Hoaki Books

Tattoos, perhaps one of the oldest forms of communication or body art, have had and still have different meanings. From healing powers to the identification of criminals, through myths and different beliefs or simply as a form of identification and affirmation of group belonging, tattoos are one of the most characteristic means of expression associated with sailors, soldiers, organized crime, gangs or urban tribes, as well as being a form of body adornment and expression of a lifestyle, philosophy or many people's beliefs.

By way of a clear, insightful text, this publication unveils the meaning of the tattoos that have lived on through the passage of time and that, even today, explain a lot about the person who wears them. After all, a tattoo is much more than a drawing on the skin; it’s a declaration of intent. From drawings that date back to the dawn of civilization to contemporary designs, each tattoo has a hidden story that this book is eager to reveal.

A book dedicated entirely to geometric shapes, widely used by graphic designers and applied to all fields of communication.

Basic geometric shapes and their various combinations are hugely popular in graphic design. The creative possibilities they offer are limitless, and viewers continuously interpret them consciously and unconsciously. In this book, now in paperback, you will find many examples of why geometry is still very much relevant in today’s graphic design industry and how it is a crucial part of our visual language. Beyond their colour and size, forms and shapes determine the character and the mood of a layout, without us even realising it. They provide order and harmony in a world of imperfection and chaos. Designers know this and have been using geometric shapes as a tool for communication and visual impact since the very beginning of the profession. The broad range of case studies featured in this book demonstrates how familiar shapes can be transformed and used to convey new concepts and trends in design.

A comprehensive guide for aspiring jewelry designers and entrepreneurs covering branding, production, marketing, and more, with expert insights and real-life examples to help build a sustainable and successful jewelry brand

The ultimate guide for designers, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking to break into the jewelry industry, this book is written by an experienced jewelry professional, the author of Sustainable Jewelry, published in 2022. Here the author goes beyond design techniques to address the essential business knowledge often missing from many emerging brands. Drawing from his own entrepreneurial journey, the author offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at the challenges and triumphs of building a jewelry brand from scratch. In this comprehensive handbook, you'll explore the full spectrum of topics necessary for success, from understanding the jewelry industry and trends to navigating business logistics like production, sales, and marketing. 

With practical advice on building your brand identity, understanding the market, and developing a collection, the book covers every critical element of starting a business. Chapters explore branding, communication strategies, and the intricacies of creating a business plan, ensuring you're well-prepared for the competitive world of jewelry. The book is enriched by interviews with industry experts, case studies, and real-life examples, offering invaluable insight and inspiration. Perfect for students, designers, and entrepreneurs, this practical guide provides the tools needed to turn your jewelry vision into a sustainable and successful brand.

A practical guide for anyone who wants to be inspired by the wide variety of possibilities offered by this easy-to-use technique including an overview of the work of print shops, design studios and artists from all over the world.

In recent years risography has captured the attention of printers and artists, especially in independent and self-publishing circles, given the technical and visual qualities it offers. Varied and vivid spot colors, the warmth of the finishes, and occasional imperfections in uniformity and register are just some of these attractive features. The book begins by giving readers a brief history of the Risograph while outlining the basic principles of the printing process, including the equipment, tools and materials needed to get started. Designed mainly for high-volume photocopying and printing, Risographs are far less expensive than conventional photocopy machines and laser or ink printers. Rich in illustrations, pictures, detailed instructions and infographics, this practical guide to Risograph printing will teach readers how to set up a Risograph, how to prepare files to print, how to make overprints and knockouts, how to choose paper, how to handle freshly printed works, what ink to use and about any additional equipment they will need to become a Riso master. An ideal primer for novice users of a Riso printer, readers will also learn how to apply artistic printing techniques that will allow them to print with brighter, more expressive, saturated colors that, unlike photocopy ink, do not fade over time. The book also includes profiles of notable printers, with one featured work of Riso art and the printing technique used.  In addition to examples of printed products, readers will find works from contributing print shops and information about design studios and artists from around the world. The book will broaden the reader’s printing horizons and illustrate the extensive variety of possibilities offered by this relatively straightforward technique, inspiring them through the prints of others to create their own riso art.

A recognition of graffiti and street art by women from around the world

This book showcases the work of more than 50 female graffiti artists, street artists and muralists from all over the world who are dedicated to reclaiming public space and enriching our urban environments with work that explores personal experience and cultural identity, alongside dreams and aspirations of a better world for all. Alongside stunning imagery, readers are offered interviews with each artist, which tell of their personal experience and offer insight into how these women have fought to find their place in a male-dominated art form and continue to fight to break free of the inequalities that linger in our society today, which continue to affect women’s rights in all aspects of life. Inspiring and thought-provoking, this thoroughly illustrated book will motivate the reader to seek out diverse street art in our cities, pointing towards a fairer world.

