Visual language for designers

visual_languageVisual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics That People Understand
By Connie Malamed

This is a great read for those of us who are harnessing the power of visuals to highlight our content.

Within every picture is a hidden language that conveys a message, whether it is intended or not. This language is based on the ways people perceive and process visual information.

By understanding visual language as the interface between a graphic and a viewer, designers and illustrators can learn to inform with accuracy and power.

In a time of unprecedented competition for audience attention and with an increasing demand for complex graphics, "Visual Language for Designers" explains how to achieve quick and effective communications.

New in paperback, this book presents ways to design for the strengths of our innate mental capacities and to compensate for our cognitive limitations.

"Visual Language for Designers" includes:
--How to organize graphics for quick perception
--How to direct the eyes to essential information
--How to use visual shorthand for efficient communication
--How to make abstract ideas concrete
--How to best express visual complexity
--How to charge a graphic with energy and emotion

About the author: Connie Malamed has a background in art and cognitive psychology, with a B.S. in Art Education and an M.A. in Instructional Design and Technology. She is a consultant based in the Washington, D.C. area in the fields of e-learning, visual communication, media design, and information design. http://www.malamedconsulting.com

The book is available from Book Depository, Fishpond, The Nile and Amazon

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IBM’s cognitive computing system is set to release its first cookbook

IBM’s game show-winning computer Watson turns its hand to helping chefs generate startling taste sensations ‘man alone might never imagine’

Touting such eyebrow-raising combinations as an Indian turmeric paella, a Turkish-Korean anchovy Caesar salad and a Creole shrimp-lamb dumpling, a new contender for hottest cookery writer of 2015 is preparing to elbow aside the likes of Jamie Oliver, Mary Berry and Nigella Lawson: IBM’s supercomputer Watson.

Four years after beating two human champions to win the US game show Jeopardy!, IBM’s cognitive computing system is set to release its first cookbook - with the help of a few human specialists. Out in April from independent American publisher Sourcebooks, Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson uses the supercomputer to generate exotic ingredient combinations from the “trillions” of potential groupings out there, with chefs from the Institute of Culinary Education then designing recipes based on Watson’s suggestions. The book will feature, promises its publisher, “unusual ingredient combinations that man alone might never imagine”.  Read more from the Guardian  =>  http://bit.ly/1C0bkfh

The Epic Conclusion to Bloodlines

 

LOVE WILL CONQUER ALL

 

 The Ruby Circle ...

 

 

 

  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
  • Format: Paperback | 368 pages
  • Publication date: 10 February 2015
  • Publication City/Country: London
  • ISBN 10: 014136131X
  • ISBN 13: 9780141361314

 

 

The Ruby Circle is the epic conclusion to Richelle Mead's bestselling Bloodlines series , set in the world of Vampire Academy - NOW A MAJOR FILM.

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets - and human lives.

After their secret romance is exposed, Sydney and Adrian find themselves facing the wrath of both the Alchemists and the Moroi in this electrifying conclusion to Richelle Mead's New York Times bestselling Bloodlines series.

When the life of someone they both love is put on the line, Sydney risks everything to hunt down a deadly former nemesis. Meanwhile, Adrian becomes enmeshed in a puzzle that could hold the key to a shocking secret about spirit magic, a secret that could shake the entire Moroi world...

About the Author:  Richelle Mead is the bestselling author of the Vampire Academy, Bloodlines and Age of X series. Her love of fantasy and science-fiction began at an early age when her father read her Greek mythology and her brothers made her watch Flash Gordon. She went on to study folklore and religion at the University of Michigan, and, when not writing, Richelle spends her time drinking lots of coffee, keeping up with reality TV, and collecting 1980s T-shirts. Richelle lives with her family in Seattle in the USA. www.richellemead.com

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Tiny beautiful things. Advice on Life and Love from someone who’s been there

Rich with humor, insight, compassion - and absolute honesty - Tiny Beautiful Things is a balm for everything life throws our way, administered by the author of the New York Times-bestselling memoir, Wild.

Life can be hard: your lover cheats on you, you lose a family member, you can't pay the bills. 

