MTIV Process Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer Book

With his first book, Flash Web Design, Hillman Curtis quickly earned "Flash Guru" status, and deservedly so. MTIV expands upon that. Like the coolest mentor one could ever hope to find, he strikes a chord with his audience by sharing, not just the nuts and bolts behind his creations, but his ideas on good design methodology. Here he shares his respect and excitement for New Media, gives a blueprint for design challenges of all types, taps into the myriad of visual and literary inspirations that fuel his imagination, and shows readers how to get past their own moments of "designer's block". Curtis is a fine storyteller. He takes anecdotes of coffee breaks, book tour lectures, work, life and art, and weaves them around design maxims. For every morsel of advice, there are three or four personal stories that illustrate how he arrived at it and puts it to use. He shows how books, movies, print ads, just about anything, can be used in the search for creative solutions. The seven steps in "Process" comprise the bulk of the book. These are the exact steps Curtis' design team applies to each project. Without giving too much away, they are: Listen, Unite, Theme, Concept, Filter, Justify and Eat the Audience. (Well, you'll just have to get the book to find out about that last one.) In "Inspiration", we learn that Curtis draws from Hemingway, Mies van der Rohe, Sidney Lumet, David Mamet, Leonard Cohen, Mark Rothko and Joseph Müller-Brockman, among others. And the book finishes with a bang in the third chapter "Practice", a collection of helpful tips in typography, colour theory, XML, grids and much more, from experts such as Joseph Lowery (author of the Dreamweaver Bible) and usability authority Steve Krug. MTIV is not just an easy read; it's fun, warm, encouraging and, yes, inspiring. A self-taught artist, Curtis has made MTIV the perfect Boy Scout manual for those who have stumbled on design as a new career or just languished through too many uninspired afternoons in front of the computer. --Angelynn GrantRead More