From the author of The Tunnel comes a new collection of essays, his first in eight years, on art, writing, nature and culture. This book is by one of the most important and briliant thinkers at work today.

Filling in a form may be an everyday experience, yet as an aspect of design that affects all our lives, forms are quite often overlooked. This is a handbook on form design for designers, students and anyone interested in improving client communication and information handling.

From the author of The Tunnel comes a new collection of essays, his first in eight years, on art, writing, nature and culture. This book is by one of the most important and briliant thinkers at work today.

Here, in one volume, is all the architect needs to know to participate in the entire process of designing structures. Emphasizing bestselling author Edward Allen's graphical approach, the book enables you to quickly determine the desired form of a building or other structure and easily design it without the need for complex mathematics. This unique text teaches the whole process of structural design for architects, including selection of suitable materials, finding a suitable configuration, finding forces and size members, designing appropriate connections, and proposing a feasible method of erection. Chapters are centered on the design of a whole structure, from conception through construction planning.

An acute and deeply insightful book of essays exploring poetic form and the role of instinct and imagination within form—from former poet laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning author Robert Hass. Robert Hass—former poet laureate, winner of the National Book Award, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize—illuminates the formal impulses that underlie great poetry in this sophisticated, graceful, and accessible volume of essays drawn from a series of lectures he delivered at the renowned Iowa Writers’ Workshop. A Little Book on Form brilliantly synthesizes Hass’s formidable gifts as both a poet and a critic and reflects his profound education in the art of poetry. Starting with the exploration of a single line as the basic gesture of a poem, and moving into an examination of the essential expressive gestures that exist inside forms, Hass goes beyond approaching form as a set of traditional rules that precede composition, and instead offers penetrating insight into the true openness and instinctiveness of formal creation. A Little Book on Form is a rousing reexamination of our longest lasting mode of literature from one of our greatest living poets.

True competence in drawing is an essential skill for anyone in the graphic arts. In this important book, one of America's most distinguished art teachers guides the reader beyond mere surface fluency to a serious understanding and mastery of the basic structural principles common to all forms, human, animal and natural. The clear, straightforward text and schematic diagrams, photographs and drawings show how these forms express perfectly their growth and function. Drawing the human figure is covered in detail, with emphasis on movement, foreshortening and perspective. The structure and interrelationships of body cavity, arms and legs and head are clearly presented with photographs of male and female models and student and master drawings, which are analyzed in detail with diagrams printed in two colors. The dynamic structure of animals is visualized and related to the other subjects. The natural forms of landscape, as well as overall design and composition in nature, are related to other organic structures and illustrated with drawings by students and professionals to indicate the wide range of individual aesthetic responses evoked by the same subject. Basic elements of graphic design -- line, tone, rhythm, movement and value -- are demonstrated in a variety of materials and tools: charcoal, pencil, ink, brush, pen, twigs. A gallery of drawings by leading contemporary artists brings to life that most important goal of the serious artist: the development of an expressive, personal idiom. - Jacket flap.

An exposition on feathers- their form, function, varieties, and physiology, accompanied by the author's stunning artwork made from feathers.