The Write Turn: Books We Love and Recommend
What the Hell are you Doing?
BY David Shrigley
A beautifully designed and darkly comic collection of work, this book collects together the best of Shrigley's work, old and new. It is a celebration of the surreal world of one of our finest contemporary artists.
The Secret of Chanel No. 5
BY Tilar J. Mazzeo
The Secret of Chanel No. 5 is Tilar J. Mazzeo's far-ranging and fascinating search beyond the stuff of legend to uncover the full story of No. 5's creation, iconic status, and extraordinary success. Mazzeo goes back through time and deep into the life of Coco Chanel, the brilliant, controversial, and steel-willed businesswoman at the heart of the fragrance.

She takes readers to the rose plantations and celebrated jasmine fields where the perfume begins and then to the laboratories and boardrooms where scent and sex are forever intertwined. And she travels to the heart of the Chanel empire: 31 Rue Cambon, Coco Chanel's flagship boutique, where six decades ago American GIs stormed the counters to possess the magical elixir that captured the luxury and romance of Paris for their girls back home.

A blend of evocative history and thoughtful research, here is a glittering account of where art and sensuality mingle with dazzling entrepreneurship and desire: Chanel No. 5.
Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog
BY Fabio Prata, Flavia Nalon
Test your typographical skills with this memory game, The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog.

From the minds of Brazilian design studio ps.2 arquitetura + design, the game consists 25 variations of the letter ‘A’, each in a different typeface. Players are supposed to find the matching ‘As’ in the same font.

Sounds simple enough, but when it comes down to the typefaces that look almost identical—Helvetica and Univers, for example—you might get stumped.

Other fonts included are Akzidenz Grotesk, Baskerville, Centaur, Garamond, Times New Roman and more. Each card comes with a glossary with terms used in typography and a booklet presenting the evolution of type design is also included.
Handbook of Pricing / Ethical Guidelines
BY Graphic Artist's Guild
For years, the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines has been the industry bible for graphic designers and illustrators. This, the 13th edition, continues the tradition with new information, listings and pricing information based on surveys of working designers. It addresses legal rights and issues such as how copyright laws affect the income and work of graphic artists. It also provides tips on how to negotiate the best deals and how and what to charge for work, and includes sample contracts. For design and illustration professionals, there is no more comprehensive and informative resource.
Delivering Happiness
BY Tony Hsieh
Pay new employees $2000 to quit. Make customer service the entire company, not just a department. Focus on company culture as the #1 priority. Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business. Help employees grow both personally and professionally. Seek to change the world. Oh, and make money too.

Sound crazy? It's all standard operating procedure at Zappos.com, the online retailer that's doing over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales every year. In 2009, Zappos was listed as one of Fortune magazine's top 25 companies to work for, and was acquired by Amazon later that year in a deal valued at over $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

In his first book, Tony shares the different business lessons he learned in life, from a lemonade stand and pizza business through LinkExchange, Zappos, and more. Ultimately, he shows how using happiness as a framework can produce profits, passion, and purpose both in business and in life.
The 2020 Workplace
BY Jeanne C. Meister, Karie Willyerd
In The 2020 Workplace, human resources experts Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd offer a practical game plan companies can use to attract and keep these employees, and, in doing so, transform their organizations; achieve compelling business results, such as increased innovation and improved customer connectedness; and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.

Based on key findings from two surveys of global professionals, as well as case studies from organizations such as Deloitte, Cisco, Bell Canada, JetBlue, Nokia, and NASA, this book shows how the social technologies that are used outside the company in marketing to connect with customers can be adapted for use inside the company to connect with employees. Meister and Willyerd bolster their thought-provoking research with real-world examples of these practices in action, including a YouTube new-hire orientation contest, the use of Twitter for sourcing job candidates, and a video game for new hires.
The Fundamentals of Design Management
BY Kathryn Best
The Fundamentals of Design Management emphasizes the inter-disciplinary nature of design management, and as such is of relevance to those from a number of backgrounds: art and design, business, marketing or media. Design does not operate in isolation from other disciplines and professions. The book explicitly places the principles and processes of design within the context of a business or enterprise, considering the administrative, legal and financial implications of executing a design project.
Amsterdam: Made by Hand
BY Pia Jane Bijkerk
Amsterdam: Made by Hand takes readers to dozens of boutiques, studios, and workshops offering not only newly created items fashioned by hand, but also vintage objects and found objects that may have been reworked by a talented artist.

Also included are shops providing exclusive European supplies if you want to make your own objects: fabric, vintage silk tassels, yarn, handmade buttons, flowers in feathers and silk, and more.
City Style
BY Museyon Guides
City Style is a guide to the worlds most fashionable cities, curated by their most stylish residents. From the runways of New York and Paris to the streets of Tokyo and the club scene of London, our expert guides give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the local look and how to get it, complete with required reading (magazines and blogs), street style photos and a comprehensive designer guide with photos.

In addition, interviews with designers, stylists and other industry insiders answer the question: What makes each city uniquely stylish?
AIA Guide to New York City
BY Norval White, Elliot Willensky, Fran Leadon
First published in 1968, the AIA Guide to New York City has long been the definitive guide to the city's architecture. Moving through all five boroughs, neighborhood by neighborhood, it offers the most complete overview of New York's significant places, past and present.

The Fifth Edition continues to include places of historical importance--including extensive coverage of the World Trade Center site--while also taking full account of the construction boom of the past 10 years, a boom that has given rise to an unprecedented number of new buildings by such architects as Frank Gehry, Norman Foster, and Renzo Piano.
blog comments powered by Disqus
All images shown above are properties owned by their respective owners. Copyright © 2003 - 2012 Hills Creative Arts Pte Ltd. All rights reserved.