Hoaki Books

Learn to paint delicate floral compositions in watercolour - step by step, with gentle guidance designed to build your confidence.

Whether you're new to watercolor or returning to it, this creative workbook helps you overcome common fears and frustrations. Through clear instructions, pre-drawn outlines, and practice pages, you'll explore how to manage water flow, control pigment concentration, and experiment with transparency and contrast—all essential to successful watercolor painting.

With encouragement from artist Anne-Claire Duval-Dumas, you'll paint roses, poppies, orchids, sweet peas, frangipani flowers, foliage, and more, all while developing your brushwork and finding your own rhythm. Even if you think, “I can’t draw” or “I’ll never get it right,” this book shows you otherwise.

Printed on high-quality watercolor paper, each sheet is easy to remove so your finished artwork can be framed, gifted, or kept. The pad format invites you to practice freely, explore creatively, and enjoy the meditative pleasure of painting nature - one brushstroke at a time.

Step into the expressive world of artist Elena Mompó with this stunning reverse coloring book, where bold brushstrokes and radiant florals invite your creativity to bloom.

Unlike traditional coloring books, these pages come alive with vibrant watercolors—rich in movement, emotion, and color. Your role is to respond: add lines, trace shapes, sketch patterns, or weave in delicate details of your own.

Each spread is an open invitation to slow down and explore, whether you outline petals, build abstract forms, or layer textures into Elena’s loose, painterly compositions. With no rules and endless possibilities, this is art as meditation, play, and mindful expression; a gentle practice in presence, creativity, and connection with yourself.

Printed on high-quality drawing paper, the book is ideal for pens, pencils and fine markers. Perfect for artists of all levels, it offers a fresh, intuitive way to connect with color, form, and your own imagination.

A must-read for graphic design students and pros, this in-depth guide unlocks the power of negative space and typography in logos through the exploration of seven core design mechanisms to craft memorable, impactful logotypes and monograms that engage, inspire, and endure

This comprehensive guide to logo design with negative space is aimed at graphic design students and professionals who want to master the art of creating memorable, impactful logos. The book goes beyond surface aesthetics to explore design mechanism — the underlying creative forces that make logos resonate visually and cognitively. Focusing primarily on logotypes and monograms, the book underscores typography’s vital role in shaping logos that are both simple and unforgettable. It encourages designers to meticulously explore every detail of letters, fonts, and names, showing how the intelligent use of negative space enhances recognition and storytelling within a logo. Through careful analysis of both professional and student work, readers gain insight into how principles like Gestalt theory and cognitive disfluency can be harnessed to craft logos that engage viewers and leave a lasting impression. This guide rejects decorative, superficial logo design in favor of an approach rooted in thoughtful exploration and artistic rigor. The author introduces seven core design mechanisms that provide practical frameworks for transforming abstract ideas into visually compelling logos. Among these is the innovative application of Karl Rosenkranz’s Aesthetics of Ugliness, which challenges designers to embrace imperfection and asymmetry as tools for creating logos with unique visual impact and emotional depth. Organized around key themes such as the challenge of novelty in negative space logos, designing a synergized logotype, how the orientation of the logo provides direction, and articulating ambiguity and the playful use of numbers, the book offers rich insights into the anatomy of letterforms, strategic use of negative space, and the art of crafting logos that tell multiple stories. Designed for those who seek to push the boundaries of logo design, this book empowers readers with the mindset, knowledge, and tools needed to create logos that go beyond mere decoration — ones that engage, inspire, and endure.

Let Colour Inspire You—You Bring the Lines, the Story, the Magic

Unfold the magic of this one-of-a-kind art pad, where each watercolor painting is a starting point for your own creative expression. Flip open the right-hand pad to reveal colorful animals and natural scenes—flamingos, cats, crocodiles, trees, and more—ready for your lines, patterns, and marks.

Attached to the left cover is your Creative Companion, filled with ideas and inspiration to get you started. Whether you're new to drawing or just want a fresh spark, this gentle guide offers suggestions to help you explore shapes, textures, and rhythms as you respond to the art.

With original artwork printed on high-quality drawing paper, this interactive book is a joyful space for mindful play, spontaneous sketches, and artistic discovery.

New Fashion Boutique Design is a practical and inspirational illustrated volume that gathers examples of some of the most exclusive boutiques and stores in the world and introduces the latest trends in shop design, an area where fashion and creativity merge to deliver a unique shopping and branding experience. From luxury designer stores and exclusive boutiques to shoe shops, this comprehensive volume provides useful insights into international retail architecture and comprehensive information on the featured projects. Fashion stores are no longer mere places that one enters simply with the intention of purchasing products. Shops have also become venues for events, stages for exciting performances, and sometimes even landmarks. Likewise, retail spaces have become statements that celebrate designer labels and their products and offer multiple opportunities to engage with the brand and its values. They tell stories and communicate the philosophy, values, and responsibilities of a company. A range of these grand stages has been captured in New Shop Design, which offers ideas, solutions, and different approaches to product presentation across its 240 colorful and inspiring pages.

