Product Description

Robin Williams wrote this one for people who now need to design pages but have not background or formal training in design. Follow her basic principles and your work is guaranteed to look more professional. organized, unified, and interesting. Witty and easy to read, this book is full of practical information, exercises, and quizzes that ensure you'll never look at a page in the same way again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61689 in Books
• Published on: 1994-12-31
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Subtitled Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice, this book is for anyone who has to design a newsletter, job ad, flyer, business card, memo, report or whatever, but has no idea what separates good design from bad. Except, of course, that the first looks clear, professional, sophisticated and right, and the second is an ugly, unreadable mess.

Robin Williams has an easily readable style and manages to communicate sometimes complex and sophisticated concepts simply and directly. She rightly assumes that, though most people can recognise bad design when they see it, they don't know why it's bad and are therefore powerless to fix the same problems in their own work.

The bulk of the book is given over to explaining how, by sticking to four basic design principles--contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity--you can eliminate design gremlins from your work. In searching for a memorable and appropriate acronym for this principled approach, Williams admits she was only semi-successful.

The second half of the book deals with how to use type. Once again the approach is to explain simply, directly and with illustrated examples how the relationship between typefaces is defined.

As a college teacher, Williams can't resist the temptation to dot little quizzes, tests and mini-projects throughout the text. These are mostly good fun and reinforce what you've read, though even if you decide to ignore them they won't spoil your enjoyment of the book.

The Non-Designer's Design Book is the kind of book you could read in your lunch break. Its attitude is more "sketch in the margin with a pencil", than "complete the projects on the CD". It would be an ideal primer for anyone starting a design course, as well as those who want to improve the look of their memos. --Ken McMahon

From the Back Cover

Robin Williams wrote this one "for all the people who now need to design pages, but who have no background or formal training in design." Follow the basic principles clearly explained in this book and your work is guaranteed to look more professional, organized, unified, and interesting. You'll never again look at a page in the same way. Full of practical design exercises and quizzes. Runner-up for Best Introductory Systems How-to Book in the 10th Annual Computer Press Awards.

This book is for the secretary laying out an office newsletter, the entrepreneur designing her own advertising, the student wanting a better-looking term paper, or the professional creating a lasting impression with a new client. As a book of general design principles, it doesn't matter what computer one is using, or whether one is using a computer at all - the principles and terminology of good design remain the same.

Robin assumes that readers simply want to know how to make pages look better. She equips them with the four basic concepts used in virtually every well-designed job. Dozens of real-world examples enliven the text and demonstrate that Robin practices what she preaches: Good design does indeed capture the reader's attention.

In the second half, the focus is on type, specifically the problem of combining multiple typefaces. Robin demonstrates that in page design, as in life, a relationship is established that is either concordant, conflicting, or contrasting.

Each chapter is conveniently summarized, and there are practical design exercises, optional quizzes, and bibliography. Throughout the book, readers are encouraged to feel at ease in the often confusing world of graphic design.

About the Author

Robin Williams is the author of more than 20 best-selling and award-winning books, including The Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, The Non-Designer's Design Book, The Non-Designer's Type Book, and 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.

Customer Reviews

great book, easy to follow.
Make no mistake, this book is aimed at folk that may be interested in the general ideas behind the design process. It will be of little help to those that already have a knowledge of the fundamentals of design.

A simple to follow and intuiative layout makes for easy reading. The straight forward language and abundance of picture examples showing good and bad design means that the reader absorbs all the information readily and can pick up the design tips without taxing themselves too much. It covers a great deal of ground without making the reader break into a sweat. The pace of the book is lighthearted and friendly.

This is the type of book that you can read and absorb within an hour. It excites you to start designing you own newslatter, brochure, business card, letterhead, poster etc. as soon as you have put it down. Having learned about things like, layout, type styles, proximity, heirachy, contrast, alignment etc, you will be armed with enough basic knowledge to ensure that your efforts will certainly not look amateurish anymore.

This is the type of book that can be picked up and read by anyone aged from 13 to 130 yrs. you dont need to be technically minded or a whizz kid designer to benefit from this little gem.

there are a few quizes at the back of this book that help re-inforce the info in the readers mind.

All good stuff!!

The Secret to my Success! (Robin Slam-dunks with this Book!)
First and foremost, thanks to the author. I am a computer consultant and this book allowed me to complete several websites using the design principles within.

I also am preparing to purchase her new book "The Non-Designer's Web Book : An Easy Guide to Creating, Designing, and Posting Your Own Web Site" without hesistation.

The design of the book assists in illustrating the principles described within, the author presents the information in a logical well thought out fashion.

I would recommend (and have) this book to engineers and other technical individuals who are faced with the need to produce web sites and other design oriented projects.

I like many others have the technical expertise to produce HTML, cgi, perl and java - I just needed someone to help bring my site ideas and design principals into focus.

I guess it's like having a professional designer on call, except you can't beat her rates. If you are looking for a great book on typography along with some basic design information then this book is for you.

I've had more success with this book than with any of my other $50 - $70 manuals describing website design.

I could go on but I think you get the general idea. This is a good investment.

Feel free to email me if you find anything half as good! tcarter@sphericalthinking.net

make a lasting change to your budding design skills
Don't let the apparent simplicity of this book fool you. It's one of those little things that forever changes your worldview. Definitely aimed at people new to font, type and page layout (as I was) Robin knows how to communicate the essence of page design...in her own words, she's definitely teaching you how to handle the fishing rod! Even if you think you have a natural affinity for design, the teachings here really sharpens your eyes and offers a language to describe what you've always intuitively known. Her four basic principles (proximity, contrast, repetition, alignement) equip you to become a far better designer. Half way through the book I started to redesign even my resume...and improved it to no end! Thanks Robin.