Comprehensively illustrated with period images, design sketches and photographs of notable garments from well-known films and plays, this guide provides practical advice for students or working designers of amateur or professional productions. A history of theatrical costume is followed by guidance on the design process, thoughts about communicating ideas to your audience, an analysis of period styles from medieval to modern, and case studies from the author's illustrious career.

From the illusionistic architectural spaces created by Renaissance mural painters to the op art of the 20th century, this compendium of optical tricks presents a range of images including depth inversions, vibration effects, impossible perspectives, camouflage and anamorphic art. Examples are drawn from the world of psychology, popular illustration and street art as well as the work of celebrated artists such as Escher, Picasso, Magritte and Bridget Riley.

No sooner had the Second World War ended than the governments of the victorious powers were promoting their ideology (and the folly of the alternative) to their peoples and beyond. This collection of posters, many by leading artists, ranges from propaganda regarding the reshaping of Europe on either side of the Iron Curtain, and responses to the nuclear threat, to a selection of cinema posters for films encouraging a partisan reading of the political situation.

Tony Seddon traces the development of type design and typographic style through a detailed survey of 100 important typefaces, from Nicholas Jenson’s early use of Roman letterforms in the mid 15th century to Selva, a blackletter typeface designed in 2012. For each design, Seddon describes its creator and its development, and provides examples of the typeface and a large, annotated illustration of a capital and a lower-case letter showing their distinctive typographical elements and innovations.

This compendium of the work of leading graphic designers in America and Europe presents over 300 designs for company logos and letterheads in a range of business sectors from creative and media agencies, retailers and entertainment companies to educational and non-profit organizations.

In the Soviet Union, the years 1927 to 1933 saw a period of intense industrialization and collectivization, aiming to transform old Russia into a modern, mechanized society. Designers played their part and motifs such as gears, aeroplanes and locomotives, sports and agriculture appeared in fabrics, reinforcing industrial and social ideas. This book draws on the Lloyd Cotsen fabrics collection in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to examine this short-lived but intriguing experiment in thematic design.

The fashion illustrator David Downton made his name working for magazines including Vogue and Vanity Fair and has for 20 years been working on a series of portraits of celebrated women from the worlds of film, fashion and style. This collection of the work includes over 150 drawings and paintings of famous women, such as Catherine Deneuve, Gillian Anderson and Linda Evangelista, as well as anecdotes and photographs from the sittings.

The interior design projects in this portfolio demonstrate the influence of minimalism on contemporary style. Rather than promoting sterile empty spaces, the 26 schemes, by leading international architects, show the intent to pare down rooms to their essential functions; each example is explored in a series of photographs and architectural plans, from New York lofts and North London terraces to apartments in Barcelona and Hong Kong.

Italy’s gifted designers, craft workshops, engineers and technologically sophisticated factories have provided the ideal conditions for the creation of functional, innovative and elegant designs, and made names such as Alessi, Missoni, Olivetti and Lamborghini internationally famous. This volume illustrates and describes 100 outstanding industrial and decorative designs from the century between 1902 to 2011, including furniture, metal wares, fabric, glass and ceramics, lighting, cars and motorcycles.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition has become a British institution, bringing the work of hundreds of artists to the public in the largest event of its kind in the world. The academy's archivist has compiled this collection of more than 70 posters designed to promote the exhibition, creating a unique record of a century of changing tastes in illustration, graphic design and typography. Each poster is accompanied by an informative caption.

This well-illustrated book follows the history of fashion and the social calendar in Britain from the late 18th century to the outbreak of the Second World War, when intricately drawn fashion plates were gradually abandoned in favour of photography. Material is taken from the pages of fashion magazines, showing readers how to dress appropriately and stylishly at any time of year and for any occasion, ranging from weddings and funerals to sporting activities, and the making of morning calls.

Edward Bawden (1903–1989) was one of the most innovative graphic designers of the 20th century, whose work included covers and designs for the Curwen Press, illustrations for the Ambrose Bierce cookery books published by Faber & Faber, ceramic designs, advertising artworks, particularly for London Transport and Fortnum & Mason, and murals. In this volume from the Design series, Peyton Skipwith’s succinct account of Bawden’s career accompanies reproductions of a wide selection of his work.

