El books del duo

as the bumblebee man would say.

So I bought these two books about design. Not because I got a sudden urge too design clothes or go enterior designer; these books are not about making things pretty. I relized that most of the things a do; like write stuff at work, making presentations, making web-pages and so forth, are really releated to communicate a something. A good design would help to make that message clear. And my goal of reading these books are to start to learn the basic elements of design. I figure that knowing the basic would make me able to understand what to do with a design (a memo, a presentation or whatever) and not just simple "try and fail" untill it looks OK.

Universal Principles of Design
100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design
William Lidwell, Kritina Holden & Jill Butler

Well, the title says it all. This book covers everything form the layout of book stores and parks, to software design and airplane saftey. Built as a reference, with each principle covered in a two page layout: An explanation of the principle on the left hand page, and examples on the right had side. And when we talk about "design", it's not making thing pretty, it's making things clear, safe and understandable. For example, a door that you push to open shouldn't have a door handle and a sign that says "push". Replace the the handle with a flat bracket, and it's self explaining how to open the door. No need for the extra sign. Excellent use of white space, this books is not only informative but also a feast for the eye. Ok, man of the principles are know, but here they are organized and explained in a really effective and simple way. Good to read from start to end, but also an easy reference book.

The Elements of Graphic Design

Space, Unity, Page Architecture, and Type

Alexander W. White

This on book is more focused, and is focused on layout and print. The design of the book is also good, but very different from the one above. This book has a lot of text and little white space, but it still very readable. And this is actually something I like about this book. It gives you the general principles, but the author also gives clear examples and his opinions. For example, many books says you should use high contrast between background and font. This book says that 70% different in contrast gives optimum readability. And that white fonts on a black background may "bleed" and that a white background in a dark room will seem too bright. Good and useful info!

So, I basically love both these books. The first one because it gives a really good introduction and is really easy to use as a reference book. The last one is so much more useful, since "graphic design" is what I do (e.g. presentations, reports, summaries, the odd christmas card, blogging, etc, etc). The chances that I one day will design a plane or an iPod store is really slim.

And the last book gave a really good definition of good design (paraphrased from memory): "If two designs are equal simple, the one conveying the most information is the most elegant. And in two designs that conveys the same amout of information, the simplest one is the most elegant".