Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3395975 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-10
• Format: Import
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

A great introductory review of graphic design principles
This is a great introductory review of basic graphic design principles. The subjects covered include: foreground/background, form, structure, juxtaposition of elements on a page, gestalt perceptual theory, hierarchy, and typography. There is a bit of history, color theory, and computer-related issues. Overall, this is a sound book to recommend to an introductory graphic design class.

Some excellent parts, grossly misleading web design and computer info
I read the book cover-to-cover before writing this review. Generally speaking, it is a very good intro to basic "graphical design" concepts. The first half of the book, examples focus on specific concepts of good design, and explains them well without unnecessary verbiage.

For example, the writer correctly assumes that most people have less knowledge of good font usage than good picture usage. She explains that the space inside fonts must be considered as shapes that contribute to and can be used in design, not just the shapes of the letters themselves. She details the history of font families just enough to teach you why they are made the way they are.

I also learned that things like "Helvetica" are a font-FAMILY, not a specific font, and that DIFFERENT PEOPLE often make the specific fonts in a family, such as the various italic, condensed, and extended variations, and therefore the sizes often don't match. That's critical information for websites because you must ensure text on your page looks the way you want for various fonts/users. However, there really was not an direct explanation of all this, the information is scattered in a couple of chapters and is mostly hinted at when you read about how the "Univers" font-family was created to have an identical "x-height" regardless of the specific font used.

Things like repetition and visual weight are explained clearly and succinctly. The history of different design movements is given to allow students to analyze design approaches from various points of view.

Exercises for chapters are interesting. In earlier chapters, they have a very specific focus, and in later ones, students are combining design techniques. What I really like is that she mixes professional examples of design with those students created for a portfolio. Some of their work is quite good! There is just the right amount of great examples of professional work. If someone wants a complete collection of some of the best design work, it would be appropriate to pick up a copy of Problem Solved.

I (unfortunately) expect people in the "graphical design" field to ignore usability and accessibility in website design, and approach the subject with limited knowledge and a let's-show-off-the-eye-candy approach. However, Ms. Arntson goes beyond mere ignorance and directly contributes to the devil-may-care attitude with statements like, "you don't really need to learn HTML" and "create your webpage in PhotoShop".

She's even crass enough to include a list of "good website design" tips that would not even make the grade in an "HTML for dummies" book. Her idea of website "design" is using wizards (implied, since says don't learn HTML) to create tables and frames, and dragging-and-dropping buttons in a WYSIWYG program.

Even if she's no expert, she could have at least mentioned that while web design is a topic not covered but not difficult, it will be important for students to study cross-device (not just cross-browser) compatibility and accessibility issues as they develop good web design habits. Some necessities are not using frames, moving away from tables-based design, testing websites in a variety of browsers (including a text-based browser and a cell phone, or at least using "Shift+F11" in Opera to shrink the page to cell-phone size -- though that doesn't address the fact that cell phones and other devices don't do frames or even tables), and avoiding JavaScript except for non-essential eye candy.

She even claims that Flash automatically avoids download-time problems -- we all know that couldn't be further from the truth! Flash can be good or really, really bad, depending whether a person bothers to learn to optimize it. Not to mention, you might as well walk up to a blind person and slap them across the face.

She says that filenames must be eight characters because of different operating systems (Windows, Unix, etc.)...where in the heck did she get that idea? Any OS that can run a webserver understands long filenames, and has for years. Does she think people run webservers on DOS???

Everything before the last few chapters was immensely enjoyable and well-written. Even before all the explicitly WRONG web design info, though, she totally lost my respect when she said this: "The central processing unit (CPU), the main part of the system, houses the hard drive." OMG! HA! HA! HA! Did an editor even look at this book before letting it out the door???

This book is just proof that publishers will let anyone write a textbook even if they have no idea what they are talking about. That's not the only hilarious, completely computer-illiterate thing in Chapter 11. It's just the worst. She also thinks that you buy RAM chips individually and attach them onto the "memory boards" yourself. (No, Ms. Arnston...you can only buy the memory cards with the chips already attached, then you pop the cards onto your MOTHERBOARD.)

The thing is, this throws into doubt all the seemingly-interesting information in this chapter about preparing your work for the press, and the various types of press, and associated formats, because it seems like she doesn't even know how to use a computer. There's seemingly highly-informative information about graphics files and how the computer uses them (though I saw a minor error or two there), but I don't know if I should give the information any merit at all. I don't know if she wrote that part or someone else. In any case, someone else should have written the other computer-centric info, too. But really, publishers need to check teachers backgrounds (and work outside teaching) before they let them loose on a textbook!

If she only likes to work with traditional pen/paper she should at least say so. Of course, it could be that like many professors, she teaches in a field in which she hasn't actually practiced in decades. I can't see how else the "art" parts of the book would be so good and the computer- and website-related information so horrible. It's almost as though she went on a 3-day bender and then stayed up all night with a hangover to finish the book by deadline. I don't even truly know how to rate it, because the visual aspects of design are covered so well. It's like the book was written by Jeckyl and Hyde!

Should be 5 - but new it's too expensive
This is a great book, and as a former design educator, I always encouraged my students to look into this book. The basics of the practice are excellently covered. However most students balked at the price. Buy it used if you can. The Web chapter is really dated now.