PARTICIPANTS. Argentina: Agus Rucula, Hola Pum Pum, K2man, Milu Correch. Australia: Danielle Weber, Vexta. Belarus: Julia Yu Baba. Brazil: Magrela. Canada: Emily Read, Priscilla Yu. Chile: Anis88. Colombia: Ledania, Mugre Diamante. Equador: Mo Vasquez. France: Claire Prouvost, Emyart, Mademoiselle Kat, Wuna (+Canada), Zabou (+UK), Zoia. Finland: Camilla Siren, Anetta Lukjanova (+Spain). Germany: Minas. Italy: Alice Pasquini, Rame13, Vera Bugatti. Mexico: Lourdes Villagómez, Paola Delfín, Tahnee Flor, Triana Parera, Adry del Rocío, Alina Kiliwa, Alegría del Prado (+Spain:). Norway: Missprinted. Peru: Niz (+USA). Poland:  Natalia Rak, Nespoon. Portugal: Tamara Alves. Spain: Btoy, Didi Leona, Elisa Capdevila, Julieta xlf, Lily Brik. The Netherlands: JDL. UK: Helen Bur, Rosie Woods (+Australia). USA: Emily Eldridge (+Germany), Kaz Williams/KAZILLA (Miami, FL), Kee Romano, Nico Cathcart (Richmond, VA), Toofly (+Equador). Venezuela: Sandra Betancort.

This publication, now in paperback, offers detailed insights into how emotions and feelings are reflected in people’s faces and how these can be conveyed on paper. It is a systematic and structured textbook for learning the skills necessary to draw the human head, and a useful manual for anyone who is eager to learn to draw or to gain further illustration skills. Emotions such as joy, pain, sadness, jealousy and desire are inherent human traits, and the great artists have been able to move us over the centuries through their ability to communicate them. This book guides the reader through human emotion in the history of art and also analyses the methods required to reproduce it. The volume is a practical and comprehensive artistic manual for all budding artists and those interested in improving their skills. With its clear and accessible texts, this book is an indispensable tool for students, who can also use it as a self-study manual.

A book that takes the reader on a journey to some of the most cutting-edge examples in restaurant design and architecture from around the world

In our fast-paced global economy, people are working increasingly harder, cooking less and, therefore, spending more and more time in restaurants. As a result, the restaurant space has become steadily more important in relation to the restaurant owner’s conceptual vision. As we are told in the preface to Dining Out: The New Restaurant Interior Design Book, “creating a story that connects with people is a key ingredient in creating a good restaurant design”. The book takes the reader on a journey to some of the most cutting-edge examples in restaurant design and architecture from around the world. With a descriptive text for each project, it focuses on the craftmanship, color schemes, decorative details, lighting and furnishings that form the identity of the space, serving as a source of inspiration and reference for professional designers, foodies and other people involved in the restaurant business. Interior and exterior photographs, as well as blueprints of each design, present the reader with a rich range of styles, from modern minimalist spaces to ones defined by bold contemporary colors, a sleek industrial look or designs that look to the past for inspiration. We learn about the importance of the relationship between interior design and branding and how the featured designers use different materials to achieve a specific aesthetic and atmosphere, in addition to the functional features of the space, thereby allowing them to turn their clients’ vision into a reality.   

This book should serve as a source of inspiration to help creative people overcome the obstacles that can appear during the production process. Featuring 25 genre-defying artists working outside the mainstream, it takes readers inside their work spaces and challenges them to focus on details that help reveal some of the secrets of their creative activity. In addition to the many images of their work, the artists, in their own words, shed light on the creative processes that made them possible. They explain why they create, what they are trying to say and how they look to literature, sculpture, music, theater or scenes from everyday life to overcome creative blocks and self-doubt and stay inspired and productive. Through their words and work, the contemporary painters, sculptors, photographers, tattooists, graffiti artists and muralists that appear in this insightful and visually sumptuous book transmit the emotion, energy, individuality and irony that defines their artistic production and the creative processes behind it.

