Fabrics.net

Fabrics.net is an ingenious internet site for those looking to expand their knowledge of Fabrics. A "Complete Fabric Destination," Fabrics.net lives up to its claim to be a one stop source for information, referrals, and resources. Do you need to know the proper fabric care information for a specific type of fabric? Interested in Vintage Fabrics? Not sure whether your newly purchased fabric is a knit or a woven? You've come to the right place!

Fabrics.net may be able to answer your question through a simple search. If not, one can post questions in the handy Q&A section of the website. Otherwise, feel free to browse current site articles or project ideas, or submit your own. The site map makes its features clear and accessible to the reader and includes the following topics:

• Fabric Information
• Looking for Fabrics and Sources
• Fabric Store
• Participate: Projects, Contests, Newsletter
• Site Search
• Marketing Tips and Advertising
• Site Info / Useful Stuff

Each topic contains sub-headlines that can carry you further into your research.

Fabric.net also has a fantastic online fabric store. If you are familiar with the basics and have time to place an order, their store carries a variety of silks and wools in an impressive range of colors.

Fashion design students, home sewers, clothing manufacturers, and retailers can all benefit from logging onto this interactive website and leave with a better understanding of current fabrics.

Reviewed by R & RC Staff Member - Karen Schultz

What’s one of the most underrated, yet most helpful graphic design magazines for a student studying design? Did you say Dynamic Graphics? Oh, so you know about it then. Well, do you know WHY it’s helpful?

Dynamic Graphics is the magazine for the student interested in learning how to design something to look great instead of just looking at examples of great design. Each issue features short articles about:

• Color: Ideas on harmony, balance and printing.

• Type: Do’s and Dont's

• Identity makeovers: Before and after examples of redesigned business logos, websites, etc.
• Work/business management: Solutions to real-world work problems such as stress-management, business promotion, etc.

Dynamic Graphics’ emphasis is definitely on short. The magazine comes in at under 80 pages and their features are concise, informative and free of the self-absorption that is prevalent in other titles. The current issue has a tremendous feature on hand lettering as well as a write-up on how to build a great type library. On the final page, you’ll even find an explanation of why they chose this particular cover design as well as the other options they were considering. How many other magazines do that?

Reviewed by R & RC Staff Member - Brian Seguin - S.F.

Color for Interior Design immediately appeals as a coffee table book but is actually a substantial yet easy-to-read volume on the history, meaning, and application of color in interiors. Rompilla, an award-winning professor of color theory and practicing interior designer, manages to survey thousands of years of art and interiors while remaining utterly focused on the subject. And to underscore the insights Rompilla offers on color in interiors, she has included large vibrant photos of interiors from the Davanzati Palace in Florence to the Frank Lloyd Wright Room in Wayzata, Minnesota, art works by Chagall, Kandinsky and Giotto, and artifacts like a 19^th century Navajo wool blanket and Achaemenian gold bowl from Iran, circa 500 BC.

A small section offers practical advice on creating a color scheme for your interior, such as:

• Mimic the tonal values of the sky, foliage, and earth by creating a room with a light ceiling, medium walls, and dark floor.
• Mimic nature’s distribution of color in its accessories, such as birds and flowers, by choosing furniture, draperies, and other accents in more intense colors.
• Consider the architecture and light of a room before fabrics and furniture.
• Dark or vivid colors work well in darker rooms.
• Three colors work better than just two, in a room’s color scheme.

Students of interior design and color theory would definitely love this book, as it discusses their favorite subject in an informal way. But even those with a developing interest in these areas would enjoy this exploration of color in interior design.

Reviewed by R & RC Staff Member - Kirstie Harless - S.F.