13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for amateurs looking to improve their skills, April 5, 2004
This review is from: What Is Graphic Design? (Essential Design Handbooks) (Hardcover)
The first thing I'll say is that if you want to learn techniques, look for books that expressly teach you techniques, usually specializing on how to do graphic design in Quark or Photoshop. If you want to know how to interpose photos X, Y, and Z with a semi-translucent orange overlay in the shape of a kitten... this is not your book.
This book answers the question "What is Graphic Design?" I'd always had this grandiose notion that it was billboards, posters, web sites... complex things. But it's as simple as the business cards and stationery for a two-person start-up who need a professional look. It's the side of a cereal box. It's the traffic signs at the airport. It's the tray-liner at McDonalds.
I didn't learn all that much about how to do graphic design, but I learned more about what it is and how much more often I did it, and encountered it, than I thought.
As I went on to other books, I could better identify what I did and did not like about certain designs and why I didn't like it. Nothing so powerful as Harry S. Truman's (attributed) "if that's art, I'm a Hottentot," but enough to make me able to look at what I do with a more educated eye.
In essence, if I had to sum up what I learned from the book. The answer to "What Is Graphic Design" is: "understanding how type, colors, lines, shapes, images, and empty space interact, then imposing some sort of order upon all that to create an effect and/or a message."
Will it help me with my ultimate goal making my web designs slicker and cooler? A little. I'll have a better critical eye. I'm following up with books on technique that might help a little more.
All in all, I walked away with four product/design ideas and I like the way it built a foundation for me. In my opinion, the book was very worthwhile.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely essential graphic design book !!, February 4, 2005
This review is from: What Is Graphic Design? (Essential Design Handbooks) (Hardcover)
As a graphic designer, this is a recent discovery (and a very welcome addition) to my collection. Quentin Newark is a member of Atelier Works, one of the leading design studios in the UK. I haven't heard of it/him before, but i gladly found that he took a big gamble writing a book with the "definitive" title "What is graphic design" and won.
Newark's writings are sincere, humorous and concrete. This is a very intelligent and complex reading. Much more complex than it seems. The book shows that Newark did a lot of research since he mentions a lot of books and author's, putting design in an anthropological, ethical and cultural context(mentioning for example works by Rand, Sagmeister, Sontag, Lupton, Miller, McLuhan, Poynor -I guess that if you don't know who they are, you may not enjoy this book properly, so go back to your Macromedia Freehand!!-).
It doesn't matter if you are beginning your career as a student, or if you are a seasoned designer... "What is graphic design" will definitely contribute in a form or another to increase your overall perception about graphic design as a profession, a social medium or even a way of life. Highly recommended. I read it again, and again, and again... and again. If you like intelligent reading about graphic design (not the "How-to-make-a-80-layer-photoshop-composition" book)I'm sure you WILL enjoy it. Trust me.
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