Books about Ephemeral from Amazon.com

Graphic designers have always developed and designed new fonts for application
in individual projects. Playful Type discovers a new and young generation
of designers who are applying typography beyond the classical typeset and creating
a dynamic range of playful and illustrative fonts and ephemeral lettering.
Playful Type examines how designers today are creating typography with the aid
of a multitude of different techniques. From manual lettering, calligraphy and
collage to manipulative time exposure of photographs, designers are developing
fonts for the moment which are irregular and often accidental. Blocks of ice are
even being staged as real characters and paper cut forms and shadows metamorphose
into letters and spatial installations. This book shows such cuttingedge
examples of elusive scripts that are being translated into serially employable
alphabets to be used digitally with the computer.
Playful Type presents an inspiring collection of illustrative fonts and hand-made
typography created from a variety of cutting-edge approaches and indicates
current development in font design..
Price: $38.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The material history of wax is a history of disappearance--wax melts, liquefies, evaporates, and undergoes innumerable mutations Wax is tactile, ambiguous, and mesmerizing, confounding viewers and scholars alike. It can approximate flesh with astonishing realism and has been used to create uncanny human simulacra since ancient times--from phallic amulets offered to heal distressing conditions and life-size votive images crammed inside candlelit churches by the faithful, to exquisitely detailed anatomical specimens used for training doctors and Medardo Rosso's "melting" portraits.
The critical history of wax, however, is fraught with gaps and controversies. After Giorgio Vasari, the subject of wax sculpture was abandoned by art historians; in the twentieth century it once again sparked intellectual interest, only soon to vanish. The authors of the eight essays in Ephemeral Bodies--including the first English translation of Julius von Schlosser's seminal "History of Portraiture in Wax" (1910-11)--break new ground as they explore wax reproductions of the body or body parts and assess their conceptual ambiguity, material impermanence, and implications for the history of Western art..
Price: $30.73 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book investigates the versatility and flexibility of ceramic materials through a selection of 32 works merging architecture, interior design, public spaces, and temporary places. This is a fascinating tour from concept to production of synergies between design, technology and innovation, new discoveries of ceramic material techniques for the needs of contemporary architecture. Including projects by Vazquez Consuegra, Francesco Mangado, Souto de Moura, Italo Rota, Cloud9, EMBT, Carlos Ferrater..
Price: $28.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Praise for Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston:

"I find Cite to be thorough, imaginative, always stimulating, and responsive to the diversity of the Houston community. I hope to see it continue—I hope to see it flourish "

—Larry McMurtry

"Cite is one of the liveliest and most interesting journals on architecture and urbanism that is being produced today."

—Robert Bruegmann, Professor and Chair, Art History Department and School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Cite has become an important national publication, for it situates local and regional culture within the context of national and global issues. Thus it provides an antidote to provincialism, on the one hand, and to excessively abstract globalism on the other. Put differently, Cite proves that local concerns need not be parochial, while national or global trends have multiple variations."

—Gwendolyn Wright, Professor, Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia University

"In my judgment, this magazine is competitive with any in the United States that focuses on architecture and the built environment."

—Kenneth T. Jackson, Jacques Barzun Professor of History and the Social Sciences, Columbia University

"I know of few other publications in America that have so consistently, and at such a perceptive and sophisticated level, promoted high quality design as a mission of education and improvement.... I am devoted to it and read every issue with great interest, though I live a half continent away."

—Laurie D. Olin, FASLA, Hon. AIA, FAAR, Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Fine Arts, University of Pennsylvania

Built around characteristic features of modern life such as rapid change, built-in obsolescence, indeterminacy, media orientation, a culture of style, and instant gratification, Houston is an ephemeral city, hard to pin down and understand. Its lack of zoning (Houston is the only major city in America without it) and a burgeoning population that doubles every generation have created a new urban paradigm, where displacements of traditional patterns of stability and urban ritual are now the norm.

Since 1982, Cite: The Architectural and Design Review of Houston has explored the nature of Houston's evolution as an urban place by publishing commissioned articles by nationally known writers and architectural historians and high quality photography. This volume brings together twenty-five exceptional articles from Cite's first twenty years, along with 224 black-and-white photographs, maps, and plans. The book is divided into three sections: "Idea of the City," edited by Bruce C. Webb, "Places of the City," edited by Barrie Scardino, and "Buildings of the City," edited by William F. Stern. The sections are introduced with new essays written by the editors to provide cohesion for the anthology and commentary on where Houston might be going in the twenty-first century. Most articles are followed by a brief update and bibliography of related articles published in Cite.

The editors chose these articles to explore the developmental history and architecture of a flat, sprawling, free-spirited city that is impossible to capture through any one episode or explain through any one place. With a diversity of voices and a selection that includes both narrow and broad topics, the volume constitutes a collage that captures the essence of a remarkable place—inchoate, patchwork, full of youthful vigor, favorable to private enterprise, and one of the world's most fascinating cities.

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Price: $23.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Representing the first comprehensive overview of Jerry Bywaters' prints and printmaking career, Niewyk's study will serve as an introduction to the artist's work with lithographic and block prints. Art historians and collectors interested in Texas art will find it an invaluable reference tool. Thirty-four black-and-white lithographs and five full-color block prints are reproduced, in addition to Bywaters' book illustrations, many of his ephemeral works, and photographs of the artist and his subjects..
Price: $21.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]