Product Description: Approach page design in a revolutionary new way! Unlike other graphic design books, The Elements of Graphic Design reveals the secrets of successful graphic design from the unique perspective of the page’s "white space." With the help of carefully selected examples from art, design, and architecture, the role of white space as a connection between page elements is thoroughly explored. Clear, insightful comments are presented in a dynamic page design, and interactive design elements, thought-provoking captions, and scores of illustrations challenge designers to "think out of the box." This unique resource is guaranteed to inspire more creative and thorough thinking.
My review of The Elements of Graphic Design I picked up this book from my local bookstore. From reading it, my assessment is that it's a somewhat mature look into the basics of graphic design. Alex draws upon several analogies, some of nature and people, and others of architecture, to explain broad aspects of design, particularly with respect to print media.
The style of writing is occasionaly obtuse, but I think there are good intentions throughout, to concisely document some sound principles and good thought processes for graphic design.
Alex details how design evolved from ancient times, giving us example design pieces, which have clear and descriptive captions, and are referred to from the main text, all of which are on the same page, so there's no page hunting to find which piece or picture relates to what information. Modern designs are critiqued with an interesting selection of pieces, and the basic framework for assessing design is also explored. Quotes from other designers are frequently used in the text, to good effect I think, as they relate to the concepts under discussion.
My favourite chapters were the one on space and the last one on type. There were a few errors in the text, but mostly minor things.
If you're looking for a technical book then this book probably won't be for you.
I think this book would certainly appeal to designers who wish to acquire a broad insight into graphic design.
Good book for learning graphic design principles and where the process came from. This book was the course material for a beginning graphic design class I took. It was very fitting for a beginning class. The book goes over where graphic design came from in history regarding movements and art. It also covered design principles.
A Great Start for the Budding Graphic Designer I found this book very useful as both an introductory into the field of Graphic Design as well as a reference source for future projects. This book will remain in my permanent collection!
The Elements of Graphic Design: Space, Unity Great book for visual graphic design on how to get your message noticed, weather it's a business card, sales flier, or logo. Highly recomend it!
Very high density of information The cover page is very good at describing what the book is like. It is super-dense, with so much information and advice on each page that if you are looking for a light read, skip this one. At the same time, the cornucopia of information can become a little overwhelming. My suggestion is to read this book slowly and carefully, practicing the principles as you learn them.
The book reads more like an organization of the author's learning and experiences over time and so can sometimes be a little less "objective" than one might wish for. However, the author makes clear up front that fashion is an inseparable part of design so that what "looks good" today may be passé or even "bad design" another day. The one consistent theme throughout these design books is this: if you want to be different, be bold, not a wuss. Breaking rules is good if you break them like you mean it!
I have yet to encounter a more detailed treatment of white space and how it affects design but for the other topics you will need specialized books such as Lupton's "Thinking with Type" to get a deeper understanding.
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