Research Diary - Personal Reading Summaries

Understanding Business Second Edition

Nickels, McHugh. Understanding Business Second Edition. Times Mirror/Mosby College Publishing, 1990

This is a book I picked up at a neighbor’s yard sale. It’s a bit outdated, but still an interesting book to read. It is a high-quality educational resource. It provides learning materials that will serve me well in branding design, and advertising related assignments.

What I find very interesting about this book is that, a lot of the stuff the business people are doing is very similar to design. For example, when a company is planning for a new campaign, there is always massive research done before hand. They need to learn consumer’s opinions, the market flow, the current trend, and etc. They also need to carefully plan the execution, for example, the location, the traffic, the culture within the area, and even the weather is important.

Another thing I’m becoming aware is the globalization effect. Due to the fast technology development, our world is becoming smaller. Thus it leaves us designers a lot of opportunities to work across countries.


Graphic Design History A Critical Guide

Drucker, Johanna. Graphic Design History A Critical Guide. Pearson Education Inc, 2009

This is a textbook from last year’s history of typography class. I still flip through it every now and then just for reference use. I find it very interesting to look back at the graphic design history. I can see how graphic design transformed from just a communication tool to what it is today. I feel that graphic design is becoming more and more concept based, rather than just produce nice graphics.

Personally I still like to focus on the visual elements instead of focus on the concept. This is because graphic design itself is a form of visual art, if the visual element is not strong enough, no matter how interesting the content is, people are still not attracted to it.

When I look at the posters in the book, the 18th-19th century design work are lot more interesting to look at, because they are so detailed visually, and even though sometimes it’s hard to understand the concept, my eyes still wonder around and making thought process.


Twenty ads that shook the world

Twitchell, James. Twenty ads that shook the world. Three Rivers Press, 2000

This book takes an in-depth look at the ads and ad campaigns that have most influenced our culture and marketplace in the 20th century. “These campaigns are the signposts of a century of consumerism, our modern canon understood, accepted, beloved, and hated the world over.”

This is an interesting book I found in the school library, I picked it up because I was using it as reference for my liberal study course. While I was reading the book, I find a lot of advertising campaigns are using extremely smart tactics to persuade consumers. The communication of these campaigns is very strong, mainly because it was supported by interesting concepts that will grab people’s attention.

It is a bit different from graphic design. I think graphic design is always trying to tell its audience a message. Advertising campaign is more about perusing the viewer to purchase something.


Applied Ethics Fourth Edition

May, Larry. Applied Ethics Fourth Edition. Pearson Education Inc, 2006

This book mainly talked about the world’s current issues, like terrorism, racism, human rights, and etc. It is not directly related to graphic design, however I find this book has a strong influence on me.

First of all, I’m beginning to see the world from different perspectives. There are a lot more we can do as graphic designers, than just make brand design & websites. There are millions of people out there that need our help, yet we hear so little story from them. I feel as a graphic designer, it’s my job to help them.

Secondly, one article about poverty changed my perspective about life. I used to think in order to survive, I must earn as much money as possible, and I will be able to get whatever I want then, thus it will lead me to a good life. But there are many people in this world who are still worrying about putting food on the table, compare to them, I am much luckier.