Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach (Charles River Media Graphics) [Paperback]

Alan Hashimoto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 23, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1584504935 | ISBN-13: 978-1584504931 | Edition: 2

Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach, Second Edition has been completely updated to provide new insights and hands-on tutorials using the latest technology, including Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The book teaches the foundational information that artists and designers need to know to understand the art of two-dimensional visual design. It explores the classic elements of design (line, shape, form, value, color, and texture) and their relationship to balance, harmony, variety, and other classic design principles. The theories presented are well-established ideas in all forms of two-dimensional art and design, including drawing, painting, printmaking, graphics, and general design. These principles may also be applied to interior design, architecture, and industrial design. As artists learn the theories taught throughout the book, they'll put these ideas into practice using a variety of hands-on tutorials covering line & shape, type combinations, letters as design elements, color composition, drawing, photo collages, and more. The tutorials use basic computer skills and techniques, and address classic tools and procedures common to all drawing and paint programs, including Illustrator and Photoshop.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Hashimoto (Logan, UT) is an associate professor in the field of graphic design and computer art at Utah State University. He has created over 400 nationally published visual design solutions for more than a hundred national and international corporations, advertising firms, and design studios.His design experience includes corporate identities, packaging, editorial layout, illustration, interactive design, and animation. He is also the author of the first edition of Visual Design Fundaments: A Digital Approach. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 2 edition (August 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584504935
• ISBN-13: 978-1584504931
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,571,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Books In One, July 24, 2004

By 

Diane Cipollo (Editor at BellaOnline.com) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach (Graphics Series) (Paperback)

This book is for anyone new to design fundamentals, digital art and computer imaging software. The author, Alan Hashimoto, has written two books in one. First, he discusses the elements and principals of two-dimensional art design and how they apply to both traditional art mediums and the digital art medium. Second, the book is an introduction to digital imaging software. He discusses the difference between object-oriented and paint software. Throughout the book he teaches the basic skills needed for creating artwork on the computer using both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. However the two objectives of this book are well integrated. The author has done a great job of demonstrating how to apply traditional design fundamentals to 2D digital art. He then reinforces this with seven digital art projects which help the reader to apply this knowledge while creating computer generated art.

Hashimoto discusses the design elements of line, shape, space, volume, value, color and texture and the principals of design such as unity, variety and balance. His explanations are easy to understand even for the novice and he uses many full-color digital art examples. However the best aspect of this book is the conceptual process used for completing the seven digital projects. This process starts by defining the design challenge and then brainstorming various approaches with thumbnail sketches. Next the design is further refined into roughs which incorporate more details. The final phases of the process are a trial run of the finished design and then the completed design.

The purpose of these seven projects is not only to apply the information in the book to real life examples but to demonstrate how the steps of the conceptual process can be accomplished using the computer. Hashimoto first discusses the traditional methods used for completing the process and then progresses on to digital methods. His step-by-step instructions for the Adobe software are very thorough and easy to follow. Even if you have not used this type of software before, these projects will teach you the basics of the software and how to use it. He also covers related topics such as scanning your artwork into the computer and printing your completed projects. I enjoyed all seven of the projects. But the one that I found especially useful was typeface design.

Project One - Modular Design
Project Two - Letterforms and Shape
Project Three - Figure Abstraction and Non-Objective Shape
Project Four - Value
Project Five - Color Theory
Project Six - Typeface Design
Project Seven - Digital Montage/Collage

Reading this book was like attending an art course at your favorite university. The author's presentation of the information resembled a class lecture which he reinforced with class assignments. So it is no surprise that Alan Hashimoto is an associate professor at Utah State University where he teaches graphic design and computer art. He is also an accomplished artist.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A self-teaching guide for artists and designers, March 6, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach (Graphics Series) (Paperback)

Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach by Alan Hashimoto (Associate Professor of Graphic Design and Computer Art, Utah State University) is a superbly organized and presented resource and self-teaching guide for artists and designers seeking to take advantage of basic computer skills and techniques to create appealing, emotionally charged, and attention-gathering works of two-dimensional art. Visual Design Fundamentals includes straightforward tutorials and projects using Adobe Illustrator CS and Adobe Photoshop CS in order to provide hands-on experience with principles such as modular design, color theory, typeface design, figure abstraction, and more. An included CD offers files needed to complete the projects and trial versions of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Highly recommended for an graphic artist seeking to create and utilize computer generated illustrations and/or designs, Visual Design Fundamentals is replete with both black-and-white and color illustrations throughout which wonderfully enhance the detailed, practical, "user friendly" instructions.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars can use with any design program, January 24, 2007

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Visual Design Fundamentals: A Digital Approach (Charles River Media Graphics) (Paperback)

Hashimoto teaches timeless precepts of visual design. Many of which predate the Internet. The book seems apt for someone already knowing something about Photoshop and Illustrator. It shows how to use those programs to apply changes to a design, in accordance with the precepts. But primarily you benefit at a higher level, in understanding through the book's examples how to use basic key ideas in design. Hence, the book is not necessarily restricted to users of those design programs. If indeed you favour another program not covered here, the book can still be very informative.

By the way, one chapter uses the example of typeface design. This has an air of antiquity about it. Designing letterforms goes back centuries, and has many subtleties that the chapter lets you appreciate.