Digital Foundations: Intro to Media Design with the Adobe Creative Suite (Paperback)

~ xtine burrough (Author), Michael Mandiberg (Author)
Key Phrases: digital foundations, key command, style sheets, Hello World, Creative Commons, Direct Selection (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This ambitious book teaches visual thinking and software skills together. The text leads readers step-by-step through the process of creating dynamic images using a range of powerful applications. The engaging, experimental exercises take this project well beyond the typical software guide."
Ellen Lupton, co-author of Graphic Design: The New Basics
 
"This groundbreaking text applies the classical Modernist pedagogy of the Bauhaus to digital media. It's a must-have for every art student, design student, and new media maven."
Mark Tribe, Brown University, Founder of Rhizome.org

"This book is the perfect fusion of technical and formal instruction. It gives the lie to those who think you can learn to use the Adobe Suite of computer applications effectively without  an art education, and opens the door to a more practical understanding of the importance of artistic practice in our culture."
Lee Montgomery, Founder of Neighborhood Public Radio / New Media Educator

"This book is an unprecedented bridge between how visual design was once taught and how it needs to be taught today.  It decodes digital tools and culture while explaining fundamental visual design principles within a historical context."
Casey Reas, Co-Founder of Processing.org

"This book is critically important for the arts. Far too few artists are sophisticated enough to be aware of the stealthily growing problem   at hand: Corporate, cookie-cutter tools—and their manuals—that standardize and cramp creativity threaten to become the greatest shapers of late 20th & 21st century art, just as architecture’s greatest influence this past century has unfortunately been neither a renowned school of architecture, nor even a great architect, but the catalog of standardized options: door frames, windows, and other prefab parts, from which 99 percent of structures are now built. Artists will remain stuck with old patterns and limited options, unless we create viable open source alternatives and brilliant interventions like this book!"

John S. Johnson, Chairman of the Pacific Foundation / Founder of the Screenwriters Colony, The Filmmakers Collaborative and Eyebeam, Art + Technology center

Product Description

Fuses design fundamentals and software training into one cohesive book!

• The only book to teach Bauhaus design principles alongside basic digital tools of Adobe's Creative Suite, including the recently released Adobe CS4
  
• Addresses the growing trend of compressing design fundamentals and design software into the same course in universities and design trade schools.
• Lessons are timed to be used in 50-minute class sessions.

Digital Foundations uses formal exercises of the Bauhaus to teach the Adobe Creative Suite. All students of digital design and production—whether learning in a classroom or on their own—need to understand the basic principles of design in order to implement them using current software. Far too often design is left out of books that teach software. Consequently, the design software training exercise is often a lost opportunity for visual learning. Digital Foundations reinvigorates software training by integrating Bauhaus design exercises into tutorials fusing design fundamentals and core Adobe Creative Suite methodologies. The result is a cohesive learning experience.

Design topics and principles include: Composition; Symmetry and Asymmetry; Gestalt; Appropriation; The Bauhaus Basic Course Approach; Color Theory; The Grid; Scale, Hierarchy and Collage; Tonal Range; Elements of Motion.

Digital Foundations is an AIGA Design Press book, published under Peachpit's New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA, the professional association for design.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (December 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321555988
• ISBN-13: 978-0321555984
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #442,559 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sorely needed text in New Media Foundations, January 27, 2009

By	Patrick Lichty (baton rouge, la United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Really solid merger of Bauhaus Foundations and practical applications. The episodic portions of art and computational history create a fine narrative arc, and marry the two genres together well. I'm trying to get my college to adopt it in some of our 1st and 2nd-year classes.

Patrick Lichty, Assiatand Professor
Interactive Arts & Media, Columbia College Chicago

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally A Well-Balanced Text for Adobe Programs!, January 26, 2009

By	Rachelle K Beaudoin (NH) - See all my reviews

I have used several online lessons and files from the Digital Foundations Wiki for classes I am teaching this semester. So far, the students are doing well and I am able to reinforce ideas about composition, balance etc. while teaching Creative Suite---something that was seriously lacking the technical lessons I had used before. The wiki has been particularly helpful since I was hired to teach one class at the last minute and no textbook was ordered or required for the students. This series of lessons is much more engaging, practical and creative than other books out there. I can't wait for my review copy to come in the mail!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I know what a rectangle is..., October 18, 2009

By	Ayla Roark - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a college student in graphic design and one of my classes uses this book. I appreciate that it is trying to teach me basic design along with the Adobe programs and some of the explanations of of programs themselves are all right. My main problem with this book is that when it talks to me about design I feel that the book talks to me as if I am really stupid and they are trying to sound really smart while explaining to me things that I learned in elementary school. My favorite example is when it explains to me what a rectangle is. "A rectangle is described by a path that turns at right angles through four anchor points to create four sides and meets itself to close the shape." I am not in college to read fancy descriptions about the very basic ideas of of things such as shapes, simple design elements such as what symmetry is, and plagiarism.