D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (Design Handbooks)

 

Not satisfied with the new T-shirts on sale at the local mall? Maybe you’d like a wedding invitation that expresses your own vision, not your party planner’s? How about some personalized stationery? An upgrade to your website? A business card? A poster for your political campaign? A CD package for your band? Sound good? Then get up off your couch and Design It Yourself! Avoid graphic identity theft: build your own. Ellen Lupton, bestselling author of Thinking with Type will show you how.

DIY: Design It Yourself provides you with all the tools you’ll need to create your own projects, from conception through production. Here you will find:

- simple ideas on how you can “think like a designer”

- clear and coherent explanations of design technologies, from silk-screening to web   development

- what materials you’ll need to get your job done

- where to find and buy them

- how much time and experience your project demands

- diagrams that show how to handle complex tasks 

- basic typographic dos and don’ts 

- the history and theory of the DIY design movement

- hundreds of innovative and beautiful projects for inspiration

No more excuses. With this book, virtually any design task is within your grasp. Just do it (yourself)!

The Non-Designer’s Design Book (3rd Edition)

 

A lot has happened in the world of digital design since the first edition of this title was published, but one thing remains true: There is an ever-growing number of people attempting to design pages with no formal training. This book is the one place they can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help from trusted design instructor Robin Williams. This revised classic–now in full color–includes a new section on the hot topic of Color itself. 

In The Non-Designer’s Design Book, 3rd Edition, Robin turns her attention to the basic principles that govern good design. Readers who follow her clearly explained concepts will produce more sophisticated and professional pages immediately. Humor-infused, jargon-free prose interspersed with design exercises, quizzes, and illustrations make learning a snap–which is just what audiences have come to expect from this best-selling author. 

 

The Elements of Typographic Style (Paperback)

 

This well-written book is concerned foremost with creating beautiful typography and is essential for professionals who regularly work with typographic designs. Author Robert Bringhurst writes about designing with the correct typeface; striving for rhythm, proportion, and harmony; choosing and combining type; designing pages; using section heads, subheads, footnotes, and tables; applying kerning and other type adjustments to improve legibility; and adding special characters, including punctuation and diacritical marks. The Elements of Typographic Style teaches the history of and the artistic and practical perspectives on a variety of type families that are available in Europe and America today.

 Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Historical Synopsis 12

1 Grand Design 17

2 Rhythm & Proportion 25

3 Harmony & Counterpoint 45

4 Structural Forms & Devices 61

5 Analphabetic Symbols 75

6 Choosing & Combining Type 93

7 Historical Interlude 119

8 Shaping the Page 143

9 The State of the Art 179

10 Prowling the Specimen Books 199

App. A Sorts & Characters 271

App. B: Glossary of Terms 287

App. C Type Designers 299

App. D Typefoundries 309

App. E: Recapitulation 319

App. F: Further Reading 327

Afterword to the Second Edition 333

Index 335 

Library Journal

In a discussion embracing five and a half centuries, poet and designer Bringhurst covers the design of individual characters of type and entire alphabets, as well as the layout of pages, including such items as footnotes, margins, and tables. A glossary defines terms such as kern, fore-edge, and pica, and there are annotated lists of type designers, from the 1400s until now, and of type foundries, mostly contemporary. An appendix illustrates unusual typographic characters, such as the Croatian “dyet” and the German “sharp s,” and a final appendix lists, without annotation, more than 100 books and periodicals for further reading. The author’s prose is sometimes flowery, and some of his strongly expressed opinions are questionable. Nonetheless, there’s a wealth of sound advice and instruction here. Not required for most collections, this will be useful to graphic designers and those interested in the history of printed letterforms.Margarete Gross, Chicago P.L.

 

Thinking with Type

 Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers,Writers, Editors, & Students (Design Briefs)

 Thinking with Type, the organization of letters on a blank sheet — or screen — is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills. 

Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no’s to avoid).

Ellen Lupton is one of America’s preeminent design educators. Her books include Skin, Inside Design Now, and Mixing Messages, among others. She is currently director of the design program at Maryland Institute of Art and Design.

 

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

 

Adrian Shaughnessy was co-founder of the leading London-based design company Intro and was the company’s creative director for 15 years before leaving in 2003 to pursue a career as a design writer.

The kinds of questions young designers most often need answers to are the practical things—how to find work, what to charge, what the first step is interpreting a brief, and how to work it out when with a job or a client relationship goes wrong. Shaughnessy, the co- founder of a London design firm as well as a design writer, provides a guide that tells all.

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work, and who want to avoid becoming hired drones working on soulless projects. Written by a designer for designers, it combines practical advice with philosophical guidance to help young professionals embark on their careers.

How should designers manage the creative process? What’s the first step in the successful interpretation of a brief? How do you generate ideas when everything just seems blank? How to be a graphic designer offers clear, concise guidance for these questions, along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio, finding work, and collaborating with clients.

The book also includes inspiring interviews with ten leading designers, including Rudy VanderLans (Emigre), John Warwicker (Tomato), Neville Brody (Research Studios), and Andy Cruz (House Industries). All told, How to be a graphic designer covers just about every aspect of the profession, and stands as an indispensable guide for any young designer. 

 

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Design Quote (1)

  

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like.                                     Design is how it works.” 

Steve Jobs

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