Design Principles - Is this book for you?

I read the first sentence of the Introduction and immediately knew that I was going to like this book. The first sentence described me. I have no experience in Design and know nothing about its principles. (I also must add that this is my first blogging experience) Frankly, the whole subject kind of scares me. I am not the most creative person and also not very artistic. This first sentence started to put my mind at ease as I am always completely uptight for the first two weeks of a new class as it is..

I love the concept Williams uses that if you do not know what is wrong with an image, how can you fix it. I am very excited and motivated that I will be able to create more professional and creative looking designs after learing these basic principles.

I will work on Chapter One tonight and then I am calling it a night as I have to get up for work very early (5 am).

Chapter 1 - The Joshua Tree Epiphany -

I am very familar with this Phenomenon. I find myself walking through life busy taking the kids to ball practice, running to church, work and the grocery and being in such a hurry and not noticing things that are right in front of me. I am really looking forward to learning these 4 principles and taking time to "smell the roses" and start noticing Visual Designs that are all around me.

A Good Design is Easy as 1-2-3

1. Learn the Principles

Contrast - I have obviously heard of this term before and know what it means in general. I did have trouble summarizing the definition from the books brief blurb in regards to Desgin, so I went to Wikipedia to get a more clear definition. The best that I can describe contrast right now before really diving into it in the next few chapters is as opposites. For examples using light colors with dark colors or thin lines next to thick lines.

Repetition - This was easier to undestand. This principle is telling us to repeats the elements in the piece that we are desiging, be it colors, shapes, textures, or what have you.

Alignment - This is basically saying that there should be nothing random about placing your visuals on the piece. There should be a reason and a connection to the other elements on the page.

Proximity - Proximity is the organization of the elemets. Groupings should be done in a matter where the items closest to each other should be related in some manner.



2. Recognizing when you are not using them.
3. Applying the principles .

The above two steps will be worked in a later post, I am sure!


It is getting late and I must get some sleep. More reading and blogging tomorrow.