Non-Designer's Design Book, The

As a community college student studying media and graphic design, the problem with the required class textbooks is that I find them very bland and drawn-out. They often dive right into the history of it all, typically using popular pieces of art from another era to exemplify what the chapter is trying to say. As a result, those books lose me very quickly because they're boring as heck and we are not usually tested on these things anyway. Which is a big problem right there. But if I do manage to make it through a few chapters, I rarely walk away being able to recall what I just read. It's hard to absorb material that consist of many daunting paragraphs that either beat around the bush or throw terms with definitions at me left and right. It also doesn't help when the pages are usually littered with distracting graphics and colors to try and give it style, which I find to be ironically counterproductive. And if the school curriculum itself doesn't help put the fundamental principals into practice with every assignment, it's like trying to sprint before you can properly walk. Now at the near-end of my program, I really wish I would've came across this book when I started out. It has helped my confidence in a way that reading endless amounts of articles and watching TED Talks could not. I keep wrestling with this idea that, despite my good grades and everything I have learned, I would never feel like I could produce something that I would actually consider a pretty good design. I would open a new document and never know where to begin. At first I thought it was because I wasn't creative, then I thought I was just a demotivated person in general, then I started to think my college curriculum was the biggest issue (too much emphasis on students knocking out assignments instead of learning), which for me resulted in a lot of trial and error to make a good design. Sometimes I lucked out and sometimes it was meh. All this doing and not enough knowing was starting to make me doubt this career path. It wasn't until I cracked opened this book and realized the big problem, I needed to go back to basics. It's straight-forward, uses very clear examples, and covers many topics; much of it pertaining to making print materials. Although a couple of things that weren't covered were grids and logos, I can make up for these in another hard-to-read textbook I have. It doesn't go super in-depth since this is meant more for beginners, but it still touches on each thing with a great amount of information so the reader understands each topic very well, all while using a plain layout for its information. After getting through this, I can highly suggest the book to anyone not feeling that great about their abilities if they're still fairly new to learning graphic design. Only people I probably wouldn't recommend this for are those at university or people disciplined enough to teach themselves, as this book may be nothing new to them. For me, this book has retaught me a lot of what I should already know by now, but embarrassed to say that I really didn't. Even though I have obviously studied these principles in order to get to this point, nothing I have read/watched/heard have really explained in plain English on how to put these things into practice. And that not knowing was the thing holding me back. I now have good reference material for whenever I start self-doubting. Robin Williams has made learning graphic design quite easier than I have been perceiving the subject this whole time, all in this one quick read. I now feel more ready to go back to the heavier material on these subjects, and actually memorize it all. Also, I'm only now realizing the hardest part over the years was learning Adobe's three main pieces of software and using them to their full potential, which seems like an endless journey in itself. It's almost aggravating realizing that I retained probably more from this book in one day, than the hundreds of dollars worth of college textbooks that mostly sat in my backpack each semester. Now I'm not saying this book will surely make you a pro after reading it all. I am saying that many people, like me, do much better when the material is explained as simply as possible, with effective visuals in a non-intimidating format. If you need something concise that starts from the beginning principles, and expands on them to make you more comfortable in creating professional looking layouts, I think this is the best option.

obin Williams has crafted an incredibly accessible and insightful guide to design principles. Whether you're a complete beginner or someone looking to refine your skills, this book breaks down the four fundamental principles of design—contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity—in a way that’s easy to understand and apply. The updated edition includes a fantastic chapter on typography, which is a game-changer for anyone working with text. The visual examples and exercises throughout the book make learning engaging and practical. Williams' writing style is lighthearted yet informative, making complex concepts feel effortless to grasp. If you want to elevate your design skills—whether for newsletters, flyers, websites, or presentations—this book is an absolute gem. I highly recommend it!

Robin really found a way to explain design concepts in a way that the uninitiated can grasp. I bought this for someone struggling to learn design and ended up purchasing another copy for myself even though I have years of design experience because I enjoyed the book so much. Especially good for anyone who wants to learn good design for a publication but also has merit in explaining basic design. Bravo, Robin! You truly are the BEST!

