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The Non-Designer's Design Book (Non Designer's Design Book)

Robin P. Williams

4.08 · Rating details · 3,986 ratings · 369 reviews

A lot has happened in the world of digital design since the first edition of this title was published, but one thing remains true: There is an ever-growing number of people attempting to design everything from newsletters to advertisements with no formal training. This book is the one place they can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help from trusted d ...more

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Kindle Edition, 240 pages

Published November 20th 2014 by Peachpit Press (first published January 1st 2011)

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May 13, 2018 ☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: knowledge, business, consulting, cognitive-improvement

Takeouts:
- The Joshua Tree Epiphany;
- Very interesting explanations of the WHY of how some things matter visually and work better, ultimately;
- Some very brilliant examples that give even to me, a steadfast adversary of trend aimed at 'making all the things look pretty', a thorough appreciation of properly formated text, grafics, infografics, etc;
- Tips and tricks! Very cool!

A must read for consultants, editors and other ~~miserable beings~~ driven professionals tasked with endless formatting!

Q:
Our ...more

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Mar 05, 2008 Trevor rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I read this book about a year ago and I’m going to complain about it first, and then rave about it.

Complaints:

Some of the text inside is too faint – it is actually quite difficult to read.

Some of her ‘examples’ look quite unattractive even when they are ‘finished’.

Raves:

This is a very clever book. If you are visually hopeless, like myself, it talks you through what to look for in step by step, no assumptions. This is a book that explains both the four elements of visual design (I’ll get to that I read this book about a year ago and I’m going to complain about it first, and then rave about it.

Complaints:

Some of the text inside is too faint – it is actually quite difficult to read.

Some of her ‘examples’ look quite unattractive even when they are ‘finished’.

Raves:

This is a very clever book. If you are visually hopeless, like myself, it talks you through what to look for in step by step, no assumptions. This is a book that explains both the four elements of visual design (I’ll get to that in a second) and six groups of typographic fonts.

If you put together a newsletter or just want to have stuff you write read, this is your first stop.

The first thing to know is that you have to organise stuff on the page according to her rule of ‘crap’ – Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. She discusses these in reverse order to the mnemonic. In summary, group like things together, line them up, repeat elements and be bold in contrasting (bold is always better).

I only ever knew about two fonts and I knew you should only use two on a page and preferably one each from the big groups serif or sans serif – such that if you are using body text that is one, your heading should be the other. Well, that isn’t true and she proves it. There are six groups of fonts and they all have family relationships. And like all design, boldness is the key. This is a terribly interesting part of the book and well worth the read.

I learnt much from this book and really enjoyed the read. I’ve always known there was something to good page design, and had seen enough bad page design to know its value. But without ever having been told the basics I could only assume that the difference between someone doing a good design and someone doing a bad one was more or less something to do with ‘the eye’. Now I know there are principles – principles that can be broken, but only with care. It is a good thing to know that such principles exist. She has written another book called “A PC is not a typewriter” which I also must read.
...more

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Jul 27, 2020 Emily rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 stars. I'm a self-taught graphic designer and I just found this book to be too basic. I was hoping for something a bit more in-depth. This covers beginner stuff.. like "hey, you should line everything up the same way on the page" and "don't overuse crazy fonts".

I'm not saying it's a bad book - in fact, if you're just starting out it's a great place to start, but it was just super basic/entry level. ...more

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Jan 15, 2016 Su Myint Myat Moe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

simple and easy-to-read about fundamental concepts

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Apr 04, 2013 Quan rated it did not like it · review of another edition

The Non-Designer's Design Book was clearly written by a non-writer. I'm not a designer so I won't dispute the validity of what the author, Robin P. Williams, teaches. But getting through this book is just so excruciating because her writing is so amateur. She's a writer in the most basic sense of the word: she knows words and knows that sentences usually need a subject and predicate. That's about as far as her skill extends.

One of my biggest critiques is that Williams writes in a vacuum. She wri The Non-Designer's Design Book was clearly written by a non-writer. I'm not a designer so I won't dispute the validity of what the author, Robin P. Williams, teaches. But getting through this book is just so excruciating because her writing is so amateur. She's a writer in the most basic sense of the word: she knows words and knows that sentences usually need a subject and predicate. That's about as far as her skill extends.

One of my biggest critiques is that Williams writes in a vacuum. She writes about these ideas as if they are her own unique ideas. She even goes so far as to refer to herself in the third person, telling us to remember "Robin's Four Principles of Design." As if she's seriously the first person in the world ever to think, "Yeah, adding contrast to this flyer is probably a good idea."

