The non-designer's design book : design and typographic principles for the visual novice

Robin Williams wrote this one for people who now need to design pages but have not background or formal training in design. Follow her basic principles and your work is guaranteed to look more professional. organized, unified, and interesting. Witty and easy to read, this book is full of practical information, exercises, and quizzes that ensure you'll never look at a page in the same way again.

• Is this book for you? p. 11
• Mini-glossary p. 12
• Design principles
• The Joshua Tree Principle p. 13
• The Four Basic Principles p. 14
• Proximity
• Alignment
• Repetition
• Contrast
• Proximity p. 15
• Summary of Proximity p. 26
• The basic purpose
• How to get it
• What to avoid
• Alignment p. 27
• Summary of Alignment p. 42
• The basic purpose
• How to get it
• What to avoid
• Repetition p. 43
• Summary of Repetition p. 52
• The basic purpose
• How to get it
• What to avoid
• Contrast p. 53
• Summary of Contrast p. 62
• The basic purpose
• How to get it
• What to avoid
• Review p. 63
• Proximity p. 64
• Alignment p. 65
• Repetition p. 66
• Contrast p. 67
• Little Quiz #1: design principles p. 68
• Little Quiz #2: redesign this ad p. 69
• Increase your visual awareness p. 70
• Designing with type
• Type (and Life) p. 75
• Concord p. 76
• Conflict p. 78
• Contrast p. 80
• Summary p. 82
• Categories of type p. 83
• Oldstyle p. 84
• Modern p. 85
• Slab serif p. 86
• Sans serif p. 87
• Script p. 89
• Decorative p. 90
• Be conscious p. 91
• Little Quiz #3: categories of type p. 91
• Little Quiz #4: thick/thin transitions p. 92
• Little Quiz #5: serifs p. 93
• Summary p. 94
• Type contrasts p. 95
• Size p. 96
• Weight p. 100
• Structure p. 104
• Form p. 108
• Direction p. 112
• Color p. 116
• Combine the contrasts p. 122
• Summary p. 123
• Little Quiz #6: contrast or conflict p. 124
• Little Quiz #7: dos and don'ts p. 125
• Extras
• So, do you get it? p. 127
• The process p. 128
• An exercise p. 129
• Okay--redesign this! p. 130
• Answers to quizzes p. 131
• My philosophy on tests and quizzes p. 131
• Answers to quizzes p. 132
• Bibliography p. 135
• Magazines
• Design
• Desktop technology
• Typography
• Typefaces in this book p. 137
• A list of all 103 typefaces used, shown in each style
• Index p. 141