’ Domain
Bob Eggleton
www.impact-books.com
£15/$23
This fantasy art title looks at how to paint and draw dragons, with plenty of history and contextual information at the start of the book. This is followed by a series of step-by-steps on how to create lots of different types of dragons from scratch. This is written from a traditional media perspective, but it can be translated to Photoshop if you use a graphics tablet and pen, instead of pen and paper.

The Visual Dictionary Of Illustration
Mark Wigan
www.avabooks.ch
£15/$25
This book is a guide to 250 common terms used in the illustration field explained simply and accompanied by fun illustrations that highlight the term being described. The words covered include famous names in illustration, genres and styles, as well as day-to-day words. You can find this handy small-sized book at almost half price on Amazon.

Beauty Retouching Techniques in Photoshop
Gry Garness
www.eureka-publishing.com
£150/235
Gry Garness has released a number of E-books in the past, focusing on her professional photographic post-production skills. This time, and for the first time, her latest guide is in the form of two DVD-ROMs. The price might seem steep, but what you get here is more than 13 hours of in-depth tuition on photo retouching, making it a much cheaper option than some training programs. There are a total of 54 tutorials, covering everything from sharpening and Dodge and Burn, to making hair shine and skin smoother. An E-book version will also be available shortly.