365 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers


Book Description

DIVIn need of advice? Just want to sound off? Opening this volume is like grabbing lunch with a fellow designer to commiserate or celebrate and to learn the ins and outs of design. Good habits are found in every part of the design process, from promoting yourself well in order to land the client, to working with that client, to achieving the desired results on press.365 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers reveals solutions from a wide range of freelance designers whose years of experience have helped them find not only the most creative solutions for their clients' design needs, but also the most successful solutions. With a rich compilation of material from previous publications by the authors, this book also focuses on the daily habits that inspire these designers to stay creative and business strategies to be successful when working on your own.In its pages, noteworthy designers, both past and present, working in fields ranging from graphic design, fashion, architecture, typography, and industrial design sound off on every topic, ranging from deadlines, inspiration, competition, rules, respect, education, and handling criticism-all with a certain amount of irreverence. Their thoughts are boiled down into succinct, quotable quotes and one-liners that exemplify their character and demonstrate their philosophy on the world around them. Enjoy reading thought bites from everyone from Art Chantry, Margo Chase, Ed Fella, John C. Jay, Hideki Nakajima, Stefan Sagmeister, and Rudy VanderLans. The insights of these top designers will help guide other designers in both approach and execution of designs that succeed for their clients./div




100 Habits of Successful Graphic Designers


Book Description

Takes readers step-by-step through the design process - from landing a client to managing workflow and in-house dynamics to fueling creativity and perfecting a final project. Through illustrative photos this book highlights proven systems and procedures that successful designers have used to produce quality work and happy clients.




Graphic Design School


Book Description

Graphic Design School allows students to develop core competencies while understanding how these fundamentals translate into new and evolving media. With examples from magazines, websites, books, and mobile devices, the Fifth Edition provides an overview of the visual communications profession, with a new focus on the intersection of design specialties. A brand-new section on web and interactivity covers topics such as web tools, coding requirements, information architecture, web design and layout, mobile device composition, app design, CMS, designing for social media, and SEO.




I Used to Be a Design Student


Book Description

This book offers a rare chance to read what graphic designers feel about their education and profession. Fifty influential designers give the low-down about their student days and their professional lives. A piece of their college work is shown alongside an example of current work. Each designer also offers a key piece of advice and a warning, making this a must-read for anyone embarking on a career in design. The book looks at the process a designer goes through in finding their 'voice'. Topics addressed include how ideas are researched and developed; design and other cultural influences, then and now; positive and negative aspects of working as a designer; motivations for becoming a designer; and whether it's really possible to teach design. Contributors include Stefan Sagmeister, James Goggin, Karlssonwilker, Studio Dumbar, Cornel Windlin, Daniel Eatock, Spin, Hyperkit and Christian Küsters.




The Complete Graphic Designer


Book Description

Offers insight and information to help design students apply their skills to the commercial industry. Graphic design is a fast growing industry with thousands of new designers and students joining its ranks every year. The explosion of the graphic design field has resulted in the release of hundreds of new books, with subjects ranging from logo design to web design, design history to design criticism; today there are very few subjects related to the industry that have not been written about in one form or another. While the wealth of information and resources available to the graphic designer is extensive, it makes it hard to gain an overall perspective of graphic design and its practical applications in the field, as the content and subject matter of most books is very specialized. Design educators, especially at the collegiate level, have an increasingly difficult task of teaching a well-rounded course in graphic design, as they have to pull curriculum ideas from many sources, and require the students to purchase numerous texts. The Complete Graphic Designer is that well-rounded course in graphic design. It is not an instructional “how to� book, nor will it feature a series of suggested curriculum or problems for designers or students to solve. Rather, this book will be a concise overview of the many facets of graphic design, such as communication theory and why it is important; various types of problems that designers confront on a daily basis; and the considerations that must be made when trying to solve those visual problems. In addition, it features prominent designers and design firms that are renown for work in a certain type of design, and frequent “sidebars� or articles that include useful information on graphic design. This book provides a complete an comprehensive look at what graphic design is and what it means to be a graphic designer from an applied perspective, with chapters including Design for Communication, The Design Process, Page Layout, Visual Problems, Corporate Identity, and Branding.




The Design Entrepreneur


Book Description

Designers are used to working for clients, but there is nothing better than when the client is oneself. Graphic and product designers, who are skilled with the tools and masters aesthetics, are now in the forefront of this growing entrepreneur movement. Whether personal or collective, drive is the common denominator of all entrepreneurial pursuit; of course, then comes the brilliant idea; and finally the fervent wherewithal to make and market the result. The Design Entrepreneur is the first book to survey this new field and showcase the innovators who are creating everything from books to furniture, clothes to magazines, plates to surfboards, and more. Through case studies with designers like Dave Eggers, Maira Kalman, Charles Spencer Anderson, Seymour Chwast, Jet Mous, Nicholas Callaway, Jordi Duró, and over thirty more from the United States and Europe, this book explores the whys, hows, and wherefores of the conception and production processes. The design entrepreneur must take the leap away from the safety of the traditional designer role into the precarious territory where the public decides what works and what doesn't. This is the book that shows how that is accomplished.




