Product Description

Read the Prose. Study the illustrations. And apply what you have learned to design your own pages. It's easy with Basics of Design; Typography and Layout for Beginners! This heavily illustrated, compact guide is ideal for readers with no graphic design or art education background who need to create first-rate visual page designs. Entrepreneurs challenged with designing their own business cards, and administrative assistants suddenly put in charge of producing newsletters and fax cover pages, are just two examples of readers who benefit from the information in this primer. Its uniquely conversational tone - combined with numerous "before" and "after" illustrations- provides everything needed to design pages as effective as those of professional designers. Part One introduces readers to important design principles, as well as how to use color and images to add impact to designs. Part Two concentrates on the basics of typography. Part Three features a number of common design projects of the variety frequently assigned to non-designers (.., company business cards, fax cover letters, graphical and statistical reports, and more). To further aid readers, each project is accompanied by a brief listing of some of the special considerations involved in that type of visual page design. The final chapter of the book lists useful design books and resources for readers interested in advancing their typography and layout skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #633302 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author
Lisa M. Graham, Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Web Design, University of Texas at Arlington.

Customer Reviews

Thorough But Dated
The book is "designed" for beginners. It is great for brainstorming about - say - crafting a corporate identity using logos, newsletters, business cards, etc. However it is dated. Few pages are in color. The author doesn't assume the reader has access to industry-standard design software like the Adobe Creative Suite, or even to a computer for that matter. The author sometimes suggests the reader use crayons to "recreate" various design techniques involving color.
But the basics are there, the principles are well explained and the price is right. Skip over the dated stuff and use the book to get a good foundational intro to the world of layout and design.

Using Book for Graphic Design begin class
There are just enough illustrations. The chapters are setup in a way to support teaching a begining Graphic Design class. Exercises, a mini quiz and examples are built into each chapter-subject of good basic design.

Book lays flat when going through the pages and the binding should hold up through many page turning days.

A complete disappointment
The book contaings a whole lot of reading but very little illustration. I do not understand how the author anticipated to convey design, layout and typography by writing about it only. A book like this must be full of illustration. To write about design without illustrating them is an oxymoron. I would definitely not recommend this book for beginners.