The Fundamentals of Graphic Design
Bloomsbury Publishing
What do you associate with “Graphic Design”?
Aestheticism?
Form vs function in the two-dimensional space?
A realm of individuality?
Eccentricity?
Ornamental crinkum-crankum?
Whatever your personal interpretation is, here is finally an introductory book to the world of Graphic Design that will make sense to both the merely curious as well as the ones dedicated to the discipline looking to get an overview on the lay of the land.
In the most approachable and accessible manner, the recipient is guided and inducted into not only what the profession entails, but also educated on the history of design to more elaborated and intricate chapters zeroing in on the process of designing, a detailed glossary of the vernacular, the historical context and the way production is and has been handled.
While this might be pretty elementary to luminaries, the number of times I went “ah!” after learning e.g. about the exact nature of a font and why it is effective in exactly the place it is used in and having epiphanies, cannot be counted.
Accompanied by hundreds of explanatory and descriptive illustrations, the content is engaging to the point where one feels prompted to go down the rabbit hole and find out more granular details on how to apply some of the graphic design techniques, which is partly due to the hands-on way Gavin Ambrose, Paul Harris and Nigel Ball, two of which are accomplished graphic designer themselves, structure their approach in a relatable manner.
