Rating: 
Summary: It's no more than a clipart collection
Review: It's no more than the print out of a clipart/styles/templates/borders collection and other amenities that you can find in any Office-Automation-Software application. EXTREMELY POOR
Rating:
Summary: Graphic Design Cookbook
Review: It's page after page of design templates - templates you'd have to build from scratch because they're only on paper - with NO explanation of what they are or are meant to accomplish. I returned the book the day I received it.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it!
Review: Not worth itIs VERY general, no meaningful text, the entire book is ONLY about redundant and basic examples of layouts, you can easily live without it!
Don't buy it!!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing. Need ideas? Get them somewhere else!
Review: O.K. I was not expecting an in-depth graphic design book. What I was looking for (and couldn't find) was a source of inspiration. This book supposedly gives you ideas to quickly incorporate them in your design tasks. "Mix & Match"... yeah right! Of course you'll find many useful ideas, but some of the examples shown in the book (most of them as a matter of fact) are either obvious examples of basic design or just repetitive. If you want a source of inspiration, a place where you really grab an idea from here, a concept from there and beauty and awe from somewhere else, you should buy a design annual. A book with real examples where you can also "mix & match" various ingenious and downright amazing ideas... (or get a Muse!)
Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly helpful
Review: On the surface, books like "Graphic Design Cookbook" can often be viewed as chop-shop, cliff-note style templates for non-creative people looking for ideas to steal/copy. As a professional graphic designer, I looked at this book cover with a smirk at first, but I decided to check it out anyhow. Boy was I surprised. What makes "GDC" work is that they provide many examples of effective, smart, layouts using graphical elements, text measures, pull quotes and grids. But what makes the book sing is that the elements are abstract geometric shapes -- not completed designs -- so your imaginiation / creativity runs wild. Any copy that is used is Latin, so your eyes arent distracted into READING the text, just view it as a functional element in relation to the physical page. It's true -- many look at magazine ads or print annuals looking for layout ideas, but this one actually allows your ideas to flow -- not form fit someone else's creation. It's a caffeine kick to the right brain.
Rating:
Summary: A BIG collection of lay-outs
Review: The book is almost what the title says: a Cookbook. It is full of sketched 'recepies' of layouts (most of them mediocre), almost no text, organized in categories.
If it really were a Cookbook, you would have some text, explaining a bit more thoroughly what you could do with the idea presented.
It's a book you learn very little from - you are expected to apply what is presented. The book laid in a very arid manner, being plainly dull at some points. I did not like it at all.
If you're looking for a real Cookbook, get Jim Krause's 'Idea Index'! It not only gives you the ideas, but also has 'suggested serving variations', so you can spice-up the concepts presented.
Rating:
Summary: A BIG collection of lay-outs
Review: The book is almost what the title says: a Cookbook. It is full of sketched 'recepies' of layouts (most of them mediocre), almost no text, organized in categories.
If it really were a Cookbook, you would have some text, explaining a bit more thoroughly what you could do with the idea presented. It's a book you learn very little from - you are supposed to apply what is presented. The book laid in a very arid manner, being plainly dull at some points. I did not like it at all. If you're looking for a real Cookbook, get Jim Krause's 'Idea Index'! It not only gives you the ideas, but also has 'suggested serving variations', so you can spice-up the concepts presented.
Rating: 
Summary: Must Have for all Designers
Review: There is nothing to read (well, except for the introduction), just thousands of "mix & match" line drawings for layout ideas. This recipe book has been around for a while, but you'd never know it. All the ideas are both classic yet fresh. The least amount of money you'll ever spend for gazillions of ideas. A must have in every design library.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Book - BUY NOW!!!
Review: This book isn't available in New Zealand and a tutor had one. I came to Amazon.com and ordered the book. It took 10 days to get to New Zealand and was cheaper than it would be if available here. I design publications, CDs and web sites and the book is incredible for giving me ideas. It's brilliant. If you are a designer and you are a little short of ideas, or you're learning how to design BUY THE BOOK!!!. Thanks too to Amazon.com for perfect service.
Rating:
Summary: a-w-f-u-l
Review: This is a book because it has a cover. Inside, you get 140 pages of tiny layout designs and text justification patterns, page number positioning (!), column layouts, page geometric divisions.... this is NOT inspirational at all, at least for a standard "no awards" designer like me... This is a collection of obvious stuff, even Microsoft Word page wizards can be much more creative than this. Do not waste money, I will really like to suggest you the Krause's "IDEA INDEX" book, that is another planet.
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