This book is a selection of projects from across the world in which the graphic signage system stands out not only for its meticulous form but its unmistakable illustrative function. Public spaces where a large number of people need to find their way such as auditoriums, airports, museums, hotels, shopping centers and offices require a good orientation system to handle and facilitate the circulation of these people, in addition to ensuring easy accessibility. Signage must achieve this objective to ensure the result is effective, intelligible to everyone and aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Matters such as scale, volume, position, colors and materials used to build the signage will be determined by the type of equipment or office while graphic communication elements will reflect and be adapted to the client’s identity. Symbols, fonts, pictograms, arrows, optical effects and other resources are used here in a multitude of surprising, suggestive and varied ways that will not fail to grab readers’ attention, presenting them with an extensive range of ideas in which to find inspiration.

Both inspirational and practical, Black and White Graphics showcases the appealing impact of using monochrome color schemes in the field of graphic design, and it presents an international collection of work that makes clear the capabilities of black, white, and gray. The posters, publications, labels, corporate communications, and other projects selected show that this achromatic combination can, at the same time as keeping a project’s budget to a minimum, elevate the value of graphic design, facilitate communication, and enhance the project’s dramatic effect by limiting design elements to those which are absolutely necessary. For black is not simply black, and white is not only white. There are endless possibilities that lie between the two, within the infinite palette of grays. In fact, black and white make for a timeless combination of colors that has been a popular choice for graphic designers for years. Simple, vintage, and sometimes elegant, black and white are the colors that capture viewers’ attention by simply reducing colors to the basics and therefore leading the focus back to the visual message that a graphic design tries to express.

The ADG Laus Awards are Spain’s most prestigious annual prizes in graphic design and communication. They recognize the best projects from over fifty sections that are divided into five categories: Graphic Design, Digital, Advertising, Audiovisual, and Student. To celebrate the awards, this book provides a current overview of the design world’s talent, innovation, excellence, and conceptual and formal quality. This volume is divided in two parts. The first pays homage, through extensive profiles, to two icons: Enric Aguilera, the recipient of the Honorary Laus in recognition of his career in graphic design and art direction, and Camper, which won the Laus Companies & Institutions award for this global brand’s support for all aspects of design. The second part documents this year’s Grand Laus awards, which recognized some particularly extraordinary projects in the Student and Audiovisual categories. It also covers the Aporta awards, which pay tribute to projects that have an especially significant impact on society. Finally, on the other side of the book, readers will find all the winners of Laus Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards.

Photographing Barcelona is the essential book for photography-loving readers who are eager to discover the best tricks and techniques for photographing the city of Barcelona with professional results. Use of light and shadow, lighting at different times of the day, framing, and locations are described in detail in order to capture the most photogenic corners of the city and its architecture. The book features both places of interest for visitors and secret spots intended to be discovered by Barcelona's residents themselves. With images taken at different times of day and advice from a professional photographer, photography enthusiasts will find in this book a reliable guide of where to go and what time to capture the best memories.

Discover the great pleasure and fun of watercoloring with this great tutorial that reveals the techniques to master this medium and bring your creativity to the top, whether you have some expertise or are an amateur watercolorist.

Day by day through a whole year, A Watercolour a Day provides fun tips and useful methods that will show you how to play with shadows and lights and layer glazes to produce your own beautiful hues, create textures, and enhance particular features. This book opens the door to a new way of observing your surroundings and enjoying art and life, making the most of every moment. By the end of this book, you will have incorporated watercoloring into your daily life, and you will be well-equipped to start using these techniques in your portraits, landscapes, interiors, still lives, or abstract patterns and will feel completely at ease designing compositions and painting in situ.

Oscar Asensio is an experienced editor specializing in architecture and interior, industrial, and furniture design as well as healthy living, beauty, and fine art books. He has worked for a wide number of international publishers and his books have been translated into many languages.

An inspirational and beautifully illustrated book that pushes novel fashion designers and students to create their own capsule collections—a fashion collection based on one single design concept. Through these creations the reader will learn the necessary elements that any collection should have and how it should be presented in a portfolio. The techniques used in the book range from watercolour to collage, as well as digital tools. Creating a collection is a process that requires much thought and organization, with different steps to be considered. First of all, it is necessary to find a concept, a theme that structures the designs of the collection and from which the creations are developed. It follows a moodboard, an inspirational collage formed by images, text and samples of materials prior to the design of the collection, which then leads to the actual drawing using the illustration technique of one’s choosing. This is a book from which aspiring fashion designers will be able to draw the inspiration and skills needed to launch their own collection by the renowned illustrator Claudia Ausonia Palazio presenting sixteen examples of capsule collections, each with a different concept and rendered using various illustration techniques. 

Be inspired by this new, full-colour, redesigned edition featuring a vast range of fashion details for professionals and students

This redesigned and full-colour second edition by best-selling author Elisabetta Drudi is an inspirational sourcebook of the drawing techniques required to render fashion details. It contains all the knowledge required to make accurate technical drawings of all imaginable variations of collars, pleats, flounces, gathers, drapes and necklines, and it includes 4,000 original fashion drawings. This title offers an extended, topic-by-topic guide to acquiring and perfecting the skills needed to produce realistic and precise fashion plates that accurately reflect a designer’s creative vision. The volume’s breadth of information and attention to detail make this worldwide bestseller an invaluable resource for designers, illustrators, artists, students and anyone who enjoys fashion design.

