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Product Description
Design and typographic insights from the author of The Non-Designer’s book series (over 700,000 copies in print!)
This book offers decades of experience from one of the greatest computer book authors. Here in one volume, Robin Williams has joined together a new edition of her classic The Non-Designer’s Design Book—in glorious full color for the first time—and her best-selling The Non-Designer’s Type Book. Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you’ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects. Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice or an experienced graphic designer, you will find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter!
These essential guides to design and type will teach you about:
This book offers decades of experience from one of the greatest computer book authors. Here in one volume, Robin Williams has joined together a new edition of her classic The Non-Designer’s Design Book—in glorious full color for the first time—and her best-selling The Non-Designer’s Type Book. Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you’ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects. Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice or an experienced graphic designer, you will find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter!
These essential guides to design and type will teach you about:
- The four principles of design that underlie every design project
- Categories of type
- Working with color
- How to combine typefaces for maximum effect
- Readability and legibility
- The proper typographic treatment of punctuation
- Letter spacing, line spacing, and paragraph spacing
- Special characters and accent marks
About the Author
Robin Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books, includingThe Non-Designer's Design Book, The Non-Designer's Type Book, The Little Mac Book, Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, Robin Williams Design Workshop, and Web Design Workshop. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has influenced a generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, the Mac, desktop publishing, and the Web.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before reading this I had written myself off as having no visual talent whatever. My webistes and flyers showed willing, but did not show "able". My curiosity was piqued by how people choose (and design) typefaces and I wound up buying this title.
It really has altered my perception of the page, and has given me some vocabulary to put into words what weakens a page when I look at it. Unfortunately I now get annoyed by a badly-aligned page in the same way as I used to get annoyed by a badly-placed apostrophe! But on the positive side, I'm much more able to create a page that conveys professionality and dignity.
The style is very readable, almost casual, and the information is very clearly organised. The inclusion of exercises really helped me nurture my critical eye.
It really has altered my perception of the page, and has given me some vocabulary to put into words what weakens a page when I look at it. Unfortunately I now get annoyed by a badly-aligned page in the same way as I used to get annoyed by a badly-placed apostrophe! But on the positive side, I'm much more able to create a page that conveys professionality and dignity.
The style is very readable, almost casual, and the information is very clearly organised. The inclusion of exercises really helped me nurture my critical eye.
Format:Paperback
A good book. Lots of tips. Written in a very accessible style. It does what it says on the cover.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
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23 reviews
50 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Don't be a wimp
28 Nov 2007
Format:Paperback
This volume is two books bound as one: a new (2008) third edition of The Non-Designer's Design Book and the 2006 second edition of The The Non-Designer's Type Book, 2nd Edition. These are excellent books for non-designers or in fact for anyone who has to deal with desktop publishing. They teach you how to get control over the design process by verbalizing what you are trying to accomplish, and learning to trust your eyes. Also: by not being a wimp.
The Design Book is specifically about page layout (not graphic design in general), and mostly about laying out bodies of type. The most interesting thing about this book is that it (gently) rejects the idea that design is strictly a knack or an intuitive process, and emphasizes verbalizing what you are trying to accomplish. "Once you can name the problem, you can find the solution." (p. 10) "You must know what the rule is before you can break it." (p. 49) The book enunciates several principles of good design. Through many examples of bad design and better design the book shows you how to check whether the principles are being violated and how to correct the violations.
There's a very clear chapter on the categories of type (Oldstyle, Modern, etc.): how to recognize them and when to use them. Very Good Feature: each page names the typefaces used in the examples.
The only real weakness of the Design Book is the chapter on using color. It was clear enough but did not seem integrated into the rest of the book.
The Type Book is a much-expanded version of Williams's Mac is not a typewriter, The (2nd Edition) and The Pc is Not a Typewriter. Unlike the Design Book it is mostly concerned with type at the individual character level. It deals with topics such as correct punctuation, different kinds of dashes, and when to set punctuation in italic. It includes all kinds of fine-tuning of the appearance of the type, such as kerning, tracking, ligatures, swash characters, hanging punctuation, correcting widows, and balancing the appearance of ragged-right type. This book allows a more intuitive approach than the Design Book, urging you to "listen to your eyes" (a mixed metaphor, but effective).
I have only a couple of minor gripes with the Type Book. (1) I think it has more fine-tuning that a non-designer is really going to use (e.g., fancy ligatures and swashes). The number of tweaks is overwhelming and may make you feel guilty for not using all these features. (2) I love Helvetica, but Williams continually bad-mouths it, and this is wearying. Apart from these minor points it is an excellent book, clearly-written and full of solid and useful information.
