A Map of the World

Publisher: Gestalten / Editor: Antonis Antoniou, R. Klanten, H. Ehmann, H. Hellige

This book features a bunch of high-quality map illustrations and graphics created by outstanding illustrators. This new generation of graphic designers, illustrators, and mapmakers are masters of various forms and artisitc styles of illustrative cartography.

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com

Buy the book on Amazon.com

The post A Map of the World – The World According to Illustrators and Storytellers appeared first on BookStairs.

The Gifts of Imperfection – Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Author: Brene Brown

Book Description: In The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown, a leading expert on shame, authenticity, and belonging, shares ten guideposts on the power of Wholehearted living—a way of engaging with the world from a place of worthiness.

Each day we face a barrage of images and messages from society and the media telling us who, what, and how we should be. We are led to believe that if we could only look perfect and lead perfect lives, we’d no longer feel inadequate. So most of us perform, please, and perfect, all the while thinking, “What if I can’t keep all of these balls in the air? Why isn’t everyone else working harder and living up to my expectations? What will people think if I fail or give up? When can I stop proving myself?”

In her ten guideposts, Brown engages our minds, hearts, and spirits as she explores how we can cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, “No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough,” and to go to bed at night thinking, “Yes, I am sometimes afraid, but I am also brave. And, yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am worthy of love and belonging.”

Buy the book on Amazon.com

The book is available for purchase on Amazon.com

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Brand Design Guide by Alina Wheeler

This book by author Alina Wheeler is the ultimate guide for graphic designers. With latest research and analysis of brand strategies you will learn how to develop a successful brand identity. The book includes more than 30 case studies and shows a five-phase process for creating a brand identity.

Buy the book on Amazon.com

The book is available on Amazon.com

The post Designing Brand Identity – An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team by Alina Wheeler appeared first on BookStairs.

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The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don’t

Author: Nate Silver

Book Description: Drawing on his own groundbreaking work, Silver examines the world of prediction, investigating how we can distinguish a true signal from a universe of noisy data. Most predictions fail, often at great cost to society, because most of us have a poor understanding of probability and uncertainty. Both experts and laypeople mistake more confident predictions for more accurate ones. But overconfidence is often the reason for failure. If our appreciation of uncertainty improves, our predictions can get better too. This is the “prediction paradox”: The more humility we have about our ability to make predictions, the more successful we can be in planning for the future.

In keeping with his own aim to seek truth from data, Silver visits the most successful forecasters in a range of areas, from hurricanes to baseball, from the poker table to the stock market, from Capitol Hill to the NBA. He explains and evaluates how these forecasters think and what bonds they share. What lies behind their success? Are they good—or just lucky? What patterns have they unraveled? And are their forecasts really right? He explores unanticipated commonalities and exposes unexpected juxtapositions. And sometimes, it is not so much how good a prediction is in an absolute sense that matters but how good it is relative to the competition. In other cases, prediction is still a very rudimentary—and dangerous—science.

Silver observes that the most accurate forecasters tend to have a superior command of probability, and they tend to be both humble and hardworking. They distinguish the predictable from the unpredictable, and they notice a thousand little details that lead them closer to the truth. Because of their appreciation of probability, they can distinguish the signal from the noise.

With everything from the health of the global economy to our ability to fight terrorism dependent on the quality of our predictions, Nate Silver’s insights are an essential read.

The book is available on Amazon.com

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Bring Up the Bodies.

Author: Hilary Mantel

Book Description: The sequel to Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn

Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.

At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?

Buy this book on Amazon.com

The post Book: Bring Up the Bodies – A Novel by Hilary Mantel appeared first on BookStairs.

“Identical: Portraits of Twins” is a new monograph by the well known photographer Martin Schoeller with a foreword written by artist Marina Abramović. The book is based on a project that first appeared in the January 2012 issue of National Geographic. Thereafter Martin Schoeller visited the National Twins Day Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio to capture twins, triplets and quadruplets. He took pictures of twins side by side in his typical “close up” style. That enables viewers to compare the faces of the genetically identical.