This book is an essential and practical tool for designing and creating fashion accessories for men and women. Intended for fashion students and professionals, the book includes different pattern techniques for each accessory and explains production processes so that readers can incorporate them into their professional practice, in addition to identifying and providing the information needed to recreate a wide range of accessory models. It includes descriptions of materials, examples of patterns and designs and different possible finishes through illustrations, photographs, technical drawings and texts that clearly explain the production process of each artisanal and industrial piece. As items that provide personality and originality to one’s personal style, fashion accessories have become essential to completing the “look” for each occasion. With the help of this manual, having in-depth knowledge about the creation of different pieces, from a bag to a pair of shoes to hats, gloves, ties and buttons –even clothing for dogs–, is a great way to get started in this branch of the fashion field.    

Masters of New Jewellery Design offers a bold and daring look at the intriguing and fascinating world of contemporary jewellery design through some of the field’s most prominent international artists and emerging new talents. They present their latest designs while reflecting upon the meaning of their work, their use of techniques and materials, their life experiences and their sources of inspiration. The result is as extensive and international as it is intimate and personal. The pages of this book show the beauty of everyday materials—paper, recycled wood or plastics, rubber, bone, charcoal—which can often be combined with other, more traditional ones but which also have their own aesthetic value. Jewellery freed itself some time ago from many of its technical constraints and it does not just use the jeweller's own methods. Rather, it has investigated the heritage of other crafts and other technologies to integrate them based on the artistic language that each creator wants to develop. The contributors include: Anastasia Young, Anthony Roussel, Beth Legg, Jacqueline Ryan (UK), Adam Grinovich (USA)

Graphic design increasingly emphasizes a user-oriented approach that is based around communication and interaction between users and the work itself. Interactive graphics can be found in books, brochures, posters, packaging, and albums. Playful Graphics presents a selection of outstanding interactive projects produced by designers from all over the world; these works present users with rich visual experiences and enable readers to take action. Through exploring distinct techniques and forms, Playful Graphics demonstrates how this exciting area of design can influence user experiences and bring fun to life. It is a celebration of great design ideas that convey their messages through hands-on play.

Draping is a technique that involves working with fabric directly on the mannequin. This allows the designer to start out from an idea that can change as the design of the piece progresses. In this process, creative freedom plays a more important and less rigid role than patterns and drawings on paper do. This publication is a practical step by step guide for students and fashion professionals who want to delve deeper into this technique used by big industry names such as Issey Miyake, Margela, Thierry Mugler, Iris van Herpen and many others. Focusing on a range of subjects, from the required tools and different examples of designs to the steps to be followed in creating jackets, skirts and dresses as well as more specific details, this book offers everything that readers need to learn the principles of draping step by step and have a solid basis for making their own creations without limiting their creativity.

The third book from this series on illustration and design focuses on the most popular accessories: shoes, handbags, hats, belts, gloves and glasses. Brilliantly illustrated by Manuela Brambatti, a key member of the Gianni Versace fashion house for nearly thirty years, and co-authored by the designer Fabio Menconi (senior designer for Escada and Armani, among others), the book guides readers through the fashion world’s most iconic accessories, and it features practical information and technical advice on how to draw them to achieve a desired result. From creating a basic drawing to using colour, the way in which techniques are presented seeks to encourage readers to try out what they have learned. The publication provides detailed information on how to capture different materials, surfaces and decorations—for example, skin, natural fibres, wool and prints—and it includes sections that provide tips on where to look for inspiration. It also offers examples of transformations in designs and reviews the historical development of accessories. In short, this is a comprehensive, structured and systematic volume that will serve professionals, students and anyone who wants to venture into designing and illustrating fashion accessories.

New and redesigned edition of this worldwide bestseller.

This completely newly redesigned and updated long-selling manual offers a comprehensive guide to acquiring and perfecting the skills needed to produce realistic and precise fashion drawings that accurately reflect a designer’s creative vision. It includes male human figure drawings, male fashion figurines, colouring styles and techniques, as well as design and representation of fabrics. The best-selling authors, Elizabetta Drudi and Tiziana Paci, have decades of experience in the fashion industry and have created an invaluable resource for designers, and illustrators.

Having learned about geometry, perspective and representation of materials in the first volume, this second book in this two-part series delves deeper into the process of designing jewelry, from the first sketch to the final representation, with special emphasis on how to work on ideas, plan a collection, and design and depict a wide variety of pieces, taking the inspiration from natural forms or art history. The fundamentals of drawing different pieces, such as necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets, are carefully explained and illustrated in the book, which includes all the technical details to be taken into consideration when planning a jewelry piece, from the executive point of view. While the first volume focused on the tools needed to be able to accurately convey ideas, draw different materials, facets and effects, and master the use of color, this publication tackles the process from the initial idea, based in natural or geometrical forms, to the final drawing of the completed piece, including illustration techniques and sources of inspiration, all aspects that will stir up the reader’s creativity. It is the ultimate tool and resource for jewelry students and professionals, and even illustrators in search of professional guidelines in freehand drawing and painting techniques when representing jewelry.