But besides just being arrogant and dumb, this raises the issue of credibility. How much can you trust things she says? She's included little-to-no research and cites no outside sources. There's no corroboration, no sense that there's a broader world of designers who also agree with her principles. For all we know, she could just be some mom who lost her job and decided to pull stuff out of her ass to make some money. And she pretty much sounds like that type of person.

My other main issue with this book is that, while it's designed well from a visual standpoint, the design is really stupid from an information standpoint. Often, she'll present an example of something poorly designed and then ask you what you'd change to improve the design. That's a good idea...except that she also includes her own improved design on the same page. It's something like if you were doing exercises out of a math book and the answer key is right next to the math problem. How idiotic is that?

Finally, there's the issue of up-selling that just completely cheapens this book. Within the actual content of the book--not on the book jacket, not on a separate page in the back of the book, but within the space that she's purporting to teach you basic design principles--she is so bold/tacky as to advertise her other books. She really just comes off as one of those self-help douches who get rich by telling others that she got rich off her talents when really she got rich by capitalizing on others' insecurities. ...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Reid rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book succeeds in fulfilling its promise: educating visual novices about design and typographic principles. It's remarkable to me that this book works so well when I've seen others fall flat (I'm looking at you, Nancy Duarte!) in educating a beginner audience about design principles. It's especially impressive when you figure in the fact that this book is not very long or slickly produced. Hell, it's not even in color! But I think this is a part of Williams' success. The book's message is si ...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Erika Williams rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is quite possibly the best graphic design book I have read. The first part teaches you the four basic principles of design, CRAP. Or contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. It gives a clear overview of each concept and then provides examples of when it is working and when it is failing. It also asks you to actively get involved, not by pointing out all the errors, but by asking you to look for them yourself. Once the four basic principles have been detailed, it moves on to an equall ...more

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Dec 18, 2018 m a r y l i z rated it liked it · review of another edition

Read this for my graphic design class this fall! I loved the class, and this book definitely had some great design principles. I'll be keeping this one around for reference. Nothing earth-shattering in this book; it kind of just establishes the basics. (Sometimes it was even a little too basic, honestly.)

3 stars ...more

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May 20, 2015 Jerzy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: data-visualization, teaching

Very accessible intro for beginners. I always thought you "just have to have an eye for good design" as if it were an inborn trait... but of course there are principles you can learn, and this book strikes me as a good place to begin.

There are plenty of before-vs-after examples, which works really well for me: showing exactly how each principle can be applied.

Some of the "after" examples are still cheesy---but at least they are cleaner and more consistent than "before," and I think that's the po ...more

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Aug 19, 2018 Nelson Zagalo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: academic, art

Simple, direct and highly effective in communicating minimum rules for good graphic design.

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Sep 11, 2019 Clare Carter rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read this for class and it was fine...definitely more interesting than a lot of other textbooks I've read, so that's good! But still a book for school ya know ...more

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Apr 10, 2015 Chelsea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-physical

A little outdated but the foundation topics still remain the same.

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Jan 11, 2021 Akash Khandelwal rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Short, crisp, and delightful. The book provides concrete advice to beginners setting their foot into the world of design. While the principles might seem intuitive to many, the very act of their conscious acknowledgement helped improve how I think about design. The advice has been accompanied by relevant examples and is often presented in a witty conversational style.

Giving it 4 stars because the book is weak in certain segments (especially the chapter on Colors) and is slightly dated in its ex ...more

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Jun 24, 2017 Kevin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Was very informative. Learned bunches!

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Nov 20, 2018 Justin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Lots of actionable takeaways

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Feb 14, 2021 Rozarka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

Practical and informative, perfect for beginners.

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Nov 29, 2020 alfred rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If you want a crash course on why some things look better than others / how to not design your next event cover photo like a grandma, this is a must (and very easy) read.

Super practical principles that I will carry with me for the rest of my life (the primary four - CRAP acronym). Will work better if you are immediately applying the learning!

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Jan 22, 2015 Jacqueline O. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Graphic Design Students

