Most of Snell Library's print book collection in the arts is located on the lower level of the library. These books will have a location of "Snell Library Stacks" in their Scholar OneSearch record.
Browsing the shelves of books can be a great research method for finding books for inspiration. You might also make connections with a wide array of themes, topics, etc. when browsing.
The library uses Library of Congress Classification to organize and shelve the books, which uses an alpha-numeric system to assign a call number to each book. Most of the books in the arts are in the N's and most of the books related to graphic design will be specifically in the NC section. Use the table below to guide your browsing in relevant subjects:
|
Subject |
Call Numbers |
|---|---|
| Visual Arts (art museums, exhibitions, history of art, techniques, and more) | N 1-9211 |
| Architecture | NA 1-9428 |
| Sculpture | NB 1-1952 |
| Drawing, Design, and Illustration | NC 1-1940 |
| Graphic Art Materials | NC 845-915 |
| Illustration | NC 950-996 |
| Commercial and Advertising Art | NC 997-1003 |
| Posters | NC 1800-1850 |
| Painting | ND 25-3416 |
| Print Media (printmaking and engraving) | NE 1-3002 |
| Decorative Arts | NK 1-9990 |
| Arts in General (studying, teaching, history of the arts) | NX 1-820 |
| Book Design | Z 116.A3 |
| Printing (type and typesetting) | Z 116.A5-265.5 |
*Note, there are graphic design related books in other sections - not just NC. You might also find relevant books outside of the N's. You can use Scholar OneSearch to search for books and take note of their call number.
Searching by the name of your assigned graphic designer is a good first step in determining if the library has any books by or about that designer. Your search results should return books that have the designer's name in the title, the description of the book, or other fields within the Scholar OneSearch record for the book. Search tip: You can also try putting quotation marks around the name, which tells the database to look for the name as a phrase. For example, searching for "Louise Fili" tells the database to search for the first name and last name in that specific order and next to each other. It won't search for Louise and Fili as separate search terms, which can often bring back irrelevant search results.
Examples include:
Elegantissima: The Design & Typography of Louise Fili
by
Louise Fili has been an inspiration for designers around the world since the 1980s, when she raised the bar on book cover design, creating close to two thousand jackets as art director for Pantheon Books. In 1989 Fili founded her own graphic design studio, Louise Fili Ltd, and branched out into the fields of restaurant and food packaging design. Her lavish and elegant typography, often hand drawn, helps advertise and market such well-known brands as Sarabeth's, Bella Cucina, Jean-Georges, and Good Housekeeping, among many others. Known for her intense attention to detail, her fresh reinterpretation of vintage sources, and her passion for all things Italian, Fili has won numerous awards. Elegantissima, the first monograph on her work, covers the breadth of her nearly forty-year design career and is a must-have for graphic design students and professionals, as well as anyone interested in advertising, food, restaurants, Italy, and books.
Tanaka Ikko: Graphic Master
by
Tanaka Ikko (b.1930) is one of the established masters of Japanese graphic design. His work draws together influences from East and West, acknowledging the vocabulary of European Modernism while remaining characteristically Japanese. Inspired by sources as diverse as traditional Japanese illustration techniques and his passion for American jazz, he is renowned for his numerous cultural posters and programmes for theatre and ballet, many for Kanze Noh Drama. This book examines Tanaka's entire career from the late 1950s to the 1990s and includes his graphic design and art direction, editorial and interior design. Following an introduction by Gian Carlo Calza, the book is structured in four chapters: Japanese Style, Typography, Invitation to Theatre, and Art and Communication Today, each of which addresses a different aspect of Tanaka's momentous career. The concluding section comprises a critical anthology, with contributions from numerous leading commentators on contemporary graphic design, together with an extensive bibliography.
Books that are broader in scope and overview topics related to graphic design may include a section, chapter, a few pages, images, etc. that feature the graphic designer you are researching. Once you access the e-book or check out the print book, you can check the table of contents at the front of the book or the index at the end of the book for mentions of your graphic designer's name or other relevant subjects.