This updated and extended edition of our best-selling book on sustainable jewelry includes new case studies and revised, up-to-date texts and brand profiles.

Sustainable Jewellery contains all there is to know in order to start down the path towards sustainability in the jewelry business, from the traceability of gems and metals to responsible production, the impact of the purification, smelting and polishing processes, and the greenest ways to work with certified raw materials. In the jewelry industry and beyond, consumers are demanding products that are ethical, hand-crafted, personal, and created with respect for the environment. This implies a sustainability strategy that takes into account the entire supply and sales chain, from the extraction of metals to the materials used as packaging. Updated texts and chapters include the latest developments in sustainable jewelry, with new case studies and fresh interviews with international designers and firms who are already creating ethical, responsible jewelry. With an introduction written by jeweler and activist Greg Valerio, this book is a unique and essential guide for all designers who want to ensure their products are ethical, sustainable and respectful of the environment.

A comprehensive guide to fabric manipulation aimed at fashion designers, textile artists, and sewing enthusiasts interested in pushing the boundaries of textile artistry

Aimed at fashion designers, textile artists, and sewing enthusiasts, this book is a comprehensive guide to a wide range of techniques for breathing new life into fabric. Providing both inspiration and practical know-how, it encourages you to experiment and adapt the techniques to suit your own creative vision. While some sections delve into technical explanations, these insights are intended to help you to understand and refine techniques, and even invent your own. In this sense, it’s more than a manual; it’s a resource that encourages exploration, helping you push the boundaries of textile artistry. With beautiful images and examples from accomplished designers and artists, this book is perfect for anyone passionate about fabric, whether you're an experienced professional or just starting out. Unlock a world of endless textile possibilities with this invaluable and beautifully illustrated resource!

Illustration is applied imagination. This book is not only about illustration, though it does contain illustrations—lots of them. But there’s more. This book examines the profession of illustrator, from the vexing subject of money to the question of the right workplace. How do you get commissions? How do you negotiate successfully? What’s a fair price? How do you handle the everyday routines involved in illustration work? It explains concepts such as usage rights, collecting societies and social security insurance for artists. And, of course, it presents a wide variety of illustration techniques. In short, it makes an effort to enlighten, be useful and answer as many questions as possible. Its author does so, on the one hand, by offering more than twenty really useful tips for budding illustrators—for example, how to stop the fear that a blank page often inspires—and, on the other, by presenting the twenty-five most important illustration techniques in a practical way that awakens the reader’s desire to learn more. As a parallel narrative accompanying the humorous texts, there are images by very different illustrators who work with a wide variety of techniques and styles. These pictures are diverse yet easy to compare, because they all show the same thing: a bird.

Antonio Donnanno's essential men’s fashion patternmaking guide. Perfect for tailors and sewing enthusiasts, it offers step-by-step instructions and rich illustrations for creating flawless garments, from shirts to jackets and trousers.

Master contemporary style with Donnanno’s expert techniques and industry insight. In this volume on men’s clothing, part of our series on fashion patternmaking techniques by renowned author and designer Antonio Donnanno, readers will acquire the technical and stylistic knowledge they need to ensure their sartorial creations are technically flawless and stay fresh and new. After an introduction to the essential patternmaking tools, basic fabric notions, anatomy and measurement of the male body, industrial sizes and tailoring terms, the author describes in detail and step by step the making of patterns, covering a wealth of types of men’s garments for all lifestyles and circumstances: from shirts to jackets, waistcoats, trousers, knitwear and underwear. All is presented with clear and easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations which indicate the author’s long experience both as a teacher and as a consultant to international firms and pattern publishers. Aimed at professional tailors, teachers and students, sewing lovers and industrial sample makers, this new volume in the Donnanno Fashion Patternmaking series is a useful and practical tool for meeting contemporary menswear tailoring challenges and needs.

Beyond Fashion provides a behind-the-scenes peek into the world of fashion, a universe that is as fascinating and creative as it is inextricably linked to commercial, psychological and social canons.

This thoroughly-illustrated volume covers all elements of the fashion business beyond clothing, from the commercial to psychological and sociological aspects of the industry. Branding, marketing, retailing, merchandising and business identity, style, the eternal pursuit of beauty, and the search for personal expression are the fundamental aspects of an industry which has evolved to become one of the most sophisticated, influential and dynamic sectors in the world. The implications are not just economic: what we wear conveys who we are. Clothes and accessories are the bearers of complex psychological and social canons, they are aesthetic products, means of self-definition and objects of desire. Complementary to the evolution of fashion itself, hand-in-hand with changes in taste throughout history, the practice of shopping has undergone epic transformations, becoming a daily activity, an integral part of everyday life. So, which elements are involved in the creation of this 'desire'? What are the ingredients of fashion alchemy? This book reveals these and many more secrets of the fashion business.