But it can be pretty great, too: you've had the hottest sex of your life, you get that plum job, you muster the courage to write your novel. 

Everyday across the world, people go through the full and glorious gamut of life - but sometimes, a little advice is needed. 

For several years, thousands turned to Cheryl Strayed, a then-anonymous internet Agony Aunt. But unlike most Agony Aunts, this one's advice was spun from genuine compassion and informed by a wealth of personal experience - experience that was sometimes tragic and sometimes tender, often hilarious and often heartbreaking. 

Having successfully battled her own demons while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed sat down to answer the letters of the frightened, the anxious, the confused; and with each gem-like correspondence - of which the best are collected in this volume - she proved to be the perfect guide for those who had got a little lost in life.

About the Author

Cheryl Strayed is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Torch, the huge New York Times-bestselling memoir Wild and the collection of essays Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Someone Who's Been There. Her work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Allure and The Rumpus. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
 
 
 
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Hello from the Gillespies – funny and heartfelt novel about miscommunication and mayhem in a family

hello_gillespies
Published:24/09/2014
Format:Paperback, 528 pages
ISBN-13:9781921901812
ISBN-10:1921901810
Origin:Australia
Imprint:Michael Joseph
Publisher:Penguin Aus.

International number one bestseller Monica McInerney brings us a sparkling and hilarious new novel about the ups and downs of family life.

For more than thirty years, Angela Gillespie has sent friends and family around the world an end-of-year letter titled 'Hello from the Gillespies'. It's always been cheery and full of good news. This year, Angela surprises everyone including herself – she tells the truth . . .

The Gillespies are far from the perfect family that Angela has made them out to be. Her husband seems to be having a mid-life crisis. Her grown-up twins are having career meltdowns. Her third daughter, badly in debt, can't stop crying. And her ten-year-old son spends more time talking to his imaginary friend than to real ones.

With fantasy thoughts of a life before marriage and motherhood becoming more than just an innocent daydream, Angela's real life is slowly slipping out of focus. But, as the repercussions of her ruthlessly honest letter begin to pile up, a shocking event takes Angela from her family, and she realises she should have been more careful of what she wished for... Without Angela, the family would fall apart. But when Angela is taken from them in this most unexpected manner, the Gillespies pull together – and pull themselves together – in wonderfully surprising ways . . .

From the bestselling author of The House of Memories comes a funny and heartfelt novel about miscommunication and mayhem in a family like no other.

About the Author

Australian-born Dublin-based Monica McInerney is the author of nine novels, including the best-sellers The House of Memories, Lola's Secret, At Home with the Templetons and Those Faraday Girls, which are published across the world. Monica grew up in a family of seven children in the Clare Valley wine region of South Australia. Since then Monica has lived all around Australia, in Ireland, and in London. She and her Irish husband move back and forth between Australia and Ireland.

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Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in nearly a decade

buried_giant

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
ISBN: 030727103X
Published: 3 March 2015

This is an extraordinary new novel from the author of "Never Let Me Go" and the Booker Prize-winning "The Remains of the Day.

"You've long set your heart against it, Axl, I know. But it's time now to think on it anew. There's a journey we must go on, and no more delay . . ."

"The Buried Giant" begins as a couple set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen in years. Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro's first novel in nearly a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge, and war.

"Kazuo Ishiguro is an original and remarkable genius". (The New York Times).
"A master craftsman". (Margaret Atwood, Slate).
"The best and most original writer of his generation". (Susan Hill, Mail on Sunday).

About the Author
KAZUO ISHIGURO's seven previous books have won him wide renown and numerous honors. His work has been translated into more than forty languages. Both "The Remains of the Day" and "Never Let Me Go "have more than 1,000,000 copies in print across platforms, and both were adapted into highly acclaimed films.

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Aussie author wins Man Booker! Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan

 


What would you do if you saw the love of your life, whom you thought dead for a quarter of a century, walking towards you?

