Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Excellent summary of Design principles for the novice
Trying to put together a professional-looking web site or other publication? Wondering why your stuff doesn't seem to grab the reader?
Read (it's VERY easy) Robin Williams' "The Non-Designer's Design Book". You'll find short, clear explanations of the major principles of quality layout and presentation, with PLENTY of examples. Also included is a fine introduction to typefaces and font terminology.
Exercises (with answers) help to drive the points home, and the excellent bibliography will lead you to more in-depth study.
As a Design novice (or, as Ms. Willams would label me, a "Visually Illiterate Person") I can't imagine a more gentle, informative, helpful or entertaining introduction to the topic. A MUST-READ for would-be web page artists!
Rating:  - A Good Reference to Have
As mentioned in the introduction to the text, this book is not for professional designers. This book is intended for those of us who need to put together a flyer, presentation, or newsletter, but we don't have the background in design. The design the author refers to is the design of the printed page.The author explains simple principles that help us see what makes for a good design like proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast. There are plenty of before-and-after examples to show you exactly what she means. The explanations are also very understandable. Williams does not preach to you, but rather helps you see the different elements which can make the visual more effective. There are also some quizzes with answers in the back. Included is a short bibliography so the reader can get more information if he or she chooses. There are some problems with the book. One, it discusses the use of color, but there are no color pictures to illustrate the point. The author knew the illustrations would no be color so asks you to visualize this in your head. It wasn't the most helpful here. Also, towards the end, she uses some editing/printing jargon that she never explains. If the reader does not have a design background, why mention leading if not explained? Overall, I find this book to be very helpful. Knowing the elements I should be looking for ensures that my experimenting with flyers is more productive and effective. I would recommend this book to anyone needing to create newsletters, flyers, and the like.
Rating: - Solid little introduction to design concepts
Being a web designer and not having any formal training as a graphic designer, I was looking for a quick guide on the basic "rules" of design and layout. This book fit the bill nicely. Definitely a quick read, it covers the foundations of good layout and typography. Each "rule" gets its own chapter, with plenty of examples. It would have been nice, however, if the chapter on "Color" had actually used color images! The entire book is in black & white, so this was a bit of a drawback. Not a fatal flaw, but rather a conscious effort to save printing costs that wound up detracting from one of the chapters. What I did learn were some obvious techniques and concepts that I needed to understand. The book helps you "notice" good design, and better yet, understand WHY it's good design. You'll also become more conscious of your designs, how to create them, and how to fix them when they're wrong, rather than just playing around with it until it "looks right". If you're new to designing - no matter what the medium - you'll be well-served by this book. For the price, it's certainly tough to beat.
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