This visual encyclopedia contains complete alphabets and numerals for over 300 cursive fonts – from simple joined-up letters to elegant copperplate scripts – along with illustrated historical and contemporary examples and an accompanying CD with 122 free fonts.

Due to the expensive materials and craftsmanship required, shoes have often been regarded as status symbols; the desire of owners to display their wealth resulting in extreme designs such as the absurdly elongated toes of 14th-century 'poulaines'. This well-illustrated history of shoe design analyses the many fads of the 20th century and the latest models of contemporary designers as well as investigating footwear styles dating back as far as 3500 BCE – the oldest shoe ever found.

With over 1,000 illustrations, this is a comprehensive and chronological history of worldwide fashion, from Greek draped styles and Inca tapestries of 500 BC to up-cycling and Afrocentric designs of the 21st century, via silk dresses of the Tang dynasty, fantastical headdresses of the 1770s and the Zhongshan suit of 1920s China. Focal points of many garments are highlighted with notes, significant designers are profiled and each fashion period is contextualized with a historical timeline.

Storm Thorgerson made his name as the cover art designer of classic albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon and Band on the Run and his design company's more recent work retains his characteristic style of using photography to create surreal tableaux. This collection presents the studio's work between 2001 and 2011, explaining the design ideas behind album covers by artists including Biffy Clyro, Pink Floyd, Muse and the Cranberries.

This introduction to fine lingerie offers the buyer advice on choosing suitable styles, taking correct measurements, and caring for delicate items. There are lists of the world's best designers, manufacturers and museums of lingerie and an explanation of terms relating to cut and fabric.

The Fashion Museum, Bath, takes donation of one new outfit from a contemporary designer each year. The pieces are chosen by fashion writers and intended to reflect the mood of the time – they are often prophetic of future trends. Beginning in 1963 with a Mary Quant dress, and finishing in 2012 with an appliqué evening dress by Christian Dior, this publication includes a photograph and description for each garment in the collection. Incorrectly placed text on page 126 corrected with erratum slip.

Through the work of contemporary photographers, writers, artists and designers, this book offers a vision of cultural life and life on the city streets of Iran today, and a glimpse of how Iranians think and feel about their country. Among the aspects of modern Iran explored in words and pictures are big housing developments or ‘slab cities’, publishing, heavy metal music, and beards.

In 1939, at the age of 17, Jerry Robinson was taken on by cartoonist Bob Kane to work on his new creation, Batman, and over the next few years helped create the superhero's sidekick, Robin, and his chief antagonist, the Joker. This illustrated biography charts the career of the influential artist from comic books, satirical cartoons and newspaper comic strips to his later work as a curator of comic book art and campaigner for artist's rights.

This handsome, lavishly illustrated volume charts the production and use of ceramics in architecture and interior decoration from the Middle Ages to the present. Drawing on the rich collection of London’s V&A, the book discusses different traditions and techniques, from the encaustic tiles of the Gothic era through Dutch Delftware to the lively, inventive work of Duncan Grant, while the influence of the Islamic world is shown in the tiles of Moorish Spain and Victorian England.

Award-winning journalist Harriet Quick describes shoes as objects of ‘fascination, status and desire’ in this lavish volume, presented in an embossed box with a ribbon bookmark. Over 300 images by British Vogue photographers spanning from 1920 to 2015 are organized into five themed chapters including ‘Cinderella’, with bejewelled pumps by Manolo Blahnik, and ‘Fetish & Fantasia’, featuring Jean-Paul Gaultier’s corset-laced, thigh-length boots.

Mid 20th-century classics, such as Charles Eames' Model No.670 lounge chair and Arne Jacobsen's Egg chair, are among the extensive selection featured in this design compendium. Each example is afforded its own page and profiled with a brief description and example photograph. Organized chronologically, from the 1800s to the present day, the sourcebook demonstrates how different approaches to the same design problem reflect changing tastes, differing ideals and new technologies.

Elizabeth Wilhide begins this study of Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868–1928) and his achievements in architecture and design by looking at how influences such as the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic movements were forged into a new style and a ‘unique vocabulary of design and decoration’. The book goes on to give a detailed and richly illustrated account of buildings and interiors by Mackintosh, including The Glasgow School of Art, Windyhill, The Hill House and the Willow Tea Rooms.

