Archive for ‘Books’
Oct
Book Review: Forms Folds Sizes
Anyone who knows me will know that I love reference material. There is just too much information out there in the world for one brain to retain. Forms Folds Sizes, by Poppy Evans and Aaris Sherin is a wonderful book full of “all the details graphic designers need to know but can never find.” (That was from the front of the book).
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Sep
Ed Lives Here
A couple months ago I interned at Carte Blanche Creative. While I was there, I worked on a project which involved meeting with a representative from Spicers. She introduced to us the Ed Series, a promotional piece by Newpage.
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Aug
Book Review: Sexy Web Design
This month I chose to read Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks. Growing up, I “learned” about web design very slowly, through online tutorials, mimicking techniques, and trying to recreate certain effects. If only this book had been around back then.
Stock’s book outlines the complete step by step process of creating web site. What I particularly enjoyed was that he begins at the very beginning – how to do the research before beginning a website. While most would begin at simply looking at the design of a site, Stock begins with looking at what kind of information the designer should be looking for from the client. He even gives an example of how to write an email to the client.
Speaking of examples, the entire book is one big example. In order to explain web design to the reader, Elliot goes through the entire process of building a website using a hypothetical client and project. I find that learning by example is one of the best ways to learn, so this was an excellent read.
Jul
Book Review: Don’t Make Me Think
Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think was a great starter book on web usability. The tagline “A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” is a most suitable one. I would recommend this book for anyone who has anything to do with web design: designers, developers, marketing managers, even company CEOs.
Krug goes through the reasons why web usability is important, specific ways to improve a site’s usability, examples of live sites and how they can be improved, ways to perform user tests, and more.
Jun
Book Review: Really Good Logos Explained
Last month, I decided to start building my personal design library by purchasing one design related book a month. Why only one? Simple answer, design books can be quite pricey. Anyways, I’m going to try and read each book within the month and before I purchase a new one. If that works out, I’ll give my thoughts here.
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