“Identical – Portraits of Twins” by Photographer Martin Schoeller is available on Amazon.com

“Identical – Portraits of Twins” by Photographer Martin Schoeller is available on Amazon.com

The post Identical – Portraits of Twins by Photographer Martin Schoeller appeared first on BookStairs.

Author: Michael Evamy

This book by Michael Evamy is a huge collection of contemporary logotypes, monograms, and other text-based international corporate marks.

The book is available on Amazon.com

Buy the book on Amazon.com

“Logotype is the definitive modern collection of logotypes, monograms and other text-based corporate marks. Featuring more than 1,300 international typographic identities, by around 250 design studios, this is an indispensable handbook for every design studio, providing a valuable resource to draw on in branding and corporate identity projects.

Logotype is truly international, and features the world’s outstanding identity designers. Examples are drawn not just from Western Europe and North America but also Australia, South Africa, the Far East, Israel, Iran, South America and Eastern Europe. Contributing design firms include giants such as Pentagram, Vignelli Associates, Chermayeff & Geismar, Wolff Olins, Landor, Total Identity and Ken Miki & Associates as well as dozens of highly creative, emerging studios.

Retaining the striking black-and-white aesthetic and structure of Logo (also by Michael Evamy) and Symbol, Logotype is an important and essential companion volume.”

via laurenceking.com

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The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen

Author: Hans Christian Andersen / Translator, Contributor: Maria Tatar / Contributor: Julie Allen

Fairy tales are our first connection to literature and the blueprint for all storytelling in every other medium going forth from that. Growing up loving the stories as told by the Brother’s Grimm, by Perrault, and Andersen, the latter specifically holds a special place in my heart for all the beauty his language manages to convey.

Maria Tatar, the book’s leading contributor (and translator in collaboration with Julie K. Allen), came to re-evaluate her views on Andersen’s sometimes brutal tales after her undergraduate Harvard students protested her analysis of their magical childhood experiences with said stories. Divided in two parts, starting with 12 Tales for Children and continuing with lesser known stories for adults, this book is a treasure trove for all generations, full of gorgeous turn-of-the-century illustrations and margin notes tending to historical contexts, folkloric influences, and critical interpretations.

Snuggle up with your little ones (or your inner child) and let Andersen’s magic take you to that elusive place of childhood imagination and wonder without having to resort to such drastic measure as, say, fairy dust…

The book is available on Amazon.com

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Design Book Recommendation: Stop, Think, Go, Do: How Typography and Graphic Design Influence Behavior.

Author: Steven Heller / Mirko Ilic

Stop, Think, Go, Do demonstrates how typography and graphic design influences our human behavior. The book is full of examples and imagery from around the world that show creative ideas and innovative messages which lead us, move us to act, inform or simply entertain us.

The book is available on Amazon.com

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A Christmas Carol

Author: Charles Dickens

Well, there had to be at least one Christmas book, right?!

And considering how busy this time of year get’s for everyone, why not having it read to you by Jim Dale himself (if you don’t know his famous work on the Harry Potter Audiobooks, go get them now!) while doing your holiday preparations?

Dickens’ tale of the grumpy old Scrooge and the three ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future has been around for almost 170 years now, but we keep coming back to it every year for its quintessential message: That there is an inherent goodness in every human being, which, however lost we are, can be regained. Whether you find this idea grounded in socialist or merely romantic world views, it’s this firm belief in humankind’s possible path of redemption which is appealing to every one of us at least on some level.  It’s what make’s it a timeless classic to be read and listened to again and again without fear of ever losing it’s audience because some messages will never get old. So let yourself be swept away by Dickens’ magnificent storytelling and  Dale’s vivid narration to a sometimes grim but never entirely hopeless 19th-century London on one magic Christmas Eve.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens is available as audiobook on Amazon.com

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