This comprehensive and detailed sourcebook comprises over 2,000 specially commissioned illustrations, many in colour, charting the history of the shoe from the Egyptian sandals of 2500 BCE to the baseball boots of the 21st century. Each example is carefully described, including details of materials, decorations and fastenings. The reference section provides short biographies of leading designers and companies, and a visual timeline shows the development of footwear through the centuries.

Trendsetter, fashion icon and wife of an internationally famous novelist, Syrie Maugham (1879–1955) created ultra-chic interiors for London drawing rooms and Manhattan apartments. With its white walls and mirrored panels, her blend of classical elegance and Style Moderne was imitated in several Hollywood movies. Featuring many period photographs, this volume charts her life and career, profiles her fashionable clientele of European royalty and Broadway stars, and describes each of her major commissions in detail.

This attractively designed social history rummages through the wardrobes of women in the years before the First World War to reveal the lives and fashions of the real women behind the stiff, mono-bosomed ideal of Edwardian high society, and closes with the newly liberated breed who donned trousers and overalls to work in munitions factories, uniforms to tend the wounded and widow's weeds to mourn a generation of men. The wide-ranging text is highly illustrated.

Into the gap between the antique and the new, there is retro. Done well, the style works with architecture of every period. Drawing together stunning, rarely seen photographs from the exclusive Côté Maison magazines, this book explains how to achieve the perfect retro interior. It explores different interpretations of the look, from Rustic Reclamation to Structural Industrial, and how to combine the different elements – furniture, mirrors, lighting and textiles – in a striking and unusual yet sympathetic manner.

Under the direction of the designer Shirley Craven (b.1934), Hull Traders was one of the most innovative and influential textile studios of the 1960s; its bold, vivid patterns perfectly captured the exuberance and iconoclasm of the era. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, this stylish book celebrates a remarkable creative partnership, and reproduces more than 125 vibrant fabrics by such celebrated artists as Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), Ivon Hitchens (1893–1979) and Althea McNish (b.1933).

In this classic work, Belgian comics writer and scholar Thierry Smolderen digs deep into the origins of the 20th-century comic strip. He establishes how the picture stories and illustrations of artists like William Hogarth, Rodolphe Töpffer and Gustave Doré laid the foundation of the form, which flourished with the evolution of visual culture caused by developments in printing technology, photography, audio recording and cinema. First published in 2000, the book is translated here by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen.

Leonard S Marcus, a distinguished historian of children's literature, presents a short biography of Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), illustrated with a great collection of his work, including many previously unpublished drawings. From doodling in the margins of his schoolbooks to his tragically early death, the book traces the career of the 'man who invented the modern picture book' and whose dynamic visual storytelling was to influence later illustrators, notably Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak. Slightly off-mint.

In 1933, Stephen Tallents, who had been working on posters for the Empire Marketing Board, joined the General Post Office (GPO) to revitalize its public relations and advertising campaigns. He was to become a major patron of art and design, commissioning work by designers such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, Lewitt-Him and Frank Newbould. This volume describes the major personalities and themes of Tallents’s ambitious project.

Published in association with the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, this book originally accompanied an exhibition of the design work of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. A short essay on the two artists introduces over 100 reproductions of their work in a great range of media, including wallpaper design, book jackets and illustration, posters and ceramics, for clients including Wedgwood, Kew Gardens and the Golden Cockerel Press.

Comprising four A–Z sections, this comprehensive, well-designed guide covers the classification of typefaces from Albertus to Zapfino; the anatomy of letterforms; signs and symbols from @ to ¥; and the ‘typographer’s toolkit’ for organizing type on the page.

Men's File magazine was founded in 2008, initially as a showcase for Nick Clements' photography and his own collection of mid-20th-century clothing, cars and motorcycles. The magazine has since become a vintage style tastemaker, tracing the origins of subculture clothing and paraphernalia, from American surf style and classic biker-chic to English country wear, through a mixture of fashion shoots, interviews and articles. This volume selects the best of the first four issues.

Recent interest in retro and period fashions has seen a revival of swing dancing, the style that dominated dance halls from the 1920s to the 1940s. This colourful celebration of the exuberant dance sets out the basic moves of the Charleston, the Collegiate Shag, the Balboa and the Lindy Hop and explores the history and culture of swing, including how to dress and apply make-up to achieve the authentic look.

