Few of us have formal training in publishing or design, yet almost all of us at some time or another have to create a poster, a brochure, an advertisement, a business card or a simple web site. Literacy today includes not only text, but also image and screen literacy. We tend to trivialize this skill. But watch a music video made fifteen years ago, or scan a magazine or the front page of a newspaper from the same period, and you’ll realize how much these genres have evolved since that time. Web genres evolve more quickly–changes can be measured in months, not years.
Robin William’s book for non-designers is a pamphlet-sized introduction timeless principles of such design literacy. She presents four basic design concepts–proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast, with many illustrative before and after examples. The section on typography is especially good, where she explains the tensions created by different typeface styles. On the downside, she does not elaborate on the use of colour or the application of the design principles to contemporary web design.
The book’s strength may well be that it gives you the tools to understand why professional designs work. I found myself looking for concordance in traffic signs and alignment in junk mail flyers. This is a good foundation for the inevitable changes coming to design in the next fifteen years.
