Design elements : understanding the rules and knowing when to break them
/ Timothy Samara.
- Third edition.
- 320 pages : color illustrations.
"A visual communication manual" Previous edition: 2014. Includes index.
What is graphic design? -- Twenty rules for making good design -- Form and Space. Defining visual language -- Attributes of form -- Putting stuff into space -- Compositional strategies -- Color Fundamentals. The identity of color -- Chromatic interaction -- Color logic and systems -- When color means something -- Color in the real world -- Choosing and Using Type. Structure and optics -- Issues related to style -- The mechanics of textsetting -- Type is visual, too -- Type as information -- The World of Imagery. The nature of images -- Media and methods -- Content, concept, context -- Narrative massage -- Putting It All Together. Merging type and image -- Working with grids -- Intuitive arrangement -- Design as a system -- The working process -- Causin' some trouble : Breaking every rule in this book -- Index (By subject) -- Directory of contributors -- About the author and acknowledgments.
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"A new and updated 3rd Edition of Rockport's best-selling Design Elements, a visually rich and accessible handbook that presents the fundamentals of design in lists, tips, brief text, and examples. With new images and diagrams, the book covers everything from working with grids, color application, typography, and imagery to how to finally put it all together. Features include : the ultimate primer on graphic design's basic visual toolkit - dot, line, plane, texture, space and contrast - and how these basics underpin all successful layouts ; an in-depth look at color - from its optical qualities and its effect on type to its potential for communication concepts and emotions ; one of the most thorough compilations of typography concepts to be found - including information on letterform structure and optics, combining typeface styles, the mechanics of detailed text typesetting, and using type as image ; an extensive overview of imagery - the endless possibilities of medium, depiction, abstraction, stylization, and how these all communicate effectively ; methods for integrating type and image, including a tutorial on using grid systems to structure layouts ; and, twenty rules for making good design - and the best ways to break them. Being a creative designer is often about coming up with unique design solutions. But when the basic rules of design are ignored in an effort to be distinctive, design becomes useless. In language, a departure from the rules is only appreciated as great literature if recognition of the rules underlies the text. Graphic design is a "visual language," and brilliance is recognized in designers whose work seems to break all the rules, yet communicates its messages clearly."--From publisher's web site.