Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual: Understanding the Rules and Knowing when to Break Them

Abstract

This book is the most compact and lucid handbook available outlining the basic principles of layout, typography, colour usage and space. Being a creative designer is often about coming up with unique design solutions. Unfortunately, when the basic rules of design are ignored in an effort to be distinctive, design becomes useless. In language, a departure from the rules is only appreciated as great literature if recognition of the rules underlies the text. Graphic design is a 'visual language' and brilliance is recognised in designers whose work seems to break all the rules, yet communicates its messages clearly. This is a fun and accessible handbook that presents the fundamentals of design in lists, tips, brief text and examples. The chapters include Graphic Design: What It Is; What Are They and What Do They Do?, Choosing and Using Type and Breaking the Rules: When and Why to Challenge all the Rules of this Book.

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