Ok, to fill this “summertime gap” i will support some books that made me help to a fundamental understanding of design, digital art and the designprocess itself.

Super - Welcome to grafic design wonderland
I will start with Super - welcome to grafic design wonderland (you can view pages at die gestalten). It is my very favourite book. I would never sell it! Although it has almost no text in it. It is something like a “printed down visual conference or discourse”. Some bleeding-edge european designers were asked for a meeting in Switzerland. There they showed what and how they work. Insprired by that meeting they did their contribution to this book. And it is a totally blast off: highly condensed works of some leading designers. This is far more than this typical “here’s my portfolio” thing. Is is very near to art and very close to my “design is fetishism”-thinking. The contribution and the form of the book itself is very radical: the cover is in neon-yellow and they cutteed out the booktitle. They also used lots of diffrent paper. Again: a non-verbal mindblowing discourse.

Maeda at Media
John Maeda’s Maeda at media. Strange title, indeed. This book gives a good insight into the development of John Maedas thinking and the development of his “creative code”. This book reminds me more of a popsong, than a (research) publication: it made me instantly a Maeda-fan. I especially like the focus on the creative process that is embracing the whole book. And the “linear form” of it. The perfect preparation for the deep insight of creative code:

John Maeda - Creative Code
This book is the resume of Maeda’s years at the aestetic and computational group of the MIT Media Lab. It continues ‘maeda at media’ and shows a very good overview of what digital art can be at the beginning of the 21st century. Definately a must read for the digital artist.

Well, theese books are nothing new. Some are years old now. But I really hate this “we only show off the brandnew stuff” of most media. There are some mags and bloggers that say: hey you media, that is an old fart- go away. Disgusting. Go away. I hate you. Quality is here to stay.