Following the first volume of Fashion Draping Techniques, which focused on details such as collars, sleeves and knots, this new volume, richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, takes a step forward and moves on to complete items of clothing, such as dresses, blouses, jackets, and skirts, all explained in a detailed and easy to understand manner. Each chapter also includes suggestions about what kind of fabric to use in each piece of clothing. Draping involves working with fabric directly on the dress stand, allowing designers to bring their creations to life, adapting the style and fit as they work. The results are new styles, cuts and lines that form a new three-dimensional prototype, without the standardized restrictions of flat cut patternmaking. This gives designers an immediate idea of what their creation will look like and easily lets them decide how to move forward, through the use of toile, pins, pleats, modules, draping, craftsmanship, and boundless creativity.

This book on patternmaking for menswear provides first-class guidance on illustration, making it a handy tool for designers, students and advanced hobbyists.

In this volume on men’s clothing, part of our series on fashion patternmaking techniques by renowned author and designer Antonio Donnanno, readers will acquire the technical and stylistic knowledge they need to ensure their sartorial creations are technically flawless and stay fresh and new. After an introduction to the essential patternmaking tools, basic fabric notions, anatomy and measurement of the male body, industrial sizes and tailoring terms, the author describes in detail and step by step the making of patterns, covering a wealth of types of men’s garments for all lifestyles and circumstances: from shirts to jackets, waistcoats, trousers, knitwear and underwear. All is presented with clear and easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations which indicate the author’s long experience both as a teacher and as a consultant to international firms and pattern publishers. A special feature that makes this volume unique is the inclusion of an attached pattern sheet showing a base pattern for shirts, jackets and trousers in five sizes. Aimed at professional tailors, teachers and students, sewing lovers and industrial sample makers, this new volume in the Donnanno Fashion Patternmaking series is a useful and practical tool for meeting contemporary menswear tailoring challenges and needs. The book includes a pattern sheet with patterns for trousers, jackets and shirts in 5 sizes.

The ultimate beginner’s guide to creating a versatile capsule wardrobe, featuring seven basic patterns, detailed instructions, and video tutorials to help you craft timeless garments that seamlessly mix and match for endless stylish looks

Discover the art of creating your own capsule wardrobe with Sewing Magic, the ultimate guide for beginners by sewing influencer Masha Rossa. With over 63,000 Instagram followers, Masha brings her expertise to this comprehensive manual, designed to help you craft versatile and timeless garments. The book introduces the concept of a capsule wardrobe, focusing on selecting fabrics and colors that seamlessly combine to create interchangeable pieces and countless individual looks. The book includes seven essential wardrobe staples—skirt, tank top, blouse, trousers, shirt, jacket, and bag—and the patterns to create them, each in US sizes 6 to 14, with detailed photographs, step-by-step instructions and QR codes to access video tutorials, ensuring that every step is accessible, even for beginners. Start with simple projects like the skirt and progress to more complex pieces like the jacket, mastering essential techniques along the way to create a minimalist collection of easy-to-make garments with a dynamic and carefully selected color palette which can be combined in all sorts of ways. In Sewing Magic, Masha shares the knowledge she has gathered from years of practice and study, ensuring even beginners can make and wear their first garments with pride. Each pattern is a learning experience, designed to inspire and support your skill development and creative journey. Begin your sewing journey today and transform your wardrobe with Sewing Magic!

Gouache, a classic painting and drawing technique used by Turner, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Gris, Braque, Matisse and Miró, among many others, acquires in this volume a new dimension by offering a bolder approach for contemporary artists, illustrators, graphic designers and amateurs. Award-winning illustrator and art teacher Aljoscha Blau shares his many years of experience, offers material recommendations, tips for swift success, suggestions on composition, use of colour, tools and processes. And he spices it all up with his own illustrations, which are both an incentive and a feast for the eyes. By means of entertaining texts and step-by-step illustrations, Blau lays out a safe and fascinating road to success for anyone willing to improve their technique or for those who want to try it for the first time.

Both a practical and inspirational book filled with color combinations for any design and illustration project.

The use of color and its combinations creatively in illustration, graphic and product design also implies understanding what emotions they convey and how they affect our design and illustrations. We must also consider that color is also perceived differently in different countries and cultures. All this is widely explained in this second book in the Palette Perfect series, illustrated with projects by renowned international illustrators and designers, and organized by colors (identified with CMYK, RGB and HEX codes) and moods associated with the time of day. Diverging from the traditional segmentation of the color wheel, the book is divided into 24 chapters, each one being an hour of the day. This separation is represented visually by assigning a color to each hour, based on the usual daylight, temperature, mood and activities of that time, in the temperate climate zone. For example, the first chapters are the first hours of the morning, where the sky and the overall light is present but less intense. Around 1 pm the temperature is usually hotter, therefore represented with warmer colors (yellow and red); after midnight, the focus is put on activities that could be done at that time, like the neon lights of nightclubs. Based on real examples drawn from graphic, product and illustration, different innovative combinations and palettes are shown for each color and the meaning it conveys. Intended for graphic designers, design students, fashion and interior decoration lovers, and all those interested in exciting and unexpected color combinations that work.

