Islamic Design [With CDROM]

I was looking for inspiring Islamic-style (NOT specifically Islamic - but nature inspired, Islamic coloring, etc) designs for clay glaze designs. I bought Islamic Design ($27), Art Nouveau Floral and Animal Designs ($28) and Arabic Art in Color ($12). The prices reflect in the appropriate order (higher $ to lower $) of quality. Here is my comparison: Islamic Design, has a cd of all the images, 127 pages of images, high quality images. Some of the images are small, but loading them onto your computer allows you to zoom in. Images on disc are bigger. Art Nouveau Floral and Animal Designs: has 48 pages of images, a cd, the images are pretty good, the colors are a little dull but maybe that's part of the style? Images are also bigger on disc. The price is a little high for only 48 pages. Arabic Art in Color: 47 pages of images. The images are of low quality, there is no CD, the colors seem dull, many of the designs look like middle school math projects on graph paper, and MANY OF THE IMAGES ARE REPEATED IN HIGHER QUALITY IN Islamic Design. Pay the extra money for the higher quality. Also, this book was hard to scan close to the binding without having to rip off the pages. I meant to return this but ran out of time.

I am a graphic designer for a magazine, and I use Dover publications often in both my professional and personal work. I have to represent many different cultures with the layouts I create. The Islamic patterns in this book and CD-Rom set are beautiful, and very useful. The price is so cheap, even if you only end up using a few images, it is a good deal. They can help put the viewer in the culture when the photo shoot needed help and an appropriate stock photo is not available. The printed book itself is attractive and pleasant to browse through. One drawback is that the sources are not identified. It would be nice to know something about the background behind each design: where is it from, is it characteristic of any particular Islamic group? I would like to be able to use the images as intelligently as possible, and a little education along with the artwork would be nice. I haven't used them yet, but there are also vector versions: over 70, all one color pieces. The quality varies, but at the price, I have no complaint. At least some of them will be useful, from what I have seen. Overall, I would recomemd this book; you won't find a less expensive collection of Islamic art with this high lvel of quality and variety of formats.