What do you think?
Rate this book
Tricia Guild: Decorating with Color by Guild, Tricia, Back, Amanda (2013) Hardcover
Guild, Tricia, Back, Amanda
- GenresNonfictionDesign
Hardcover
First published October 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 29, 2018
This review is coming from a photographer's perspective so please keep that in mind. I suppose the review is more about James Merrell's role in the book and not Tricia Guild's.
---
I am a growing real estate photographer and books about interior design are a fantastic way to see the work of other photographers shooting similar subjects. There were so many issues that hit my eye that it was a lesson on what not to do.
The cover image alone has a picture on the wall with a distracting reflection and, something you will see continuously through the book...ill places unfluffed pillows. Repeated over and over you will see images of pillows that look like someone has been sitting on them for hours until they stood up, the photo is taken, and then they plop down again. Image after image of pillows crumpled, creased AND THROWN ON THE FLOOR. It it's a purposeful artistic choice then I just don't get it but there are countless photos where it looks like the pillow rolled off of the couch when someone stood up and they just left it there to be photographed that way.
The first full page image in the first section (black and white themed) gives you the wonderful view of an unmade messy bed, lamp in the middle of the room for some reason with its chord trailing along and, you guessed it, a squished pillow on a chair! A few pages turns later at the next photograph there is another pillow, on the wrong chair, and a newspaper thrown on the ground for some reason and the door ajar camera left breaking the feel of the room.
Another reoccurring issue it out of focus objects in the foreground. Fake flowers or vases he focused past become a blob of nothing. A blurry, out of focus banister consumes the corner of another photo.
Look, I know this sounds nit picky and I would agree if it was just on an image or two but it seems like every single photograph in this book has serious, photography 101 issues that could have been 5 second fixes.
I gave 2 stars because I can't blame the author for all of this and the book itself conveys color usage as intended as well as looks nice on the outside. Green page edges (and multicolored thread binding was a nice design detail) but I just can't get over the lack of staging and awareness from the photographer.
For designers this is probably a good resource but for me it was a huge disappointment.
---
I am a growing real estate photographer and books about interior design are a fantastic way to see the work of other photographers shooting similar subjects. There were so many issues that hit my eye that it was a lesson on what not to do.
The cover image alone has a picture on the wall with a distracting reflection and, something you will see continuously through the book...ill places unfluffed pillows. Repeated over and over you will see images of pillows that look like someone has been sitting on them for hours until they stood up, the photo is taken, and then they plop down again. Image after image of pillows crumpled, creased AND THROWN ON THE FLOOR. It it's a purposeful artistic choice then I just don't get it but there are countless photos where it looks like the pillow rolled off of the couch when someone stood up and they just left it there to be photographed that way.
The first full page image in the first section (black and white themed) gives you the wonderful view of an unmade messy bed, lamp in the middle of the room for some reason with its chord trailing along and, you guessed it, a squished pillow on a chair! A few pages turns later at the next photograph there is another pillow, on the wrong chair, and a newspaper thrown on the ground for some reason and the door ajar camera left breaking the feel of the room.
Another reoccurring issue it out of focus objects in the foreground. Fake flowers or vases he focused past become a blob of nothing. A blurry, out of focus banister consumes the corner of another photo.
Look, I know this sounds nit picky and I would agree if it was just on an image or two but it seems like every single photograph in this book has serious, photography 101 issues that could have been 5 second fixes.
I gave 2 stars because I can't blame the author for all of this and the book itself conveys color usage as intended as well as looks nice on the outside. Green page edges (and multicolored thread binding was a nice design detail) but I just can't get over the lack of staging and awareness from the photographer.
For designers this is probably a good resource but for me it was a huge disappointment.
July 3, 2018
"Decorating with Color" is the title of Tricia Guild's book but it doesn't seem like she likes color all that much. Tricia Guild likes neutral rooms with spots of color. She especially likes bright colored large scaled floral prints on a white background. She doesn't like red libraries, or turquoise bathrooms-nothing boldly colored. The book is just photographs of various rooms and other items for inspiration. Guild doesn't discuss any thing about the emotions of color or how to balance color throughout the room. She doesn't talk about how to transition color from one room to the next. This is a pretty book to look at and something might fit your fancy but borrow it from the library like I did.
May 24, 2022
This was fun to flip through and I liked the "real world" imagery being paired with the designs. I picked this up as I am trying to gather inspiration for decorating my house. This isn't a bad coffee table book, but I don't feel like it was very helpful to me, nor did the aesthetic really match my tastes.
February 28, 2017
Great photos but where the hell do these people stash their stuff? These rooms are imaginary.
February 10, 2014
Photos of shabby-chic interiors and nature featuring glorious saturated color!
March 10, 2014
Very colorful collection of photographs where the main focus is the color and mixture of colors, not the objects in the photograph. I looked at it three times. Beautiful and delightful.
May 31, 2015
GORGEOUS!
April 28, 2017
The black text on colored background was very difficult for me to read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews