Creative Sparks: An Index of 150+ Concepts, Images and Exercises to Ignite Your Design Ingenuity

This book is phenomenal. It contains a lot of lessons, passages, and much more based on the art and design world. Whenever you are feeling uncreative, do yourself a big favor and buy this book. It is not a book meant to be read from page to page. It's a book meant to randomly pick pages and read and so forth. This book will motivate you, get you thinking creatively, bring you back from ur uncreative sense, and much more. It's a small book, but very handy. My story was I was feeling very uncreative at one point where I couldn't execute my designs and art pieces well. I was desperately looking for a book that would help me find myself within and get back to working creatively. A friend recommended Creative sparks, and i listened. I was glad i did, took it while i was on my way to school, home, everywhere. Even now, that i don't feel uncreative, i still go back to the book and remind myself how great art truly is, and how geeat it is to produce it using your hands and your minds. I would add more, but you'll figure it out as you tune in to this book. Oh, at first, it may not seem as a great book, but remember to allow yourself to not only know the concepts, but UNDERSTAND them. knowing and understanding are different things, so make sure you understand and let it be part of you. That's all i have to say.

I just got this book and I'm loving it. The book is divided into color-coded sections ( Practical Matters, Designer's Notebook, On The Job, Projects and Exercises, Concepts and Life Practices). When you turn to a page, any page, it is cross-referenced by subject to four other relavent pages. Definitely an inspiring, thought-provoking collection of creative sparks that will stay within reach.

I found this book in a search for something to help challenge and jump start my creative process. This book is a quirky way to challenge yourself and stimulate creative ideas. It is a small, pocket sized package that can be browsed one page at a time. You can literally turn to a random, new page (which is how I read it) and spend a minute or two learning a new lesson. Though it is directed at graphic designers, other disciplines can pull some really good ideas from it, too. I highly recommend this. It stays in my backpack all the time, and when I find myself with a few spare minutes, I'll thumb through a few pages.

This one took me by surprise. I own a lot of design books and this is very different from the "norm"--but then, as designers and artists, WE are supposed to be outside the "norm," right? This is the least "stuffy" book on design I've seen in a while. It's strikes a good balance between eye-candy and practicality. I find the exercises and concepts presented to be very "real world" and practical--not classroom theory. I was especially able to relate to the "Designer's Notebook" section (I can tell that J. Krause has been around the design biz for a while). Great book.

I've never sent a review before, but this is an execptional book and I feel compelled to say something about it. Forgive me if this sounds corny, but I can only describe this book as an explosion of visual exuberance and I am still reveling in its aftershocks. I was unable to put this one down until well past midnight last night. Not everyone will understand this book (it is non-linear and filled with non-stop images, thoughts, exercises, practical advice, etc.), but i think that true designers and those who really, really love art will know exactly what it is all about. Every spread in this book presents a jewel of information and/or inspiration. I would, if i could give a copy of this book to every person I know who creates art (either for fun or professionally). It is absolutely unique, absolutely wonderful.