Books published by publisher Rockport Publishers

Duct Tape Engineer: The Book of Big, Bigger, and Epic Duct Tape Projects shows you how to create the most enjoyable and impressive projects you’ve ever made—and they all start with a simple strip of duct tape. Build furniture, bags, outdoor items and more using simple tools and materials, with no special engineering skills needed. Start with duct tape basics that will aid in assembly: Learn cutting and tearing methods and taping techniques (yes, there’s more to it than slapping it down). Discover how to make sturdy duct tape sheets that can be cut and shaped. Using easily accessible tools and supplies like a utility knife and heavy-duty cardboard boxes, try your hand at making a desk and desk chair. Grab some foam and make a backpack, or create a custom hammock. Build a geodesic dome, and go truly epic with a giant pyramid catapult. Every project includes step-by-step instructions and clear diagrams and photos. Don’t miss Lance Akiyama’s tips and suggestions for supplies, project variations, and material substitutions. Follow the solid construction techniques and you’ll ensure that these DIY projects will become favorite classroom activities and family projects. Among the projects are:A lightweight bed frame and full-size dresser with working drawersOutdoor pieces like a hammock and garden swingA heavy-duty toolbox with pockets galore, and a stylish two-color messenger bagBallistics, including a slingshotA kayakYou’ll discover there’s much more to duct tape than fixing a leaky hose. Roll up your sleeves and let the engineering begin!

Create an alphabet all your own with a helping hand from Hand Lettering A to Z and its team of international artists here to help you get started. Your hand lettering contains a little bit of you! Hand lettering not only expresses what you have to say, but also demonstrates the creativity in your communications. In Hand Lettering A to Z, artist and author Abbey Sy has invited four international artists--Meg Hyland, Joao Neves, Tessa Go, and Lisa Lorek--to join her in designing all new alphabets for you to draw and use in many different languages. You don’t have to be a trained artist to master the art of hand lettering. These alphabets are for every skill level, and will suits any taste. Do you want colorful script full of bombast? Maybe an austere black and white script? Whether you're going for classic or just plain fun, Hand Lettering A to Z has direction for you. So why wait to get creative? Grab some supplies and customize twenty-six letters of your own!

Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type is a practical, hands-on resource that distills and organizes the many complex issues surrounding the effective use of typography. An essential reference for designers since 2009, Typography Essentials is now completely refreshed with updated text, new graphics and photos, and a whole new look. Divided into four sections—The Letter, The Word, The Paragraph, and The Page—the text is concise, compact, and easy to reference. Each of the 100 principles, which cover all practical aspects of designing with type, has an explanation and inspiring visual examples drawn from international books, magazines, posters, and more.Typography Essentials is for designers of every medium in which type plays a major role, and is organized and designed to make the process enjoyable and entertaining, as well as instructional.

Who doesn't love to color? As an adult, now that you can stay in the lines, you only need to think about what color to use! Rockport Publishers presents a series of grown-up coloring books for art and design lovers. Just Add Color: Geometric Patterns includes 30 original designs from artist and illustrator Lisa Congdon. Each book contains 64 perforated pages to make it easy to share, frame and hang your artwork. You'll be inspired by the sumptuous artwork in this book, and the use of color is endless. Relax, enjoy your creativity and Just Add Color.

You don't have to be a genius to create these ingenious contraptions, you just need rubber bands, glue, paperclips, and Rubber Band Engineer, of course. Shooting far, flying high, and delivering way more exciting results than expected are the goals of the gadgets in Rubber Band Engineer. Discover unexpected ways to turn common materials into crafty contraptions that range from surprisingly simple to curiously complex. In vivid color photos, you'll be guided on how to create slingshot rockets, unique catapults, and even hydraulic-powered machines. Whether you build one or all 19 of these designs, you'll feel like an ingenious engineer when you're through. Best of all, you don't need to be an experienced tinkerer to make any of the projects! All you need are household tools and materials, such as paper clips, pencils, paint stirrers, and ice pop sticks.Oh, and rubber bands. Lots of rubber bands.Grab your glue gun, pull out your pliers, track down your tape, and get started on the challenging, fun, and rewarding journey toward becoming a rubber band engineer.

Leonardo’s Science Workshop leads children on an interactive adventure through key science concepts by following the multidisciplinary approach of the Renaissance period polymath Leonardo da Vinci: experimenting, creating projects, and exploring how art intersects with science and nature. Photos of Leonardo’s own notebooks, paintings, and drawings provide visual inspiration. More than 500 years ago, Leonardo knew that the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) are all connected. The insatiably curious Leonardo examined not just the outer appearance of his art subjects, but the science that explained them. He began his studies as a painter, but his curiosity, diligence, and genius made him also a master sculptor, architect, designer, scientist, engineer, and inventor. The Leonardo’s Workshop series shares this spirit of multidisciplinary inquiry with children through accessible, engaging explanations and hands-on learning. This fascinating book harnesses children’s innate curiosity to explore some of Leonardo’s favorite subjects, including flight, motion, technology design, perspective, and astronomy. After each topic is explained with concepts from physics, chemistry, math, and engineering, kids can experience the principles first-hand with step-by-step STEAM projects. They will explore:The physics of flight by observing birds and experimenting with paper airplane designsThe science of motion by building a windup dragonflyGravitational acceleration with water balloonsThe movement of electrons by making cereal “dance”Technology design by making paper and fabric using recycled materialScientific perspective by drawing a 3D illusionInsight from other great thinkers—such as Galileo Galilei, James Clerk Maxwell, and Sir Isaac Newton—are woven into the lessons throughout. Introduce vital STEAM skills through visually rich, hands-on learning with Leonardo’s Science Workshop.

