I Am Almost Always Hungry

Rating:
Summary: Pretentious Waste of Paper
Review: ...If you want inspiration get DesignAgent or SoakWaskRinseSpin. I'm not sure what these guys were thinking. It has twelve pages of code, about 30 pages of one word written in different colors. There is hardly any real design. Just a waste of paper. It's not even artsy in a good way. Sorry to be so harsh. But it's not even a good coffee table book.

Rating:
Summary: Collage material
Review: By itself, this book has no soul, but it's worth buying to appropriate from.

Perhaps the point of the book is that the firm works best in tandem with the client; without a client, there is no dynamism.

But, for the beauty of the images, the quality of its printing, its many papers and series, the book should be cut up, glued together and offered as the collaboration Cahan etc. thrive on.

Rating:
Summary: Promotional purpose
Review: Despite all the wonderful graphic and its presentation, I feel that this book mainly intends to promote the desing firm. Although I learned some conceptual skill from this book, I would rather borrow it from a friend.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and insightful
Review: I found the book to be extremely enlightening. Really getting into the process and the approach of the firm was awesome. Not the most eye catching book but for content, it was phenomenal. Preaching concept, communication and being open-minded, the book really reinforces those strong ideas in graphic design. It's definitely not for everyone, but I strongly recommend it to designers who strive to do great work that has a purpose and communicates.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: I ordered this book and promptly returned it. Normally, I am a fan of Cahan's work, but this was nothing like the clean, intuitive style I have grown accustomed to seeing from his office. And, that is not to say change is not good. It just so happens, this one isn't.

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money!
Review: Pure genius. This design house's work transcends the merely informative...It approaches high art. The most stunning examples are the works for bio-tech firms which bring out the "soul" of these very esoteric groups by relating the scientific with the human, the pain with the patient, the successes with the tribulations...often on a single page with only a word and a picture or two

An ability to lock in a word with an image into a tight presentation makes their design a high form of conceptual art (with feeling, mind you) rivaling that of any "fine" artist/group from Bruce Nauman to the Situationalists.

If you want to see what "mere" graphic design can achieve, get this book before you buy yet another one about the "new typographers".

Rating:
Summary: This is no diet book it leaves you wanting more!
Review: The ability to be an award winning graphic design firm and continue to put out great work for his clients makes Cahan & Associates almost mythical. 'I Am Almost Always Hungry' allows you to feel like you are behind the scenes of some chaotic but highly sophisticated dinner party with founder Bill Cahan leading you through his entrees of work. With the designers being the project's chef and Cahan being the maitre d', this is definitely one meal that you never know how it will turn out. This book has no exact recipes but instead a view at thinking outside the box for success in today's copycat world.

Besides showing some of the best design work in the world, Cahan's team seem to have a deep feeling for simplifying complex information and maximizing the identity of their clients: this is the concept that underpins the work of Cahan & Associates.

As I finished this visual masterpiece over a cappuccino, I just had to laugh to myself on just how Cahan and company get away with this kind of work.