How to Understand and Use Design and Layout [Paperback]

Alan Swann (Author), Illustated (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: F & W Publications, Incorporated (1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089134358X
• ISBN-13: 978-0891343585
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,932,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less than useful, October 28, 1999

By 

David M. Chess (Mohegan Lake, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Understand and Use Design and Layout (Paperback)

A frustrating book. My initial impression is that I could have written virtually all of it myself.

The book consists of a large number of 1/2 or 3/4 page essays, superficially describing some aspect of design (color, line, type, shape-with-type, etc), and urging the reader (basically) to try lots of things and see what looks the best. In between the essays are small illustrations of design drafts or finished products, with short and generally unenlightening captions. I expected more!

There are a few bits of concrete advice in the book, but many are so vague as to be unhelpful ("consider the use of color in your design"), and some are simply wrong. For instance, it's hard to credit the statement "it is unlikely that a light, classic serif type will mix with a heavy, sans serif face", when it's printed in a light oldstyle serif face, under a heading that's in (you guessed it!) a heavy sans. On another page, some advice about the cost of color choices seems to show a misunderstanding of how the four-color printing process works. On at least two occasions, the text refers to an illustration "on this page", when no illustration matching the text description actually appears anywhere in the book.

The diction is odd and stilted, as though it were imprefectly translated from the Korean, or perhaps the Icelandic. Can You Parse This: "The emphasis in describing this product range is the link between acceptable branding style described by choice of type and the various options in positioning the visual content." Huh?

Another oddity: the book mentions computers exactly once, in a confused sentence about phototypesetting. Given that the majority of design projects these days use the computer in at least one stage of design (and often many more), this seems unaccountable.

Perhaps there are things in this book that would be helpful to someone with a cognitive style very different from mine, but I found it disappointing, and the few possibly-valid pieces of advice and interesting illustrations not worth the price or the time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad Bad Book, October 10, 2006

By 

ArtTeacher - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Understand and Use Design and Layout (Paperback)

This is a patheticly designed design book by David Dabner that shamefully claims is "based on the best selling edition by Alan Swann" NOT co-authored by Alan Swann as the Amazon listing claims. The original book by the same title, actually written by Alan Swann and was Published by North Light Books in 1987 and paperback 1990 is the bible for understanding graphic design! Nothing short of brilliant! Do NOT buy Dabner's book when you can buy the original by Swann

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less than useful continued... (tip of the hat to David Chess), August 16, 2006

By 

Ole Nielson (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How to Understand and Use Design and Layout (Paperback)

This book disappoints in many ways. There are other books available on the topic of graphic design that are far more helpful, such as Robin Williams' "The Non-Designer's Design Book".

The most logical place to start with a book on graphic design is with an introduction to the elements of design before then speaking of the principles of design. The book's first chapter is titled "Basic Design Principles" and confuses by mixing elements of design with principles of design.

The layout of the book is uninspired. The pink horizontal hairlines on every page do nothing to improve the look of the book but are instead distracting. The one nice thing about this book is that the examples used are generally high quality design.

This book does not deliver good value for money, especially considering the other graphic design books on the market.