Richard Flanagan's story-of Dorrigo Evans, an Australian doctor haunted by a love affair with his uncle's wife -journeys from the caves of Tasmanian trappers in the early twentieth century to a crumbling pre-war beachside hotel, from a Thai jungle prison to a Japanese snow festival, from the Changi gallows to a chance meeting of lovers on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Taking its title from 17th-century haiku poet Basho's travel journal, The Narrow Road To The Deep North is about the impossibility of love.

At its heart is one day in a Japanese slave labour camp in August 1943, and forever after, there were for them only two sorts of men: the men who were on the Line, and the rest of humanity, who were not. As the day builds to its horrific climax, Dorrigo Evans battles and fails in his quest to save the lives of the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, a man is killed for no reason. He receives a letter that will change his life forever and a love story unfolds.

Hailed as a masterpiece, Richard Flanagan's epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man's reckoning with the truth.

 

 

About the Author:

 

Born in Tasmania in 1961, Richard Flanagan is one of Australia's leading novelists. His novels, Death of a River Guide, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Gould's Book of Fish (winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize), The Unknown Terrorist and Wanting have received numerous honours and been published in 26 countries. His father, who died the day Flanagan finished The Narrow Road to the Deep North, was a survivor of the Burma Death Railway.

 

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A Guide to Spirituality without Religion

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 9, 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1451636016
  • ISBN-13: 978-1451636017

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s new book is a guide to meditation as a rational spiritual practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.

From multiple New York Times bestselling author, neuroscientist, and “new atheist” Sam Harris,Waking Up is for the 30 percent of Americans who follow no religion, but who suspect that Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history could not have all been epileptics, schizophrenics, or frauds. Throughout the book, Harris argues that there are important truths to be found in the experiences of such contemplatives—and, therefore, that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow.

Waking Up is part seeker’s memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris—a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic—could write it.

About the Author

Sam Harris is the author of the bestselling books The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, and Lying. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing has been published in over fifteen languages. Dr. Harris is cofounder and CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA. Please visit his website at SamHarris.org.
Tim Ferriss interviewed Sam Harris, the author, on his podcast.
Listen to it >> here.   You can download it in iTunes >> here.
You can BUY THE BOOK from Amazon , The Book Depository (yes those are affiliate links and it you buy through them, I earn a few cents.  Thank you in advance)
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Your master class in the art of persuasion, taught by professors ranging from Bart Simpson to Winston Churchill.

 

 

Whether you’re an inveterate lover of language books or just want to win a lot more anger-free arguments on the page, at the podium, or over a beer, Thank You for Arguing is for you ... and I featured it at Pivotal Public Speaking >> here

Faery Tale – One woman’s search for Enchantment in a Modern World

 
A skeptic's search for magic, one faery at a time.

 

In search of something to believe in again, Signe Pike left behind a career in Manhattan to undertake a magical journey-literally. In a sweeping tour through England, Ireland, Scotland, and beyond, she takes readers to dark glens and abandoned forests, ancient sacred sites, and local pubs, seeking those who might still believe in the mysterious beings we've relegated to the dusty corners of our childhood imaginations: faeries. But as Signe attempts to connect with the spirit world, she'll come to view herself and the world around her in a profoundly new way.
Engaging and full of heart, Faery Tale is more than a memoir-it's the story of rekindling that spark of belief that makes even the most skeptical among us feel like a kid again.
  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Perigee Trade; Reprint edition (November 1, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399537007
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399537004
Signe Pike worked in book publishing at Random House and Penguin before leaving New York to write the travel memoir FAERY TALE: One Woman's Search for Enchantment in a Modern World. The memoir received glowing reviews from Harper's Bazaar and Women's Adventure Magazine among others, as well as earning a "Best of 2010" nod from Kirkus Reviews. Pike and her memoir were featured on NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" along with Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman, and A.S. Byatt. In February of 2012 she published her first collection of poetry entitled NATIVE WATER. 
Signe currently lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband, book and music critic Eric Liebetrau, where she is at work on her next exploration into things unseen. 
To contact Signe, view photos or videos from her travels, or get an updated schedule of events, please visit www.signepike.com



Buy the book from Book Depository (currently best price for Australians), fishpond.com.au,or Amazon