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The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice
 
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The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice [Paperback]

Robin Williams (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
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Product Description

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Subtitled Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, this book is for anyone who has to design a newsletter, job ad, flyer, business card, memo, report or whatever, but has no idea what separates good design from bad. Except, of course, that the first looks clear, professional, sophisticated and right, and the second is an ugly, unreadable mess.

Robin Williams has an easily readable style and manages to communicate sometimes complex and sophisticated concepts simply and directly. She rightly assumes that, though most people can recognise bad design when they see it, they don't know why it's bad and are therefore powerless to fix the same problems in their own work.

The bulk of the book is given over to explaining how, by sticking to four basic design principles--contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity--you can eliminate design gremlins from your work. In searching for a memorable and appropriate acronym for this principled approach, Williams admits she was only semi-successful.

The second half of the book deals with how to use type. Once again the approach is to explain simply, directly and with illustrated examples how the relationship between typefaces is defined.

As a college teacher, Williams can't resist the temptation to dot little quizzes, tests and mini-projects throughout the text. These are mostly good fun and reinforce what you've read, though even if you decide to ignore them they won't spoil your enjoyment of the book.

The Non-Designer's Design Book is the kind of book you could read in your lunch break. Its attitude is more "sketch in the margin with a pencil", than "complete the projects on the CD". It would be an ideal primer for anyone starting a design course, as well as those who want to improve the look of their memos. --Ken McMahon

Book Description

Robin Williams wrote this one "for all the people who now need to design pages, but who have no background or formal training in design." Follow the basic principles clearly explained in this book and your work is guaranteed to look more professional, organized, unified, and interesting. You'll never again look at a page in the same way. Full of practical design exercises and quizzes. Runner-up for Best Introductory Systems How-to Book in the 10th Annual Computer Press Awards.
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Customer Reviews

132 Reviews
5 star:
 (101)
4 star:
 (20)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (5)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (132 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The world would be a better place...., Mar 18 2003
Ce commentaire est de: The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice (Paperback)
...if EVERYONE read this book. And if YOU are reading this review (which you are), just click 'add to cart.' You won't regret it.

Robin Williams is a design goddess. I think the Pope is actually planning on cannonizing her. Read the negative reviews of this book (what are there? 5 of them?)-you'll see that they're written by idiots. They say it's too simple-well, they're right.... Robin Williams makes it SOOOOOO simple.

After reading this book, you will be able to design an attractive page/website/brochure/resume/advertisement/poster/billboard that communicates clearly. What more could you want?

I keep coming back to this book over and over again. I've read it over a dozen times, and have referenced it hundreds of times. I have lent it to friends, recommended it to friends, AND forced friends to buy it!!!! I don't think I could ever say enough good things about this book.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Resource for the Non-Professional, Dec 2 2001
By 
R. Fetter "fetters2" (Trappe, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Ce commentaire est de: The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice (Paperback)
Robin has written a simple book on design and typographic principles. Her intended audience is the secretary or admin, the church volunteer, the small business owner, the student, or anyone who is occasionally faced with the prospect of designing the written word. Her advice will not make you a professional, nor is it intended to replace a formal education, but will give the novice insight on what works and why. I don't often use phrases like "life-altering" or "eye opening", but this book deserves them. The concepts taught can be used for a newsletter, flyer, brochure, term paper, church bulletin, letterhead, or resume. She includes plenty of good examples as well as bad ones, and little quizzes throughout the book. It's a small book that can easily be read in a weekend, but what you learn will stay with you forever.

The first half of the book is dedicated to CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity), four principles that, once
understood, will turn your so-so document into something that people will want to read. And once you learn CRAP, you'll see
it everywhere (she calls this the Joshua Tree Principle). You'll understand why this magazine article is so visually attractive,
while that newspaper ad has no appeal at all.

The second half of the book focuses on typefaces (fonts), which so many of us love to collect. She describes the six main
categories and, more importantly, teaches us how to successfully mix font styles within a document (yes, even you can successfully
mix three or more fonts on a page, once you know how).

I've been so impressed by Robin's style of writing and the information she reveals that I've purchased two more of her books
(The Non-Designer's Web Book and Robin William's Web Design Workshop), and plan to purchase more.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great for those beginner designers, Mar 13 2004
By 
C. Rowe (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Ce commentaire est de: The Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice (Paperback)
This book was excellent! I am a web developer and I've gotten more and more into the design side. I was asked to design logos, newsletters and advertising email as well as websites. I decided to get some design books.

A. This book was a quick read.
B. This book covers 4 priniciples, gives GREAT examples and really teaches you quickly
C. The way it presents information, intro-meat-review with examples that tie together each principle is great.

It gives beginning desigers a great first step into the world of design with principles you can start to apply immediately. Even if you're a beginner and designing reports, newsletter, ads, websites or anything else this book is a great read! Try your local library for a copy, as it's too short to keep around for reference :).

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