The Design Book is specifically about page layout (not graphic design in general), and mostly about laying out bodies of type. The most interesting thing about this book is that it (gently) rejects the idea that design is strictly a knack or an intuitive process, and emphasizes verbalizing what you are trying to accomplish. "Once you can name the problem, you can find the solution." (p. 10) "You must know what the rule is before you can break it." (p. 49) The book enunciates several principles of good design. Through many examples of bad design and better design the book shows you how to check whether the principles are being violated and how to correct the violations.
There's a very clear chapter on the categories of type (Oldstyle, Modern, etc.): how to recognize them and when to use them. Very Good Feature: each page names the typefaces used in the examples.
The only real weakness of the Design Book is the chapter on using color. It was clear enough but did not seem integrated into the rest of the book.
The Type Book is a much-expanded version of Williams's Mac is not a typewriter, The (2nd Edition) and The Pc is Not a Typewriter. Unlike the Design Book it is mostly concerned with type at the individual character level. It deals with topics such as correct punctuation, different kinds of dashes, and when to set punctuation in italic. It includes all kinds of fine-tuning of the appearance of the type, such as kerning, tracking, ligatures, swash characters, hanging punctuation, correcting widows, and balancing the appearance of ragged-right type. This book allows a more intuitive approach than the Design Book, urging you to "listen to your eyes" (a mixed metaphor, but effective).
I have only a couple of minor gripes with the Type Book. (1) I think it has more fine-tuning that a non-designer is really going to use (e.g., fancy ligatures and swashes). The number of tweaks is overwhelming and may make you feel guilty for not using all these features. (2) I love Helvetica, but Williams continually bad-mouths it, and this is wearying. Apart from these minor points it is an excellent book, clearly-written and full of solid and useful information.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
An excellent starer book about design
21 Nov 2008
Format:Paperback
I wanted to write a quick blurb about this little book that has gone a long way towards teaching me proper design.
I've been dabbling seriously in graphic design for about a year now and find it one of the most frustrating things I've ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It's very subjective, hard to describe, very time consuming, very sensitive, and totally maddening. When it works, it really works but when it doesn't work, it shows you the highest level of frustration possible.
Robin explains all the basics very well which puts you in a position to begin to experiment. If you just stick yourself in front of Photoshop and try to bang out a business card or a menu or a technical document (which you really wouldn't do in Photoshop), it's probably not going to work out well unless you've had some experience. If, however, you read this little guide and try it, you're going to have a few more ideas and at least understand the constraint you're working with in terms of color, alignment, etc.
This book is great for people without any experience in design who want to improve the way their documents, webpages, application screens, and printed material looks. You're not going to win any contests with this knowledge (and neither are her examples) but what you produce will immediately look better. The writing style is a bit goofy but I use what I learned every day in everything I produce from graffiti to webpages to technical documents to resumes.
I've been dabbling seriously in graphic design for about a year now and find it one of the most frustrating things I've ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It's very subjective, hard to describe, very time consuming, very sensitive, and totally maddening. When it works, it really works but when it doesn't work, it shows you the highest level of frustration possible.
Robin explains all the basics very well which puts you in a position to begin to experiment. If you just stick yourself in front of Photoshop and try to bang out a business card or a menu or a technical document (which you really wouldn't do in Photoshop), it's probably not going to work out well unless you've had some experience. If, however, you read this little guide and try it, you're going to have a few more ideas and at least understand the constraint you're working with in terms of color, alignment, etc.
This book is great for people without any experience in design who want to improve the way their documents, webpages, application screens, and printed material looks. You're not going to win any contests with this knowledge (and neither are her examples) but what you produce will immediately look better. The writing style is a bit goofy but I use what I learned every day in everything I produce from graffiti to webpages to technical documents to resumes.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Concise and Comprehensive
3 April 2008
Format:Paperback
I just can't say enough about how much this book has helped me. I've been writing copy for promotional materials as part of my job for years, and I assumed knowing how to put stuff on a brochure or flier and print it out was enough. I had no idea how dull and uninspired my designs were until I picked up this book. This is the third book I've purchased by Robin and I think I learned more from this one than the two on web design. If you're looking for an in depth explanation of what works, why it works, and what DOESN'T work, this is the book for you. It's concise and comprehensive and I'll be using it as the first reference book I pull from the shelf from now on.
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