Examples include:
The History of Graphic Design. Vol. 1. 1890-1959
by
History is a complex business. Fortunes boom and bust, empires wax and wane, and change-whether social, political, or technological-has its winners, its losers, its advocates, and its enemies. Through all the turbulent passage of time, graphic design-with its vivid, neat synthesis of image and idea-has distilled the spirit of each age. This book is an in-depth history of graphic design from the end of the 19th century to the '50s. It traces the evolution of this creative field from its beginning as poster design to its further development into advertising, corporate identity, packaging, and editorial design. Organized chronologically, the volume features over 2,500 seminal designs from all over the world, 71 of which are profiled in detail besides 61 leaders in the field, including Alphonse Mucha (chocolate advertisements), Edward Johnston (London Underground logo and typeface), El Lissitzky (constructivist graphics), Herbert Matter (photomontage travel posters from Switzerland), Saul Bass (animated opening titles), and A. M. Cassandre (art deco posters). Author Jens Müller curates the standout designs for each year alongside a running sequence of design milestones. Meanwhile, in his introductory essay, David Jury situates graphic design from its point of origin in early printing, engraving, and lithography to striking creative developments in the 19th century. Each consecutive decade is then prefaced by a succinct overview as well as a visual timeline, offering a vivid display of the variety of graphic production in each decade as well as the global landscape which it at once described and defined. As we move on from and reflect upon the 20th century, this first volume examines the foundations of what would influence some of the fastest-changing creative fields. Combined with Volume Two-which spans from the 1960s until today-the tomes offer the most comprehensive exploration of graphic design to date and a long-overdue recognition of its enormous contribution to economics, politics, social causes, the arts, media, and the way we see the world.
Verygraphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century
by
With almost 60 chapters, contributions from 30 authors and nearly 450 pages, VeryGraphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century is the first comprehensive history of Polish graphic design. The book showcases its immense and diverse legacy, from the world-renowned Polish Poster school to the lesser-known achievements of artists in the field of applied graphic design, including books and covers, typography and lettering, logos and visual identification as well as packaging. Chronologically detailing the work of over 60 of the most prominent Polish designers, the volume offers a review of Polish graphic design unprecedented in its scope. The cover of each copy is hand-painted, rendering it a truly one-of-a-kind object.
Not all print books are located at Snell Library on the Boston, MA campus. Some print books have been moved to the Remote Annex facility. To request an item located in the Snell Library Remote Annex, follow these directions:
Can't find an article or book on our collections? Request it through Interlibrary Loan and we'll try to borrow it from another library on your behalf. Learn more about Interlibrary Loan.
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Northeastern University Library manages the Digital Repository Service (DRS). The DRS collects digital material related to Northeastern University's history and academic work.
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A digital version of a thesis or dissertation produced by a master's or Ph.D. student. Most theses and dissertations written by Northeastern University students are ETDs. Interested researchers can find Northeastern ETDs in the Digital Repository Service. Theses and dissertations written before 2007 are only available in print format in the Northeastern University Archives.
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Research or reports circulated outside of a traditional publication process. Types of grey literature include:
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The system Northeastern’s library uses for interlibrary loan requests. The first time you request materials, you’ll need to set up your account.
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Metadata varies but often includes title, creator, and format. Descriptive metadata makes it possible to find and identify resources in a collection. When the metadata in a collection is standardized, the predefined structure is called a metadata schema.
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What is Open Access?
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Also called: Boolean Operator.
Well-regarded review process used by some academic journals. Relevant experts review articles for quality and originality before publication. Articles reviewed using this process are called peer reviewed articles. Less often, these articles are called refereed articles.
A newspaper, magazine or journal that is published on a regular schedule.
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Data defined by a grid of equally sized cells, akin to pixels.
To transfer information from one format to another. Example: Scanning a paper newspaper to create an online or PDF version. Reformatting includes digitization.
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The removal of a published article from a journal. A journal’s editors or editorial board can decide to retract an article when it has serious errors. Errors that can result in retraction include:
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A library database that searches a broad range of resources. Material in Scholar OneSearch includes:
Scholar OneSearch also includes information about material held at Northeastern’s libraries. Researchers can use ScholarOne Search to organize their research and manage borrowed items. To best serve Northeastern University's widespread community, ScholarOne Search has different views:
Appropriate views for each global campus are included on their Global Campus Portal.
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Subject librarians are available to work with individuals and small groups. They create guides and tutorials and teach workshops.
A source focused on sharing news and information of interest to an industry. Trade publications are often published by industry associations. Periodicals related to an industry are called trade journals.
An unrepeated string of numbers and letters used to recognize and differentiate material. Also called an identification number. Examples include American citizen's’ social security numbers or published books' ISBNs. A persistent identifier (PID) is a long-lasting type of unique identifier. Persistent identifiers allow you to locate a resource with a URL. Examples include electronic articles' Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and digital materials' handles.
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