Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts

Description

Ask any graphic designer the world over about their preferred approach to setting type, choosing a colour, or beginning a new layout, and you will rarely get exactly the same answer twice. Every creative has their own individual approach, or more importantly their own combinations of the thousands of techniques one can apply when planning a new design project. But there are some dos and don'ts that always figure strongly in any heated debate about what one should or should not accept as the right way to create the best graphic design. Packed with practical advice but presented in a light-hearted fashion, Graphic Design Rules is the perfect book for the ever-growing group of non-designers who want some graphic design guidance. And for more experienced designers, individual entries will either bring forth knowing nods of agreement or hoots of derision, depending on whether or not the reader loves or hates hyphenation, has a pathological fear of beige, or thinks that baseline grids are boring. In the style of a classical almanac, 365 entries combine a specific rule with a commentary from a variety of experienced designers from all fields of the graphic design industry. Grouped into six colour-coded chapters - typography, colour, layout, imagery, production, and creative thinking - the reader can either dip in at random or use the book as the source of a daily lesson in how to produce great graphic design.

Stefan G. Bucher is the man behind 344 Design and the online drawing and storytelling experiment, dailymonster.com. He is often engaged to speak on all things design, and produced a regular illustrated column that appeared in STEP magazine. His books include The Graphic Eye and 344 Questions: The Creative Person's Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment. Peter Dawson (gradedesign.com) has over 19 years experience in the UK design arena and co-founded his practice, Grade, in 2000. He has won a number of awards for his work including an ISTD Certificate of Excellence, and, most recently, Best Jacket/Cover Design at the 2010 British Book Design and Production Awards. He is a Fellow, and former Chair, of the International Society of Typographic Designers and has also acted as a visiting typography lecturer at a number of Universities. John Foster was a teacher for 20 years before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of twelve books of poetry and over 150 anthologies. He has performed at all the UK's national book festivals and visits schools and libraries regularly. His books include The Poetry Chest, The Oxford First Book of Poetry, Dinosaur Poems, Dragon Poems and Magic Poems. He lives in Oxfordshire. Tony Seddon's long standing career as a graphic designer has taken him from his native Cornwall, via London and several publishing companies, to East Sussex where he now works as a freelance designer and writer. He has authored and co-authored multiple books, including Graphic Design for Non-designers; Art Directing Projects for Print; and Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans. Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka are partners at AdamsMorioka, a Los Angeles-based strategy and communications firm with offices in Beverly Hills and New York.

"Amid all this talk of rule breaking, ugliness and work-that's-so-bad-it's-good, Graphic Design Rules aims to redress the balance in favour of design that recognises that there are certain known knowns, as they say. It's either a guide to prevent rookie mistakes or a list of challenges to take head on." * Creative Review *