ARTISTS INCLUDED: ARGENTINA: Claudio Pedraza. BELGIUM: Ingrid Godon. CHILE: José Romussi. FRANCE: Alexandra Duprez, Eltono, Soeurs Siamoises. GERMANY: Hermann Josef Hack, z-e-b-u. IRAN: Mohammad Barrangi. ITALY: Gaia Bernasconi, Luca Giovagnoli. JAPAN: Sanae Sugimoto, Mogu Takahashi. MEXICO: Federico Jordán, Gimena Romero. PORTUGAL: Mariana Malhão. SAUDI ARABIA: David Shillinglaw. SPAIN: Karto Gimeno, Javier Pagola, Oscar Sanmartín. SWIZERLAND: Johanna Schaible. UK: Nicholas Stevenson, Sophie Woodrow. USA: Michael McGrath (Rhinbeck, NY). VENEZUELA: Cristina Sitja.

The great mystery of color explaine using the kowledge we have from history to science, from art to psychology. 

 Why does the color catch our attention and fascinate us until seducing us? The answer is easy: because it is mysterious. Speaking of color means taking note of its enigmatic nature, of the inexplicable process of sublimation that through the centuries has made it ritual, memory, symbol, emotion. From a physiological and psychological point of view, our reactions to chromatic stimuli are complex. And if in recent decades colors seemed to have disappeared from our homes, today the interior is pervaded by bright and expressive colors, a powerful use of color on surfaces, accessories and accessories. Because colors arouse emotions, unconscious reactions, assume personal and collective meanings, and a colorful environment can positively or negatively affect our psychophysical well-being.

Color is an extraordinary strategy of nature, a formidable means of information related to the survival of living beings. In the history of humanity, it has been the subject of studies and fascinations, which have given birth to a world of myths, mysteries and curiosities. Yet color is also linked to a technological and scientific universe of great value linked closely to the universe of living. It is no coincidence that the explosion of new opportunities and decorative technologies or new applications has taken over a dizzying rise of color, driven by the desire to change, the need to create an ideal environment.

This book tries to tell both the color as history and mystery, both as a technical application, revealing origins and secrets, providing tools, a few easy rules, practical tips and creative ideas. In order to put the magic of color into practice in a project or just to treasure it and finally understand why in some environments we are just fine and in others we feel uncomfortable.

A reference work that comprehensively analyses basic graphic design principles, with 60 essential rules for creating unique designs and ensuring a design message resonates with a specific audience. 
Graphic Design Rules is a book that comprehensively analyzes graphic design, starting from the most basic principles. While everyone has their own design habits, there are some common rules that every designer should pay attention to and follow, to ensure an effective and attractive composition. This book introduces readers to over 60 of these rules, organising them into three categories –color, type & typography, image and shape– and showing them how they are implemented in 40 projects. Readers also learn about the seven fundamental principles that guide the choice of color, layout and font and act beneath the surface to make the work stable and balanced. They see how artists and designers use colour to portray mood, light, depth, and point of view, while images throughout the text show how designers apply these basic elements to create logos and graphics for unique brand identities. With tips indicating what not to do to ensure a design message resonates with a specific audience, this book will help readers tell their story in a more engaging and evocative way.

An inspiring selection of what is happening in the world of auteur jewellery right now, particularly with regard to brooches.

Edited by Nicolás Estrada, New Brooches, now in paperback, focuses on brooches within an exploration of current innovative trends in contemporary jewelry. With a selection of over 400 jewelry artists’ creations from all over the world, this inspirational volume is the most comprehensive compilation on this subject and an important step in Nicolás Estrada’s exploration of current trends in contemporary jewellery. A must-have for any professional or student of jewelry or fashion design, this work shows the versatile and dynamic nature of brooches and the many and varied materials and forms that they involve. Needing only a pin to secure it to the wearer’s garment, this ornament is essentially a jewelry artist’s blank canvas that invites endless creativity and offers more freedom of expression than any other form of jewelry. The brooch has continued to evolve and be reinterpreted over time, and it is playing a critical role in the development of new jewelry as a platform for artistic expression. Following the success of Estrada’s New Rings, New Earrings, New Necklaces, New Brooches represents a valuable contribution to this series. 

A visually rich book that offers a varied and diverse selection of 85 of the best graffiti artists, urban artists and muralists in the world today, showcasing a selection of their work and sharing their passions, dreams, challenges and the difficulties of being a street artist. 
Street Art & Graffiti Atlas offers a selection that hints at the wealth of street talent in the world today and is an excellent starting point for exploring the personal stories and creations of artists who decided to turn the city streets into their personal canvas. A varied and diverse selection of 86 of the best graffiti artists, urban artists and muralists from 26 countries around the world, including several texts from the famous Darryl "Cornbread" McCray, considered the world's first modern graffiti artist. 

