The Nature of Design

This book was incredibly easy to read and get through. It could have been more thorough of topics covered. Many things were touched and sometimes left me wanting more. Some topics that are essential to graphic design were not covered at all. This book was for a beginning design class and for a beginning class it was worth getting but you'll need to buy other books to substantiate what you get from this one.

This book is a great introduction to the fundamentals of design. It is light on text but gives a sufficient explanation of each principle to get you started. The visuals are great and varied, examples are taken from nature, architecture, industrial design, cooking (yes, you read that correctly) and of course graphic design. You know a book addresses fundamentals when it's principles can be applied to such a wide range of concretes! I like that the authors explicitly included such diverse examples, the diverse graphics greatly enhance the explanations and help the reader gain a firmer grasp of the *principle* and not just a particular application of the principle. My one complaint is that important aspects of design are omitted. For example, the topic of color is not covered, not even in essentials. It is implicit in some chapters but you have to infer how a design principle such as unity would apply to the selection of a color palette. A minor complaint is that there is too little content on each topic, the explanations could be "fleshed out" a little more. The book itself is beautifully designed and easy to read. I think I read it in a 2 days. It provides a good introduction to design for the newcomer and a good refresher course on the basics for the experienced designer.

I'm not a designer. But recently having read Chip Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys," about graphic design students, I developed a layman's interest and came across The Nature of Design. It does an excellent job of presenting the key elements and principles of design (graphic, industrial, landscape, etc.)in a format that's easy to read, well illustrated, and takes its examples from a variety of design fields. For the general reader or a novice (or would be) design student, this is a great place to start. Highly recommended!

I'm a beginner in the design world, and I really liked this book. The authors overview the fundamentals of design, but there is very little text. Instead, the content is comprised mostly of visuals which illustrate the concepts the authors are presenting. Some of the visuals have accompanying text which explains why they were included, others don't. I think the best way to benefit from this book it to work through it, really examining the variety of pictures.