Film director Otto Preminger gave Saul Bass his break in movies, allowing the designer to carry through his ideas of creating a unified graphic identity for a film, removing sensationalist illustrations and images of the stars. This book reproduces 20 of his classic poster designs, from Vertigo and Spartacus to The Shining. The reproductions are printed on heavy board and sized to fit 12 x 16 inch (305 x 406mm) frames.

A study of the blackletter font style in Mexico and its importance in everyday aesthetic life, introducing the artists who adorn shops, service providers and vehicles and

Digital technology has had a profound effect on magazine publishing, reducing large circulations but making it easier to manipulate text and images, and cheaper than ever to print small numbers. This review of developments in magazine design in the 21st century includes hundreds of example pages from a wide spectrum of publications from mainstream titles to the many new independent magazines that have emerged in recent years.

A teacher at Glasgow School of art, an exhibitor at the 1951 Festival of Britain and a textile designer for Liberty’s, Robert Stewart (1924–1995) dazzled the design world of the 1950s and 1960s. His passion was for surface design on textiles, tapestries, ceramics and paintings. This celebration of his life and achievements is richly illustrated with photographs that demonstrate the breadth of his work and provides a fascinating insight into British post-war design.

From the production of the world’s first plimsoll (1830s) to the Melissa shoe – designed by architect Zaha Hadid (2008) – via winkle-pickers, desert boots, flip-flops, crocs, heelless boots, ballet pumps with heels and the Electric Light Shoe (which is actually a sculpture), here are 50 shoe designs that have made an impact. Each entry in the guide is photographed and described in the context of its significance on the shoe-design timeline.

In 1937, Walt Disney set up a special department to develop characters for his films. Unlike the Disney animators, the artists of the Character Model Department had freedom to work in any way they wanted and created sketches and paintings in their chosen style and medium. This book profiles the work of the six leading artists working in the 1940s and is illustrated with their character artwork for films including Dumbo, Pinocchio and Peter Pan. Felt-tip mark on upper trimmed edge.

A richly illustrated sourcebook, this journey through 3,000 years of pattern styles reveals geographical and cultural contrasts and connections from late Bronze Age metalwork motifs to 21st-century fashion design. Including a visual timeline, analyses of elements of pattern, biographies of the great innovators and examples from textiles, paintings, mosaics, engravings and architecture from around the world, the book provides an inspirational design resource and an expert guide to the history and development of pattern in art.

The McDonald's 'golden arches' logo that has become such an iconic global emblem was originally devised to reference the distinctive architecture of the early restaurants, the most recognizable feature of the growing fast food empire in the 1960s. This design history examines 23 enduring food products, including Heinz ketchup, Campbell's soup, Coca Cola and Oxo, and traces how the illustrative and typographic styles of their brand identities have developed over the years.

Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1953) was a central figure in the Russian Constructivist art movement: a radical activist, a pioneer of photomontage and a theorist, re-examining the place of art in the post-Revolution, classless society. This concise, illustrated study from the Design series focuses on Rodchenko's graphic work for book jackets, posters and advertising.

The 1960s ushered in an explosion of colour and style in the home. Lavishly illustrated with photographs from the archives of House & Garden magazine, this follow-up to the same author's Fifties House celebrates the design trends of the period, from mid-century Modernism to paisley prints and Indian bric-a-brac, and charts the influence of such designers as David Bailey, Terence Conran, Mary Quant and Biba's Barbara Hulanicki, who provides a foreword.

Flip-flops originated in ancient Egypt, sailors wore bell-bottom trousers – a wide leg could be rolled up while swabbing the decks – and the first people to don a parka-style coat were the Canadian Inuit. Taking 70 icons of style – from berets and bikinis to desert boots – this guide charts the history of each item, with photographs revealing how trends have been inspired by work-wear, film, history and the military.

This largely pictorial volume is divided into ten sections, focusing on each decade of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Colour illustrations chart the changing face of fashion, showing underwear, leisure wear, day wear, evening dresses, bridal gowns and accessories for each period, with notes on dates, materials, styles and designs. Short biographies of relevant couturiers and designers are provided, with an illustrated chart of how styles developed through the century. Slightly off-mint.