This book on watercolour techniques helps readers to learn to paint with watercolours from scratch and step by step. Inspired to paint by long walks along the seashore, the beauty of coastal landscapes and by the photographs taken during these journeys or found in journals and magazines, the author decided to leave her job in the fashion industry and devote herself completely to acquiring an in-depth knowledge of watercolour techniques to express her deep love of nature. The present book is a result of the author’s many painting experiments and her teaching experience. First, the book introduces the reader to painting tools, such as different paper and brush types; then the author describes, step-by-step and in detail, all the rich effects that can be achieved thanks to the specific characteristics of watercolours. She then moves on to the basics of composition and perspective, how to establish the correct proportions, rhythm, and a relationship and equilibrium between the different parts of an image. In the last part the author shows in all variations how to work on different motifs, including stones above and below the water and boats, waves and foam, the sky and the different kinds of clouds. After a wealth of technical tips, the author offers practical recommendations, for example, the importance of having a small dedicated space, always ready with materials to begin to paint when you want it; drawing every day even if it’s just for a short time; and setting a timer for 10 minutes, practicing time-limited sketches. At the end the author recognizes that her development required patient yet playful repetition and the ability to see mistakes as a chance to learn more, while carefully observing how more experienced artists paint, to learn from them. After acquiring the essential knowledge and techniques the book offers, readers will most certainly begin to develop their own personal style, getting more and more pleasure immersing themselves in the magical world of watercolours.

Experiment this new, intuitive approach to watercolour without using any preliminary drawings to paint directly with a brush with this on-the-go workshop and its more than fifty progressive exercises.

This book is an excellent tool for learning to sketch on location. Through the "no drawing first" technique, readers will learn to use only watercolour and a brush to draw in notebooks, make quick urban sketches, keep visual journals and create compelling outdoor urban work. Designed like a workshop on the go, with more than fifty progressive exercises, this book invites you to experiment with watercolour by translating space and movement through shapes and color into masses and values rather than contours and strict rules of perspective. The author, a theatrical scenic painter, urban sketcher and urban sketching teacher, shows you how to represent the world around us. She encourages the reader to observe the place, to understand it, to learn how to choose the subject when capturing the place’s soul, preserving the sense of the fleetingness of the instant described. The themes include vegetation, buildings and forms of people in movement.

A step-by-step guide that teaches beginners and aspiring artists how to use lines and shapes to bring animals to life,including 50 models covering anatomy, proportions, and shading

Draping, also known as moulage, is a fashion design technique that involves working with fabric directly on a mannequin, ‘sculpting’ the toile on a dress form. Imagination and freedom are the key principles of this process, allowing the designer to start from an idea and change it as the garment progresses. Pieces take shape inch by inch on the dress form, going directly from sketch to fabric. Using the intricate process of draping, this extensively illustrated publication is an essential step-by-step guide for students, couture connoisseurs and fashion professionals who want to delve deeper into a technique used by prestigious fashion houses around the globe. It offers everything readers need to learn about the principles of draping and to gain a solid foundation for making their own imaginative pieces without limiting their creativity.

A very useful step-by-step manual for mastering the creation of knitted garments using a knitting machine in a new updated edition.

In the world of textiles, knitted fabric is one of the most complicated materials to work with but also one of the most used. This is a book for all fashion lovers who, while fascinated by knitted fabric, have not dared to venture into this field, as well as for advanced and professional knitters who want to systematically round off their knowledge. It includes all the steps necessary to create a knitted garment, from the choice of yarn to manufacturing apparel, explaining such things as how to use a flatbed knitting machine correctly and the linking, cutting, sewing and, ultimately, ironing of knitted garments. The book not only takes into account how crucial it is to recognize and develop a stitch. It also acknowledges the importance of knowing how to represent stitches for different machines in a useful way. For the first time, the author describes the various stitches in a clear and well-structured manner with a language of symbols developed for use with all kinds of studio and domestic knitting machines regardless of the brand: Brother, Silver Reed, Passap, Coppo and Dubied. The book includes examples of working with traditional materials like wool, alpaca, cotton and linen but also encourages experimenting with paper, plastic materials and vegetal and metallic yarns to create texture, three-dimensional effects and unusual volumes.

This book is a practical manual intended specifically for anyone interested in delving into the technique of granting color to fashion figurine illustrations to give them more life and expressiveness. In a clear and educational way, Tiziana Paci, author of the well-known book Figure Drawing for Fashion Design, explains in detail the different themes examined in the work through images and examples along with concise and to-the-point texts ideal for neophytes as well as people who have been working in this field for years. The book is divided into the following chapters: poses, color and color combinations, watercolor technique, tools such as professional markers, colored pencil and water-soluble graphite, digital techniques and mixed techniques. Together, these suggestions allow both beginner and professional illustrators to depict figurines in vivid poses with incredible effects including the imitation of any type of material: leather, jewellery, bright fabrics and transparencies, and many more, following very different styles.  