Best Practices for Graphic Designers, Color Works


Book Description

This is the go-to guide for designers as it outlines and details the essential color design skills needed to create successful, meaningful, and aesthetically compelling designs. Along with hands-on projects, it offers unique insights into strategy and business when working in the real world with real clients. Color Works starts with basic information on color practices and fundamentals, and then delves more deeply into theory and application on a project-by-project basis. Illustrated with real-world projects and case studies, this book offers a behind-the-scenes take on the design process and the necessary steps to go from concept to final outcome, including the challenges encountered along the way.




Graphic Design Rules


Book Description

DON'T use comic sans (except ironically!) but DO worship the classic typefaces like Helvetica and Garamond. Graphic Design Rules is a handy guide for professional graphic designers, students, and laymen who incorporate graphic design into their job or small business. Packed with practical advice, this spirited collection of design dos and don'ts takes readers through 365 rules like knowing when to use a modular grid—and when to throw the grid out the window. All designers will appreciate tips and lessons from these highly accomplished authors, who draw on years of experience to help you create good design.




Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans


Book Description

Ask any graphic designer the world over about their preferred approach to setting type, choosing a color, or beginning a new layout, and you will rarely get exactly the same answer twice. All designers have their own way of working and their own combinations of the thousands of techniques one can apply when planning a new design project. But there are some dos and don'ts that always figure in any heated debate about what one should or should not accept as the right way to create the best graphic design. This book looks at key dos and don'ts, bringing them together in the form of a classically structured almanac. Packed with practical advice, but presented in a light-hearted fashion, the advisory rather than dictative approach means designers can take or leave the advice presented in each rule as is typical of most creatives with their own strong views on what does and does not constitute good design practice. Individual entries will either bring forth knowing nods of agreement or hoots of derision, depending on whether or not the reader loves or hates hyphenation, has a pathological fear of beige, or thinks that baseline grids are boring. Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans is the must-have collection of the best advice that any graphic designer should have at his fingertips, with each entry combining a specific rule with a commentary from a variety of experienced designers from all fields of the graphic design industry. Grouped into six, color-coded categories—typography, color, layout, imagery, production, and the practice of design—but presented numerically and in mixed groups, the reader can either dip in at random or use the book as the source of a daily lesson in how to produce great graphic design. This product is available to U.S. and Canada customers only.




Bottlenecks


Book Description

Learn the psychological constrictions of attention, perception, memory, disposition, motivation, and social influence that determine whether customers will be receptive to your digital innovations. Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology fills a need for entrepreneurs, designers, and marketing professionals in the application of foundational psychology to user-experience design. The first generation of books on the topic focused on web pages and cognitive psychology. This book covers apps, social media, in-car infotainment, and multiplayer video games, and it explores the crucial roles played by behaviorism, development, personality, and social psychology. Author David Evans is an experimental psychology Ph.D. and senior manager of consumer research at Microsoft who recounts high-stakes case studies in which behavioral theory aligned digital designs with the bottlenecks in human nature to the benefit of users and businesses alike. Innova tors in design and students of psychology will learn: The psychological processes determining users’ perception of, engagement with, and recommendation of digital innovations Examples of interfaces before and after simple psychological alignments that vastly enhanced their effectiveness Strategies for marketing and product development in an age of social media and behavioral targeting Hypotheses for research that both academics and enterprises can perform to better meet users’ needs Who This Book Is For Designers and entrepreneurs will use this book to give their innovations an edge on what are increasingly competitive platforms such as apps, bots, in-car apps, augmented reality content. Usability researchers and market researchers will leverage it to enhance their consulting and reporting. Students and lecturers in psychology departments will want it to help land employment in the private sector. Praise “Bottlenecks’ is a tight and eminently actionable read for business leaders in startups and enterprises alike. Evans gives us a rich sense of key psychological processes and even richer examples of them in action.” - Nir Eyal, Author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products “Clients frequently ask our UX researchers and designers for deeper truths about why certain designs work and others fail. Bottlenecks offers practical explanations and evidence based on the idea that human cognition did not begin with the digital age.” - John Dirks, UX Director and Partner, Blink UX “Bottlenecks brings together two very important aspects of user experience design: understanding users and translating this into business impact. A must-read for anyone who wants to learn both.” - Josh Lamar, Sr. UX Lead, Microsoft Outlook