Graphic Design Cookbook: Mix & Match Recipes for Faster, Better Layouts [Paperback]

Leonard Koren (Author), R. Wippo Meckler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0811831809 | ISBN-13: 978-0811831802 | Publication Date: March 1, 2001

With 100,000 copies sold, Graphic Design Cookbook is one of the most useful all-purpose resources for designers and anyone who wants to create a dynamic layout for magazines, newsletters, books, posters, and other media. Now released with a fresh new cover, its more than a thousand line drawings illustrate effective design devices, type treatments, spatial solutions, and pictorial presentations, allowing examination and comparison of various options in no time. The Graphic Design Cookbook can be opened to virtually any page for instant access to great ideas. As a catalyst for cooking up endless new design recipes, this classic goes on inspiring one generation of designers to the next.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Leonard Koren was the publisher and creative director of Wet magazine and is the author of New Fashion Japan and 283 Useful Ideas from Japan.

R. Wippo Meckler is an award-winning print designer who has designed magazines such as WET, Mademoiselle, PC Week, and MacUser . He is currently president of Re:Design, Inc., a web design/development agency in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 142 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811831809
• ISBN-13: 978-0811831802
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Begin here..., February 6, 2001

By 

Erin (Michigan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Graphic Design Cookbook: Mix and Match Recipes for Faster, Better Layouts (Paperback)

This book is a lifesaver! I was put in charge of creating a company newsletter and I didn't know where to begin. Someone handed me this book and suddenly the world of design opened up to me. The book is organized around the five major considerations one should have when deciding how to arrange information on a page. There is no expanatory text, just hundreds of examples to show how it can be done. For example, if you need to use a pull quote in a large block of text, this book gives you 24 different ways to do it. And its for more than just newsletters -- brochures, magazines, posters, anything can benefit from the creative ideas presented in this book. And the whole idea is to mix and match so the end result of your work is something different and creative every time.

I highly recommend a book like this for people like me with no design experience or even for designers who may not be having a very creative day. The ideas in this book gets the creativity flowing and shows you how to look at documents with design in mind -- to see how the pieces of information fit together, and how one interesting detail can make a dull document come alive.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great way jump-start your ideas!, November 7, 2005

By 

Susan Ohtake "sooz" (santa monica, ca) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Graphic Design Cookbook: Mix & Match Recipes for Faster, Better Layouts (Paperback)

I almost didn't buy this book because of the mixed reviews. After flipping through it in the bookstore, I purchased it. I'm so glad I did!

Seems to me the negative reviewers here are not rating it well because they expected it to go beyond it's intended scope. The book clearly states up front that it provides various layout options, to be used as-is or to mix and match. It's purpose is to jump-start your creativity when your in a rut, not tell you exactly what to do with your content or cover layout theory. It is a reference of visual layout ideas. There are no lengthy explanations.

Overall, great buy. I love it!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really great place to get ideas, June 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Graphic Design Cookbook: Mix and Match Recipes for Faster, Better Layouts (Paperback)

It's 10:00 at night, and you still have several hours of design ahead of you. How do you keep your designs creative and original? The first book I grab is The Graphic Design Cookbook. It's not a book of canned designs, but a catalog of design concepts and structures to hang your own artwork on. I wouldn't go into my studio without it.