The first volume in this two-part series provides a step-by-step guide to the fundamental aspects of the graphic representation of a wide range of jewellery pieces, from the simplest to the most complex forms. Different volumes, spaces, surfaces and finishes are explained in detail, as are methods for depicting different materials, from timeless metals and precious stones to substances such as celluloid and bakelite.

The objective of this book is not to showcase completed jewellery pieces. Instead, it aims to provide readers with the tools needed to be able to accurately convey their ideas and master use of colour, as well as to draw different facets and effects such as brilliance, transparency and opacity. It does so by explaining a variety of illustration techniques involving pencils, markers, pastels, tempera and computer rendering.

Tired of wearing the same clothes? How about revamping your wardrobe with new custom made clothes? This is a practical sewing manual that shows all the steps for making skirts and trousers, from the basics, like different hand stitches and using a sewing machine, to taking measurements and understanding patterns, all explained with detailed illustrations and photographs for each step. The results are original garments, handmade by you and made to measure. The book includes everything you must know to get started; no previous sewing experience is needed, but you will be amazed of what you can achieve: a wealth of different types of skirts –straight, curled at the waist, classic, mini, flared, balloon, mermaid, asymmetric and more– and trousers –with or without pockets, classic, skinny-fit, low-waist, and many more.

In the world of textiles, knitted fabric is one of the most complicated to work with, but also one of the most commonly used. This is a book for all those fashion lovers who, although fascinated by knitted fabric, have never yet dared to venture into this field and for those advanced and professional knitters who want to systematically round off their knowledge.   It includes all the steps necessary to realize a knitted garment, from the choice of yarn to manufacturing apparel, explaining how to use a knitting machine correctly, the linking, cutting, sewing, and, last but not least, ironing of knitted garments. All this taking into account that knowing how to recognize and develop a stitch is crucial, but that it is increasingly important to know how to represent stitches for different machines in a useful way. So, for the first time, the author describes the various stitches in a clear and well-structured manner with a language of symbols developed to be used for all kinds of studio and domestic knitting machines, regardless of the brand: Brother, Silver Reed, Passap, Coppo and Dubied. The book includes examples of working with traditional materials like wool, alpaca, cotton or linen, but also encourages experiments with paper, plastic materials, vegetal and metallic yarns, to create sculptures, reliefs and three-dimensional effects.

An insight on the world of sustainable fashion: alternative ways of production, eco-friendly and reused materials and practical care advice for garments.

The planet has come to a critical situation and it is up to all of us to innovate and drive change in all aspects of life, and fashion definitely is no exception. The fashion industry and its procedures are changing rapidly thanks to the visionary mindset of innovators, their business perspectives, the renewal of industrial processes, and a reconsideration of existing values. More and more customers are demanding that the clothes they buy to be socially and environmentally aware: no child labor, minimum or zero impact on the planet, and safe working conditions are the basis of the sustainable values that customers are expecting from fashion companies. This book provides all the necessary insight for designers, fashion companies, retailers, and consumers that want to become more sustainability conscious. It includes a comprehensive overview of the current actions taken by pioneering designers and brands and how they are integrating basic sustainable principles, and eco-friendly and reused materials, to create a new generation of fashion products, including information on different fabric types, alternative production types, reuse and practical care advice for the garments.

A collection of greeting cards, personal invitations, and announcement cards that have been either made by hand or produced with the most avant-garde computer- design techniques. Nine seconds is the current estimate of the amount of time that it takes to captivate the eye. In our information-saturated world, in which email has monopolized personal communication, handmade greeting cards, personal invitations, and announcement cards offer an element of exclusive value and a unique charm, bringing together imagination, real texture, and a wide variety of design techniques. This publication focuses on the latest creative card designs produced by innovative design studios and artists throughout the world. The ideas showcased in its three hundred pages range from handmade cards that elude conventional printing processes to the most avant-garde computer-designed offerings. The book shows the creative processes and techniques used in each project and analyses the key elements of their success. This book is a great source of inspiration for those eager to break boundaries and go one step further with their creativity and imagination.

High fashion unquestionably goes hand-in-hand with sartorial and stylistic perfection. A driving force behind the entire fashion and garment industry, it represents the search for new solutions concerning fabrics, style or patterns. In this context, the patternmaker is an essential figure who makes the stylist’s ideas a reality. In our richly illustrated new volume from the Fashion Patternmaking series, the prolific author Antonio Donnanno, the director of a network of fashion schools and a patternmaking teacher who comes from a long line of tailors, describes the methods and techniques used in high-fashion for making drapes, frills and flounces, collars, necklines and sleeves, and high-fashion trousers and skirts in a detailed, understandable and step-by-step way.

