Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts Kindle Edition

If you're looking for in depth guide book, this isn't for you. If you're looking for quick pointers across the field, this is pretty awesome.People complained about "thou shall" and " "thou shall not". I'm happy to say the publisher/ author/ someone listened... The pages say do and don't and look clean and modern. So don't let the reviews about being old fashioned scare you away from this book.I'm a novice designer, so there are things that I didn't know about in this book. The book doesn't explain all the vocabulary in detail, but that's ok. It tells me what I don't know and I can Google from there. Seriously, it's quicker to flip through this book with do and don't on each page and then Google then to buy like 50 other books that go into detail.It's meant to be a guideline, not a deep reference book.And like all guidelines, you get to be the final say. If you don't like one of the things they say do or don't... That's fine. But it's still a really good jumping off place

reads like a first draft. often repetitive, while simultaneously, disagreeing with itself. touches on concepts without going in depth on any.some insights. but, unconvinced this was the only resource to have found them.has kind of a weird, snarky vibe that takes a major detour from actually being about graphic design.

I can’t say I agree with every single item, but from my experience as a graphic designer for over 40 years, it’s darn close to spot on on everything.

This is such a handy book to keep on hand and refer to. I’m going to use it with my high school students.

Arrived in mint condition. Worthy information about the fundamental rules about design and typography.

For aspiring designers or designers who want to stay sharp this is a great book and reference. Graphic design in general.

I would edit some of the wording ie "rave" rather than "big amphether party" flyer designs. There's a difference of inference on the old lucritive experimental designer using several typefaces rather than one that would represent the product peice. I love all the rest of the guided parts of this book. This book is more historical than my immediate environment today. In other words it has more harmony than the collocial themes i've seen in distributing design information to the designer precisely. I hope this book goes viral because it's good and concise on educating profesional and senior designers looping better design in a fun way to read.

An interesting book though I'm not quite sure who it's aimed at.The back cover says '...the perfect book for the ever-growing group of non-designers who want some graphic design guidance', yet so much of the contents is very specific and technical to the graphic design profession. On the other hand the sort of breezy way the book is laid out suggests it's aimed at those just starting out on a graphic design career. The 365 rules in the book do provide a ton of information in these chapters: Type and typography; Layout and design; Color; Imagery and graphics; Production and print; The practice of design. Rule 338 sort of sums it up: Thou shall learn the rules before you break them.I expect most professionals will argue about some of these rules, I certainly would. Rule 74: 'Thou shall not hyphenate text that is ragged right', mostly correct but for a more even column of ragged type it's is worth hyphenating, especially if the copy relates to a technical subject with lots of long words. Rule 61: 'Thou shall not use negative letter spacing', just tell that to Herb Lubalin (during his lifetime one of the world's greatest graphic designers). I would add a rule or two, put a .05 keyline box on all squared up photos, it gives a crisp edge and avoids white areas in the photo merging into the whiteness of the paper or screen. Avoid using an ampersand if there is room for 'and', the book's cover uses one for no good reason. Consider deleting punctuation in non-narrative copy, use weights of type instead. Avoid the habit of using initial caps for each word in a title if it's in u/lc (it mostly applies to book jackets).The book is certainly worth a read (and usefully there is an index) if you have recently started a graphic design career. You can look inside the book at Westread Book Reviews then click 2020 and January.

Le graphiste, comme le reste de l'humanité, surestime énormément ses connaissances. Ce Mein Kampf pourra lui remettre les pieds sur terre.

Short amounts of information about different topics that are useful.

Thank you!

Other reviews said the author had repeatedly used the term "Thou Shalt Not" and "Thou Shall", they said it was an irritating style and they were right. The upper half of every page is wasted with one or the other of the above expressions.The author has tried to be funny however for me it didn't work.I skim read the book looking for useful design ideas however found few and found it irritating.I'm sure the author has great talent and ideas however not put to the best of use in this book.Heavy on typography and light on other design tips.

Lots of the rules in here will be obvious to even entry-level designers, but there are some occasional gems that make it well worth reading through. (For example, the stuff about sharpness settings in digital photos was a revelation to me (I presume it's correct!)) Only niggle is that they say "Thou shall" all the way through the book, when it should be "Thou shalt"...