Graphic Design: The New Basics

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 248 pages
• Published by: Princeton Architectural Press
• Edition: 1st Edition March 20, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1568987021
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1568987026
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 1.8 pounds

Baltimore Magazine, June 1, 2008
Warning: Ellen Lupton's books will make you want to be a graphic designer. Like her two previous efforts (D.I.Y. and D.I.Y. Kids), this book inspires thoughts of career change, or, at the very least, creating your own visual language. Featuring lots of work from Lupton's and Phillips's MICA students, it's also something of a calling card for the school.

Product Description


How do designers get ideas? Many spend their time searching for clever combinations of forms, fonts, and colors inside the design annuals and monographs of other designers work. For those looking to challenge the cut-and-paste mentality there are few resources that are both informative and inspirational. In Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton, best-selling author of such books as Thinking with Type and Design It Yourself, and design educator Jennifer Cole Phillips refocus design instruction on the study of the basics of form and ideas in a critical, rigorous way, informed by contemporary media, theory, and software systems.

Through visual demonstrations and concise commentary, The New Basics shows students and professionals how to build interest and complexity around simple relationships between formal elements of two-dimensional design such as point, line, plane, scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency. The New Basics explains the key concepts of visual language that inform any work of designfrom a logo or letterhead to a complex Web site. It takes a fresh approach to design instruction by emphasizing visually intensive, form-based thinking in a manner that is in tune with the latest developments in contemporary media, theory, art, and technology. Colorful, compact, and clearly written, The New Basics is the new indispensable resource for anyone seeking a smart inspiring introduction to graphic design, and destined to become the standard reference work in design education.


www.gdbasics.com, the on-line companion to Graphic Design: The New Basics, includes a variety of student responses to the design problems featured in the book. Sample syllabi for a variety of course levels are included along with key technical information from each chapter.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Graphic Design: The New Basics (Hardcover) this is the book i've always wanted to share with beginning graphic design students: a clear, articulated description of design principles for postmodern students. it defends enduring principles from the bauhaus, and introduces new ways of thinking about gd basics as transferrable skills.