Helped me get through a college course and learned more than I thought I would from it.

Since I’m not a professional designer and my graphic design was rusty, I bought this book to brush up and improve my skills. Right away, I appreciated that this author spared me discussions of esoteric topics—like color theory and the nuances of typography—that are best reserved for other books to be read by a small number of academics and designers. Instead, she focused her book on helping me become a better designer quickly with lots of practical tips and techniques. The book was filled with lots of easy-to-apply suggestions I could start using right away to make my design work look more professional. To make it easy to grasp design concepts, the author had lots of before and after examples that helped me understand the differences between weak amateurish designs and eye-catching professional looking designs that I could be proud to share with others.

I had to buy NDDB for a class but being in a field where I may need to refer to design principals, I decided to buy it. I'm glad I did. The acronym of CRAP is so much easier to remember than any other design books that try to shy away from such a "crude" acronym. Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity are heavily touched on in the front of the book while the back end of the book has information about colors, fonts, and various other tidbits of information that will be super helpful for anyone who needs a quick reference. I love that the book provides a ton of examples, in an easy to read format, and gets right to it. I read this book from cover to cover and that was without prompt from the class.

Visual design does not come naturally to me - I'm more of a words and numbers person - but I do create documents and data visualizations for my job. This book is incredibly valuable for how it clearly explains why some things look good and others do not.

I’ve had this book recommended a couple of times over the years, but I hesitated to buy it because the covers were so horrible. Now that I’ve read the book (4th ed.-yellow cover), I can explain why: the cover designer followed virtually NONE of the principles taught in the book! I realize authors don't usually get to control the design of their book cover, but in this case I am shocked she didn’t insist on it contractually. Full star docked for the bad cover. (And BTW that horrible aqua and gray on the 3rd ed. cover was just as bad.) Cover aside, the interior of this book was quite lovely. Well designed, with ample examples of before/after design and specific techniques and tips. The title of the book is accurate: it is definitely for the non-designer (like me); I imagine designers and all but the most novice design students would be frustrated by the basic nature of this book. For me, I found validation that my organizational and alignment instincts were on target, but that I played it too safe with respect to contrast and creating visual interest. As my husband says, I am a little too matchy-matchy. But now I feel like I have the principles to start pushing my boundaries. I especially appreciated that the author included all the information about fonts used in the book. Minor criticisms: There were places that design terminology was used but not adequately explained (e.g., traditional typesetting terms). I would be cautious following the resume advice; it might make your print resume pretty, but will not translate into online systems and may actually damage your chances of being “found.” In today’s world electronic and mobile world, I rarely get paper newsletters; it would be useful to have at least some basic advice about using these design principles in tools like MailChimp and Constant Contact where there are system constraints. Summary: 3 stars (4 stars overall minus 1 star for the bad cover)

Peu de principes sont présenté dans ce livre, mais ils suffiront à améliorer la façon dont vous aller organiser les éléments dans l'espace de façon à ce qu'ils soient plus harmonieux. De plus ceux-ci sont présentés de façon claire avec de nombreux exemples et de petits exercices pour bien nous les faire comprendre.

I found this book years ago when I was impressed by the slideshow put together by a presenter at a seminar. She told me that she had a previous qualification in design, but recommended an earlier edition of this book. I read it and applied the principles I learned and was able to make much more professional-looking and attractive brochures, slideshows etc. I bought this one because I had lent the previous copy to someone who hadn't returned it and the admin assistant in my new position was producing very uninviting posters and brochures. This made a significant difference and was very much worth the money!

Often small business or startups don't have the budget to pay a graphic designer, and entrepreneurs end up doing all the design work themselves. I highly recommend this book to all entrepreneurs and everyone who manages their own business fan page and do everything in their own business.

It's exactly what the title said! Deffo recommend it other not designer designers! Lol

Um ótimo livro pra quem não é designer e quer aprender princípios básicos. Eu sou engenheiro e não sabia nada sobre design. Depois de ler este livro as minhas peças ficaram com aparência profissional