Customer Reviews

Layout Index

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is part of a three book set, which is a great addition to any design library. Unfortunately, this is the weakest of the set - there are a few tidbits, but nothing much. If you buy the other two (Color Index & Idea Index) you will be set. This one I don't recommend to often.

Design inspired by this little book leans towards clean & well ordered displays of information. This book provides basics of page building & information distribution.
Beginners will like this book, however, those looking for more complex layout ideas should either work on the existing ideas taking them to the next levels, or peruse other books.

I have not had time to review this book yet, but if it is anything like the Design Layout book, I am sure it will be great. The purchase transaction was smooth and shipment was quick.

I bought this along with the Color Index, and I must admit I'm not overly impressed with the ideas in this text.

I will keep it onboard because you -never- know what might spark your creativity, and I must admit there are a few good ideas to jump off from in this book. I donno, I guess I just feel underminded when I flip through this book. It is a bit too kitchy for me (think clip-art-like graphics), and many of the solutions presented in it are too busy and hardly professional.

I have been slowly building my Design Library, and this book made me laugh right out loud! Just by looking at the sample page excerpts offered, one can tell that this book is a total waste of money to anyone with a fine arts-based design degree. But, if you do not have any idea about design, and enjoy cookie-cutter, bland, out-dated design, or if you don't need much to inspire you, then this book would probably be just fine for your library.

I mainly do websites for small businesses, but if they like my work, they often ask me to re-do their business cards or create a newsletter template to match their website. Of course, I lie and tell them I know how to do these things. This book has made an honest person out of me. It provides inspiration for these different media formats. If I'm stuck when trying to create a new web identity from scratch, these pages have provided that spark of inspiration. Worth the money and it doesn't take up much room on your desk.

When you need that creative spark, this book is enough to get those synapses firing. Good design is good design... whether you are trying to come up with a good layout for a small black and white ad in the paper or an annual report, the hundreds of designs break the rectangular barriers in your head and get you thinking in different design modes.

The Web design section is a little dated in that the designs were limited by the technology available at the time the screenshots were made, but a Web designer today can borrow the clever designs for the newsletters and brochures and transfer those ideas to the Web.

No designer should be without this on their reference shelf.

While Idea Index provides actual ides for nice graphical renderings, the layout index is very simple and very scarce when it comes to layout ideas. It has a limited number of sample ideas which only look good due to the images present in the layout. The layouts provided don't really add much to the presentation of the information in the examples. Also, the web layouts are especially horrendous - despite looking semi-pretty, they do not consider at all the medium (e.g. giant images take longer to load, etc.). I was pretty disappointed by this book after liking Idea Index so much.

Overall, the book is so-so. Going through it at a library will give you all the layout ideas this book could ever provide - there's no need to keep it on your shelf for future reference. If you're looking for good, or at least original print layout ideas, you better look elsewhere.

No writer is immune to writer's block. No designer is immune to designer's block. This book isn't an "answer book". It's more like an "inspiration book". Leafing through it will rattle your memory banks and get your imagination moving again if your brain is frazzled from thinking too long and too hard about layout. It's an instant brainstorm. It's great.

I recommend having this whole series. They are nice little books to flip through when you are ready to start a new project. I agree that the design elements appear a little stale and dated, but when I look past the actual examples they use and envision my own layouts, they still give me ideas to expand upon.

A good deal for the money.