Robin Williams - The Non-Designers Design Book

THE NON-DESIGNERS DESIGN BOOK

FOURTH EDITION

design and typographic principles for the visual novice

Robin Williams

Peachpit Press
San Francisco
California

THE NON-DESIGNERS DESIGN BOOK
FOURTH EDITION

ROBIN WILLIAMS

2015 by Robin Williams

First edition published 1993.

Peachpit Press
www.peachpit.com
Peachpit is a division of Pearson Education.
To report errors, please send a note to .

Editor:
Nikki McDonald

Interior design and production:
Robin Williams

Cover design and production:
John Tollett

Proofreader:
Jan Seymour

Prepress:
David Van Ness

The quote by Jan White on page 209 is from the out-of-print book How to Spec Type, by Alex White. Reprinted courtesy of Roundtable Press, Inc. Copyright 1987 by Roundtable Press, Inc.

The portions of Ladle Rat Rotten Hut and other stories, such as Guilty Looks Enter Tree Beers, Center Alley, and Violate Huskings are from a long out-of-print book by Howard L. Chace called Anguish Languish. It is our understanding that these delightful stories are now in the public domain. They are easily found on the Internet.

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

For information on obtaining permission for reprints and excerpts, please contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an as is basis, without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described herein.

Trademarks

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-396615-2
ISBN 10: 0-13-396615-1

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

To Carmen Sheldon,
my comrade in Design,
my friend in Life.
with great love,
R.

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Contents

Is this book for you?

This book is written for all the people who need to design things, but have no background or formal training in design. I dont mean just those who are designing fancy packaging or lengthy brochuresI mean the assistants whose bosses now tell them to design the newsletters, church volunteers who are providing information to their congregations, small business owners who are creating their own advertising, students who understand that a better-looking paper often means a better grade, professionals who realize that an attractive presentation garners greater respect, teachers who have learned that students respond more positively to information that is well laid out, statisticians who see that numbers and stats can be arranged in a way that invites reading rather than snoring, and on and on.

This book assumes you dont have the time or interest to study design and typography, but would like to know how to make your pages look better. Well, the premise of this book is age-old: Knowledge is power. Most people can look at a poorly designed page and state that they dont like it, but they dont know what to do to fix it. In this book I will point out four basic concepts that are used in virtually every well-designed job. These concepts are clear and concrete. Once you recognize the concepts, you will notice whether or not they have been applied to your pages. If you dont know whats wrong with it, how can you fix it? Once you can name the problem, you can find the solution.

This book is not intended to take the place of four years of design school. I do not pretend you will automatically become a brilliant designer after you read this little book. But I do guarantee you will never again look at a page in the same way. I guarantee that if you follow these basic principles, your work will look more professional, organized, unified, and interesting. And you will feel empowered.

With a smile,

Design Principles

Chapter 1. Introduction

This short chapter explains the four basic principles in general, each of which will be explained in detail in the following chapters. But first I want to tell you a little story that made me realize the importance of being able to name things, since naming these principles is the key to having power over them.

The Joshua tree epiphany

Many years ago I received a tree identification book for Christmas. I was at my parents home, and after all the gifts had been opened I decided I would identify the trees in the neighborhood. Before going out, I read through some of the identification clues and noticed that the first tree in the book was the Joshua tree because it only took two clues to identify it. Now, the Joshua tree is a really weird-looking tree and I looked at that picture and said to myself, Oh, we dont have that kind of tree in Northern California. That is a weird-looking tree. I would know if I saw that tree, and Ive never seen one before.

So I took my book and went outside. My parents lived in a cul-de-sac of six homes. Four of those homes had Joshua trees in the front yards. I had lived in that house for thirteen years, and I had never seen a Joshua tree. I took a walk around the block, and there must have been a sale at the nursery when everyone was landscaping their new homesat least 80 percent of the homes had Joshua trees in the front yards. And I had never seen one before! Once I was conscious of the treeonce I could name itI saw it everywhere. Which is exactly my point: Once you can name something, youre conscious of it. You have power over it. Youre in control. You own it.

So now youre going to learn the names of several design principles. And you are going to be in control of your pages.

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Train your Designer Eye: Find at least five differences that help to make the second example communicate more clearly. (Suggestions on page .)Next page