Designers and students structure their portfolios following their instincts and according to their own professional development. A portfolio principally contains print designs, which are used to plan, organise and document the designer’s personal experience, work samples and skills. These selections are collective representations, through which designers seek to highlight their best accomplishments for the purposes of appreciation and promotion. This is precisely the object of this unique book: to present a selection of samples of the best works by young designers from all over the world. Fresh, inventive and full of original and ground-breaking ideas that use new materials and experimental techniques, Portfolio Design aims to offer not only visual delights but also invaluable references and solutions for those who are looking for inspiration in producing an eye-catching portfolio of their own.

Set Design For Printed Matter explores the endless possibilities and powerful impact of using the materials and techniques of set design in graphic design projects. From editorial projects, posters, and flyers to illustrations for magazines or advertising campaigns, this inspirational volume features a variety of playful international projects by the most respected professionals in the field. The works featured are sure to inspire graphic designers to conceptualize, create, and innovate. In an era of ubiquitous digital images, handmade designs carry unexpected force and creativity. Set design is more than prop building; it is a combination of craftsmanship, creativity, and styling in which textures, colors, and shapes all play a part in creating an image that conventional graphic design techniques simply cannot achieve. Going behind the scenes of the design process, this book examines creative and strategic elements of set design such as handmade craftsmanship and 3D graphics. By deploying complex paper techniques and materials as well as an infinite variety of objects, the results create a world in which imagination and reality overlap unexpectedly. This title is the paperback version of Scenographics.

Minimalism emphasizes extreme simplicity of form. By reducing the number of graphic elements, the strength of each element is enhanced. Or, as Mies van der Rohe famously said, “Less is more.” Known for their simple and unassuming rules, the Nordic and Japanese design schools are the most outstanding representatives of this trend, which is being embraced by more and more graphic designers in their creative fields, be it branding, editorial, communication and packaging. Simplicity collects over a hundred works by graphic designers from all over the world who apply minimalism in their works to infuse them with an elegant simplicity and a clean style. This volume aims to be an indispensable guidebook for designers who are looking for new modes of expression, and an enjoyable and engaging read for those who wish to learn more about the beauty of all things simple.

In jewelry, the new consumer trends are demanding products that are crafted, personal, and created with respect to the environment. This implies a sustainability strategy that takes into account the entire supply chain, from the extraction of metals to the packaging materials. Sustainable Jewellery contains all the aspects that are necessary to know in order to start the path towards sustainability in the jewelry business, from the traceability of gems and metals, to the impact of the processes of purification, smelting, polishing, etc., and the ways to work with certified materials. The book includes case studies and interviews with international designers and firms who started the challenge of creating jewelry from an ethical and responsible perspective. With an introduction written by the jeweller and activist Greg Valerio, this book is a unique and essential guide for all those designers who want to bring their jewelry firm to a way that is ethical and respectful of the environment.

The term ephemeral is faithfully illustrative of our times. However, constructions with a limited lifespan have been a constant in the history of architecture. Research of materials and, above all, the evolution of design; have made this discipline an essential area of study for scholars and authorities alike. Ephemeral Architecture offers a wide and also rigorous selection of the best contemporary projects by some of the most daring and innovative architecture studios. The spectacular projects contained in these pages are profusely illustrated and thoroughly documented with drafts, scale and layout drawings, illustrations, renderings and photographs. The book is divided into content blocks that will allow the reader to enjoy the most innovative interventions, be they pavilions, art installations, interactive constructions, stands and finally, award winning projects within the field of temporary architecture. The projects include Anna Prats, Joan Valls (ES); Anupama Kundoo Architects, Iaac (IN/ES); Atelier Zündel Cristea (FR); Ball-Nogues Studio (USA/CA); Barkow Leibinger Architects (DE); Benedetta Tagiabue + Embt, Àlex Ollé + Institut Del Teatre (ES); Brut Deluxe (ES); Bureau A (CH); Coda-Office (ES); Dondecabentres (ES); Dus Architects (NL); Eth Zurich, Urban-Think Tank, Esarq / Uic (CH/ES); Grafton Architects, Elisava / Upf (UK/ES); Heri&Salli (AT); Hollwich Kushner (US/NY); J. Mayer H. Und Partner Architekten (DE); Jakob + Macfarlane (FR); Jakob + Macfarlane (FR); Likearchitects (PT); Marina Fernández Ramos, Asociación Cultural Y Juvenil La Chorrera (ES); Odile Decq,- Recetas Colectivas (FR/ES); Studio Myerscough (UK); Studio Myerscough (UK); Urbanus, La Salle / Url (CN/ES); Variable Projects (US/CA); Xevi Bayona (ES); Yael Reisner, Peter Cook, Straddle 3 (IS/UK/ES).

The delightful patterns collected in this book, which have been created by talented designers from all over the world, are inspired by botanic shapes, the animal kingdom, geometry or abstract forms. The book presents the work of fifty designers who specialize in the field, and it includes interviews in which a selection of professionals share their design philosophy and work process. It focuses especially on home interiors, textiles, wallpaper, home accessories and fashion. Whether they are vibrant blooms or dazzling triangles, and whether they have a clean Scandinavian air or a delicate Japanese touch, the irresistible designs contained in this collection will offer the reader endless delight and heaps of inspiration for decoration and fashion fans and professionals.