In their paper ‘Shape control in gold nanoparticle synthesis’ (Chem. Soc. Rev., 2008, 37, 1783), M. Grzelczak and co-workers discuss the synthesis of gold nanoparticles with a range of morphologies. Describe the different morphologies summarized in this paper and outline the proposed growth mechanisms for the nanoparticles when synthesized with and without the presence of silver ions.