The Non-Designer's Design and Type Books, Deluxe Edition [Paperback]

Robin Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0321534050 | ISBN-13: 978-0321534057 | Edition: 1

Design and typographic insights from the author of The Non-Designer’s book series (over 700,000 copies in print!)

This book offers decades of experience from one of the greatest computer book authors. Here in one volume, Robin Williams has joined together a new edition of her classic The Non-Designer’s Design Book—in glorious full color for the first time—and her best-selling The Non-Designer’s Type Book. Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you’ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects. Whether you are a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice or an experienced graphic designer, you will find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter!

These essential guides to design and type will teach you about:

• The four principles of design that underlie every design project
• Categories of type
• Working with color
• How to combine typefaces for maximum effect
• Readability and legibility
• The proper typographic treatment of punctuation
• Letter spacing, line spacing, and paragraph spacing
• Special characters and accent marks
  

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robin William s is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books, including The Non-Designer 's Design Book, The Non-Designer's Type Boo k, The Little Mac Bo ok, Robin Williams Mac OS X B ook, Robin Williams Design Wo rkshop, and Web Design Worksh op. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has influenced a generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, the Mac, desktop publishing, and the Web.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (October 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321534050
• ISBN-13: 978-0321534057
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.8 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,531 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Computers & Technology > Graphic Design > Desktop Publishing

More About the Author

Robin Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books, including Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, The Little Mac Book, The Non-Designer's Design Book, Robin Williams Design Workshop, and Web Design Workshop. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has influenced a generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, desktop publishing, the Mac, and the World Wide Web.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't be a wimp November 28, 2007

By Allen Stenger

Format:Paperback

This volume is two books bound as one: a new (2008) third edition of The Non-Designer's Design Book and the 2006 second edition of The The Non-Designer's Type Book, 2nd Edition. These are excellent books for non-designers or in fact for anyone who has to deal with desktop publishing. They teach you how to get control over the design process by verbalizing what you are trying to accomplish, and learning to trust your eyes. Also: by not being a wimp.

The Design Book is specifically about page layout (not graphic design in general), and mostly about laying out bodies of type. The most interesting thing about this book is that it (gently) rejects the idea that design is strictly a knack or an intuitive process, and emphasizes verbalizing what you are trying to accomplish. "Once you can name the problem, you can find the solution." (p. 10) "You must know what the rule is before you can break it." (p. 49) The book enunciates several principles of good design. Through many examples of bad design and better design the book shows you how to check whether the principles are being violated and how to correct the violations.

There's a very clear chapter on the categories of type (Oldstyle, Modern, etc.): how to recognize them and when to use them. Very Good Feature: each page names the typefaces used in the examples.

The only real weakness of the Design Book is the chapter on using color. It was clear enough but did not seem integrated into the rest of the book....

The Type Book is a much-expanded version of Williams's Mac is not a typewriter, The (2nd Edition) and The Pc is Not a Typewriter. Unlike the Design Book it is mostly concerned with type at the individual character level. It deals with topics such as correct punctuation, different kinds of dashes, and when to set punctuation in italic. It includes all kinds of fine-tuning of the appearance of the type, such as kerning, tracking, ligatures, swash characters, hanging punctuation, correcting widows, and balancing the appearance of ragged-right type. This book allows a more intuitive approach than the Design Book, urging you to "listen to your eyes" (a mixed metaphor, but effective).

I have only a couple of minor gripes with the Type Book. (1) I think it has more fine-tuning that a non-designer is really going to use (e.g., fancy ligatures and swashes). The number of tweaks is overwhelming and may make you feel guilty for not using all these features. (2) I love Helvetica, but Williams continually bad-mouths it, and this is wearying. Apart from these minor points it is an excellent book, clearly-written and full of solid and useful information. Read more ›

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent starer book about design November 20, 2008

By Joshua Cunningham

Format:Paperback

I wanted to write a quick blurb about this little book that has gone a long way towards teaching me proper design.

I've been dabbling seriously in graphic design for about a year now and find it one of the most frustrating things I've ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It's very subjective, hard to describe, very time consuming, very sensitive, and totally maddening. When it works, it really works but when it doesn't work, it shows you the highest level of frustration possible.

Robin explains all the basics very well which puts you in a position to begin to experiment. If you just stick yourself in front of Photoshop and try to bang out a business card or a menu or a technical document (which you really wouldn't do in Photoshop), it's probably not going to work out well unless you've had some experience. If, however, you read this little guide and try it, you're going to have a few more ideas and at least understand the constraint you're working with in terms of color, alignment, etc.

This book is great for people without any experience in design who want to improve the way their documents, webpages, application screens, and printed material looks. You're not going to win any contests with this knowledge (and neither are her examples) but what you produce will immediately look better. The writing style is a bit goofy but I use what I learned every day in everything I produce from graffiti to webpages to technical documents to resumes.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise and Comprehensive April 3, 2008

By Petite Writer

Format:Paperback

I just can't say enough about how much this book has helped me. I've been writing copy for promotional materials as part of my job for years, and I assumed knowing how to put stuff on a brochure or flier and print it out was enough. I had no idea how dull and uninspired my designs were until I picked up this book. This is the third book I've purchased by Robin and I think I learned more from this one than the two on web design. If you're looking for an in depth explanation of what works, why it works, and what DOESN'T work, this is the book for you. It's concise and comprehensive and I'll be using it as the first reference book I pull from the shelf from now on.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a must-have for ANY graphic designer July 17, 2008

By book reader VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Robin Williams' books are definitely an essential ingredient in any graphic designer's library. Everything is explained clearly and simply in terms that are easy to understand and often humorous. Williams gives excellent examples of the work she is describing. This book is an updated complete collection of her two best books: The Non-Designer's Design Book and The Non-Designer's Type Book. I highly recommend this book in particular, as so many designers do not have even the basic understanding of basic rules of design and page layout, or how to work with type and typography. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Non-Designer's Design & Type Books, Deluxe Edition June 21, 2008

By B. Keene

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is one of the best books I have ever purchased in my life. I love reading it and studying the examples.
This book is the marriage of two books in one.

I have an educational background in Visual Communications Technology, however my heart is in graphic design. I bought this book because I learned so much from Robin's earlier book, The Max Is Not a Typewriter. This book is excellent. She goes into detail concerning design principles with excellent examples. The second book is very detailed concerning the art of typography and the many punctuation mark methods used in the past by professional type setters. Lastly, she provides excellent examples to help the beginner designer learn how to become a professional graphic designer.

I have taken as many graphic design classes as I could as an undergraduate student. Yet I could not get admittance into the typography classes. I will say that the information in this second book is educating me in the art of typography so much so, that I do not feel a need to take a course in it. I will now purchase Robins Design Workshop Book, which is written for new graphic designers.

I can honestly say that this book is great. It is so refreshing to purchase a book in which the author not only cares about good design, but is willing to share her knowledge and expertise, as well as the expertise of her her design associates, of which she give credit to in her captions when she used the word, "we".

If you purchase this book, I am sure your will not regret it.