Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships

I knew nothing of Rowena Reed Kostellow and her brilliant work on the vocabulary and foundational underpinnings of three dimensional design when I purchased this book. As a graphic artist I was intrigued by the promise of a structure within which I can develop as a designer. Part 1 seemed to be mostly praise and biography, at least at first. I found that less interesting at the beginning and I skipped a lot of it. The exercises were fascinating, engaging, and well illustrated and the examples of professional work done by Kostellow's students showed a hint of how much of our designed environment she influenced. Few books change the way one sees things. This is one of them.

I was a student of Miss Reed's (1972-73), even have her hand written notes in my class notebook that I kept, and have always kept these notes close to me, they included everything that she wrote on the blackboard at Pratt Studio. This book will become the the most valuable guide and should be in the library of every designer. So glad to see this book happened, to share some of her teachings. The first thing that I have written in my class journal:" Structural principles parallel visual analysis can create an aesthetic disipline." the next line is "I don't like to go around saying that gray haired men were my students, but they were.."(former student, now GM executive dropping by her class to say hello) then back to her lecture, basic relationships: volume,plane,line,value,texture,color,space. This book covers these topics.

An extraordinary book about design and the leading teacher who set the standard for much of what we all experience as excellence in our contemporary culture.

To truly get the most out of this book, you need one of Rowena's dwindling number of students still left at Pratt teaching to stand over your shoulder. The exercises in this book can all produce amazing results in terms of beautiful abstract relationships but to "know" what is right or wrong with an object using this visual language really takes someone showing you what is wrong with a transition or how this proportion is too similar to that one or how this spacial relationship is not quite right. In the end, you need to know what is wrong in order to really be able to see what is right and it takes someone to show these things to you over and over again. The book is an excellent companion and record of Rowena's interesting and effective exercises, but it's difficult to use as a guide for someone not dialoguing with one of her former students and even that is challenging because each one delivers her gospel of 3D a little differently.Update: 02/12/2010A couple more of Rowena's former students (Lenny Bacich and Dan November) have recently passed away. It's sad to see them go and I will always be reminded of them, and their visions of Rowena's legacy, when I return to this book.

Great book new aproach to design fundamentals and a great way to sketch in 3d and all aspects of aesthetic

This book is a nice window into a professional display of techniques and exercises that garner superior forms and shapes. I bought this book for an industrial design class, it was not mandatory, but completley necessary and helpful. i highly recommend it.

Good book for art students studying 3-D design.

Great!

I bet the content in this book is very valueable, but i won’t read it, because the font size is too small. The practicability of the “design” of the book itself is questionable

Esta compra fue parte de mi bibliografía requerida para la Universidad pero no me arrepiento de comprarlo. Es fácil de entender y si realizas los ejercicios puedes notar mejoría en el entendimiento de la composición y el espacio personalLo único que me detiene a darle 5 estrellas es que algunas fotos en los ejemplos son demasiado pequeñas para apreciarse y es un problema en casi todos los capítulos del libro

Can't thank the students of Rowena Reed enough... Must read for industrial designers

good stuff on forms

Elements of design introduces different spatial learning methods from Rowena Reed Kostellow The book grabs lessons from her to understand how to work with negative volume, how to work with shapes, how to create a more dynamic form. A very interesting read to open the minds of designers especially ones who are going into architectural design. However it doesn't give the reader an answer what are examples of a good form, that is ultimately up to the designer to develop the skill on their own.