After the huge successes of Rubber Band Engineer and Duct Tape Engineer, we finally take away the boundaries of a single category and let author Lance Akiyama create twenty devious weapons of backyard warfare. Each of these launchers are made from PVC, soda bottles, rubber bands, hairspray cans, and anything you might find in the junk drawer, and are capable of firing marshmallows, poker chips, tennis balls, sponges, and plenty more. This book is written for adults, but kids and teens can get in on the fun, too. Projects range from simple shooters to be built by novice crafters, to the more complicated Slide Action Rubber Band Gun, A Wrist-Mounted Crossbow, and even a Desk Drawer Booby Trap.

"Whoa, that shot a lot farther than I thought it would!"Shooting far, flying high, and delivering way more exciting results than expected are the goals of the gadgets in this book.Discover unexpected ways to turn common materials into crafty contraptions that range from surprisingly simple to curiously complex. In vivid color photos, you'll be guided to create slingshot rockets, unique catapults, and even hydraulic-powered machines. Whether you build one or all 19 of these designs, you'll feel like an ingenious engineer when you're through.Best of all, you don't need to be an experienced tinkerer to make any of the projects within. All you need are household tools and materials, such as paper clips, pencils, paint stirrers, and ice pop sticks.Oh, and rubber bands. Lots of rubber bands.So grab your glue gun, pull out your pliers, track down your tape, and get started on the challenging, fun, and rewarding journey toward becoming a rubber band engineer.

Design Genius Jr.: Adventures in Engineering for Kids invites kids to take charge of the world they wish to create by designing inventions and solutions to challenges faced in an imaginary City X, the first human settlement on another planet.Explore the future through problem solving, design thinking, and engineering. This adventure takes children and adults on an epic journey: humans are leaving Earth, arriving at a new planet, and creating the first settlement there, City X. It’s a journey of historic proportions, to a fledgling city on a distant planet, where humanity has a chance to start fresh and design a future that works for everyone.In settling another planet, humans discover a host of challenges, much like those faced on Earth: challenges related to issues of energy, environment, transportation, security, food, safety, and health. Empowered by design thinking and advanced technology, their problems are to be solved by a vast team of young designers on Earth (your children!). With this book, you and yours will be able to develop the tools to explore, understand, imagine, create, and share your own irresistible futures through accessible real-world activities and awesome ideations.Without limits, what can kids create? Design thinking—creative problem solving—will be crucial to resolving the global challenges in business, politics, and the environment facing the next generation. Each book in the Design Genius Jr. series teaches kids this important skill through fun, hands-on projects in a single area of design that challenge them to identify problems, explore possibilities, test ideas, and then come up with original solutions.

Typography Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Working with Type is a practical, hands-on resource that distills and organizes the many complex issues surrounding the effective use of typography. An essential reference for designers since 2009, Typography Essentials is now completely refreshed with updated text, new graphics and photos, and a whole new look. Divided into four sections—The Letter, The Word, The Paragraph, and The Page—the text is concise, compact, and easy to reference. Each of the 100 principles, which cover all practical aspects of designing with type, has an explanation and inspiring visual examples drawn from international books, magazines, posters, and more.Typography Essentials is for designers of every medium in which type plays a major role, and is organized and designed to make the process enjoyable and entertaining, as well as instructional.

In Duct Tape Engineer--the book of Big, Bigger, and Epic Duct Tape Projects hands-on educator, master tinkerer, and author of Rubber Band Engineer, Lance Akiyama breaks away from table-top crafts and shows you how to design, sculpt, and build backpacks, kayaks, catapults, a queen-size bed, and even even a writing desk and chair with duct tape. These fourteen projects are designed to be long-lasting as well as fun, and include advice on solid construction techniques and even weather proofing. Packed with full-color illustrations and easy to follow instructions, Duct Tape Engineer will make the perfect gift for any maker on your list.

Design Genius, Jr.: Adventures in Engineering for Kids explores the future through problem solving, design thinking, and engineering in a science-fact world that most parents and kids don’t yet know exists. This book invites kids to take charge of the world they wish to create by designing inventions and solutions to challenges faced in an imaginary City X, the first human settlement on another planet. This adventure takes readers on an epic journey: humans are leaving Earth, arriving at a new planet, and creating the first settlement there, City X. It’s a journey of historic proportions, to a fledgling city on a distant planet, where humanity has a chance to start fresh and design a future that works for everyone.In settling another planet, humans discover a host of challenges, much like those faced on Earth: Challenges related to issues of energy, environment, transportation, security, food, safety, and health. Empowered by design thinking and advanced technology, their problems are to be solved by a vast team of young designers on Earth (your children!). With this book, you and yours will be able to develop the tools to explore, understand, imagine, create, and share your own irresistible futures through accessible real-world activities and awesome ideations.Without limits, what can kids create? Design thinking—creative problem solving—will be crucial to resolving the global challenges in business, politics, and the environment facing the next generation. Each book in the Design Genius Jr. series teaches kids this important skill through fun, hands-on projects in a single area of design that challenge them to identify problems, explore possibilities, test ideas, and then come up with original solutions.