The Secret Language Of Color: Science, Nature, History, Culture, Beauty of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, & Violet

Excellent book. I love it. Every page is a feast of colour and the layout is really good. A brilliant book to dip into and enjoy. So much to learn about colour and it's all in this book. Well worth buying.

There's tons of fascinating information presented in this book. Gorgeous photographs, as well as lively diagrams and graphs, illuminate what we perceive as color. Color me one happy reader!

a very well presented book

The Secret Language of Color is appropriately, a feast for the eyes. It divides itself into basic colors and categories, and provides a rich sampling of things, concepts and facts associated with that color - or colors in that field. It's a nice concept, and it is delightfully executed by 8 ½ Design (though you might need a magnifying glass to read the captions). Each chapter has its own template backdrop that you first see in the table of contents, which itself is a collection of the templates with large page numbers, instead of a simple list. The chapters themselves use the template image as the bleeding edge of their pages. The text is the color of the chapter (The first chapter is rainbow gradient). Lots of colorful photos, a bunch of color illusion tests, and all kinds of factoids. The images often stretch across two pages, and the layout is festively inconsistent. Even the Acknowledgements manages to color everyone's name differently. It's a stylish overview. You learn a bunch of things, like why stones look more colorful when wet (Light-scattering effects off the stone's surface are muted by the wet covering), where Yellow Journalism came from (The popular Yellow Kid cartoons, claimed by two major papers because of the readership it brought in), and the odd fact that cardinals and flamingos get their red/pink colors from what they eat. Change their diet, and they lose their hues. I particularly liked the introduction, where the authors state their primary discovery: "Anyone who claims to be an expert in color is a liar," is how it begins. Color is so central so every field, every science, every art, and every being that no one can possibly have a complete handle on it. Especially since we're still just learning (The text of the introduction is a rainbow gradient - of course). That said, the Eckstuts have put together a very easy to read compendium, which constantly crosses the threshold from pop science to coffee table and back. It's hard to pin it down. But as an interesting read and a terrific layout, it's a memorable celebration. David Wineberg

Content is there, not very nicely laid out. For art and design book I would expect better layout and design. There are lot better books on the topic and perhaps you would be better of getting one of those.

Great book however it came a bit beaten

I am in love with colour and this book is an example of why I love it, the information and the illustrations are just enough to understand what colour is

Stunning, fantastic book. I use this book with my art students ages 4-18+. The work that went into this publication was an effort well spent. A unique look at colour and a work of art in and of itself.

The perfect coffee table book, this one will be a gift for several people on my Xmas list. Heavy on the natural sciences but with a nod to the social sciences at every chance, the authors cover much territory. The visuals, as you might expect, are often stunning. More than your average coffee table book, it has enough text to keep people coming back. It's hard to imagine a person not finding at least something of interest here. You can page straight to the chapter of your favorite color and save the others for later. In addition to colors, titles of other chapters include: Universe, Earth, Plants, Animals, Humans, and Physics & Chemistry. What is in the chapters that are not specific to only 1 color? In the Humans chapter, for example, topics include: different ways of looking at skin color, color trends throughout history, and how color has been used in symbols. If you are getting the idea that *history* is a recurring theme in this book, then you would be correct. Unless the person you are buying for has a strong aversion to science, I can't see many being offended by the material within (as opposed to about a thousand books I can think of that would not be appropriate as gifts).

Alla scoperta dei linguaggi, significati e natura dei colori che trasformano un mondo in b/n in un affresco