Urban art, muralism and graffiti reflect the dynamic pulse of a city, breaking the monotony and grayness of the cement and altering our vision of an urban environment. Human beings have always felt the need to express themselves on the walls of their communities, from cave paintings to the inscriptions on the walls of ancient Roman and Greek cities, to the current walls of virtual networks. The artists featured in the book were chosen for their unmistakable style, meteoric evolution, and innovative character and genius that uniquely define their work. In addition to images of their creations from cities across the world, from Amsterdam to Montreal, Buenos Aires and Barcelona, to name just a few, the book includes texts that share the passions, dreams, challenges and difficulties of these artists who have transformed their cities into open-air museums.

This book features twenty-eight real-life animals, and the myths and literature, paintings, drawings, textiles and ceramics they have inspired some of the most celebrated Japanese artists and writers to create.
Since the dawn of Japanese folklore and religion, the Japanese soul has cultivated a special connection with nature and wildlife, in part due to the natural abundance of the Japanese archipelago. Every animal, from the frightening crow to the sublime crane, is sacred, occupying a central place in Japanese mythology, literature, arts, and crafts. In this text-rich art book, readers will find twenty-eight real-life animals, including the fox, frog, cat, monkey, and firefly, described in texts combining haikus, tales and anecdotes from everyday life and illustrated with objects produced by the some of the most celebrated Japanese craftsmen and artists, such as Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige and Ohara Koson. Readers will see just how central animals –from the most fleeting to the most majestic, from the wildest to the most domesticated –are to Japanese legends and literature but also in the latest manga and animated films. In some cases, the animals are transformed and endowed with human attributes; in others, through a representative selection of Japanese art –paintings, prints, fashion and common Japanese objects such as netsuke (miniature sculptures)– they appear lovingly portrayed in their natural environment: typical animals of the countryside, mountains, forests, rivers and sea, and even today's cities. While most of the animals in this Japanese bestiary are good omens, some are a tad mischievous and others uniquely sacred, such as the sika deer or the crane. All are invested with strong symbolism and have become extremely popular in a country where everything is ephemeral and transient, yet everything remains. Japanese Bestiary is an ideal book for anyone interested in Japanese drawing and painting, animal illustrations and wildlife art and literature. 

An inspiring showcase some of the best-known contemporary graphic designers using collage.

Collage Meets Design presents a selection of contemporary graphic design studios, collage artists and artists from other disciplines in whose work design and collage intersect in the most diverse and witty ways. The artists included love the act of cutting with scissors or Photoshop, on paper or on screen and to combine them with the stylistic means used in graphic design. The book features projects in which different languages and techniques mix, dialogue with each other, complement each other, sometimes dilute each other and question their respective limits. Through this showcase of design projects and art pieces and through conversations with their authors, we learn about their unique approaches to the creative process, reflect on ways of understanding their work and investigate the special relationship that design and collage have today.

Artists included:

AUSTRALIA: Lexicon Love (Sydney). FRANCE: Brest Brest Brest (Crest - Paris), MRZYK & Moriceau (Montjean-sur-Loire), Studio Furious (Paris). GERMANY: Jorge Chamorro (Berlin), Fons Hickmann (Berlin), Tibor Horváth (Berlin), Damien Tran (Berlin). GREECE: Jono Boyle (Athens). SPAIN: Susana Blasco (Bilbao), Pep Carrió (Madrid), Isidro Ferrer (Huesca), Javier Jaén (Barcelona), SpY (Madrid), Yinsen (Vila-real). SWEDEN: EKTA (Gotenburg). SWITZERLAND: Beni Bischof (St.Gallen), Studio Feixen (Lucerne), Tashi Brauen (Zürich). THE NETHERLANDS: Guda Koster (Amsterdam), The Rodina (Amsterdam). UK: Dr. Me (Manchester), Julie Cockburn (Suffolk), Anthony Gerace (London), Vanessa Mckeown (London). USA: Olaf Breuning (Upstate New York, NY), John Gall (New Jersey), Brion Nuda Rosch (San Francisco, CA), Stefan Sagmeister (New York, NY), Cecil Touchon (Santa Fe , NM), Mark Wagner (Lancaster , PA), Anthony Zinonos (Fullerton , CA).

This comprehensive textbook constitutes an essential tool for students and professionals who want to work in the field of visual merchandising in retail, a discipline which combines the principles of marketing, creativity and design. It covers all aspects of the profession, from window display to in-store areas, and all kinds of stores, from small outlets, pop-up shops and concept stores, to shopping malls, flagship shops and department stores. Aspects such as lighting, colour, interior architecture and different display styles, by means of classic approaches as well as the most avant-garde developments are widely referenced and explained in this publication, through many examples from around the world. This reference guide will help visual merchandisers to plan the best strategy to the consumer’s attention.