Shelves: non-fiction, textbook, graphic-design, reference

I bought this book for an advanced Technical Writing class, then ironically had to drop the class because I got a full-time job. I just picked up the book again and read it all the way through.
The good points - this is a quick and breezy book with a lot of examples. I felt most of the examples clearly illustrated the points that the author, an experienced graphic designer, was trying to make.
The bad points - the section on website design was extremely out of date. Recent research on how people u I bought this book for an advanced Technical Writing class, then ironically had to drop the class because I got a full-time job. I just picked up the book again and read it all the way through.
The good points - this is a quick and breezy book with a lot of examples. I felt most of the examples clearly illustrated the points that the author, an experienced graphic designer, was trying to make.
The bad points - the section on website design was extremely out of date. Recent research on how people use the web emphasizes two things: for websites, san serif fonts are easier to read, especially for large blocks of print (the opposite is true for printed books - where serif fonts are easier to read); and second, although customers hate horizontal (or back-and-forth) scrolling on websites, vertical scrolling is OK. In fact, with the phenomenal growth of tablets and smart phones, vertical scrolling is not only OK - it's expected.
The author repeats the out-of-date, graphic design advice that "everything has to fit on a standard screen size for a webpage". That simply isn't true anymore, in part because there is no standard screen size - a flat-screen monitor may be large and square - or thin and rectangular (widescreen). And then there's screens which are very small and vertical (smartphone), or vertical and larger (tablet), or even medium sized and horizontal (tablet in landscape mode). Since you have no idea what the viewing screen will be - deciding the "optimum" screen size and designing for it isn't possible. The latest marketing tools talk about "flowable" screens and "design for mobile".
However, that's really only one chapter of this book - and the basic design principles probably haven't changed, especially when designing for paper (books, magazines, newsletters, print ads) etc.
My other gripe was the Mac-Centered nature of the book. Yes, I realize that graphic design was one area that has been traditionally dominated by Apple computer products - but I use a Microsoft Windows PC, and when I use Adobe products (Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop) it's the Windows-versions of those products that I use. It was annoying for most of the sample typefaces to be Mac-specific fonts, or the Mac version of fonts because that makes it hard to figure out the specifics of some of the lessons. At least a comparative list of Mac vs. Window fonts would have helped.
Still, I enjoyed reading The Non-Designer's Design Book and I felt I learned something from it. It also wasn't overwhelming at all, which is perfect for an introductory textbook.
Here are three recent blog posts all declaring that for on-line use san serif fonts are more readable (serif fonts still rule for paper publications).
http://blog.usabilla.com/8-guidelines...
http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/03/02/w...?
http://www.awaionline.com/2011/10/the... ...more

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Nov 14, 2018 Mark Feltskog rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: professional-development

While I am certainly no expert, this does serve as a good general introduction to graphic design.

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Jul 24, 2019 Richard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Overall very good, and exactly what it says on the tin: this is an overview and introduction, giving general principles and outlining the basics with lots of repetition. There was very little in here that was truly new to me, but it was still good to have it laid out in an organized way with some explanation. I will no doubt be more aware of things such as alignment, contrast, and typefaces in the future.

It's not perfect. There were a number of little issues for me, ranging from simple typos to ...more

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Apr 09, 2015 Francisco Garcia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As a software developer I feel identified with designers. In our natural form we tend to "derail" into building something amazing and not so much into something useful or market ready.

The problem tends to be fixed with maturity, but only after lots of interactions with people having other skill sets.

This is a great book to start the foundations that a non designer should have when talking to a designer. You will learn about core issues that should be discussed, but only the very basic ones.

Thi ...more

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Jun 13, 2018 Michael Gaudet rated it liked it

Shelves: reference, amazon-books

This is a decent book about the basics of type faces in print media. I was expecting a more general treatment of color and “design” as described in the book’s description, even after reading the entire preview sample. My fault for not thoroughly reading the table of contents, I guess! Worst of all, this book almost entirely disregards non-print media (except for a short aside or two in the color section on RGB). If you’re like me looking for suggestions in web font choices, look somewhere else.

I ...more

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Sep 01, 2013 Ashley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: textbooks, design

This is the best design book for non-professionals that I've come across. Williams does a fantastic job, both through text and imagery, of explaining her four basic principles for good design -- contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity. Her advice can be applied to all forms of visual communication, including forms you wouldn't necessarily think of before reading this book. She didn't write more than she needs to, instead letting example images do much of the teaching.

You'll never look at ...more

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May 02, 2018 Ola Saqour rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This book simplifies the main concepts of visual (graphic) design. It helped me a lot as a student in my first graphic design course and I recommend it for any newbie in the field. As it has a lot of examples that you can learn from, I agree with other reviewers that the book's examples are unattractive in their final form which is a flaw in my opinion, but maybe that is because the author's main focus is to deepen and strengthen the main concepts of design while keeping it simple. Finally,You c ...more

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May 04, 2016 Elizabeth Rose rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

The Non-Designer's Design Book is of immense practical value to anyone who doesn't have formal training in the field of design. This volume focuses on graphic design, devoting about half of the book to a study of typeface. There is enough information here to orientate someone with no concept of design (like me), but this Williams makes no pretense of this being a master class.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who lacks a degree in art, but has to make their own business cards, fliers, or b ...more

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Jan 22, 2013 Felipe Farias rated it liked it · review of another edition

Is a really nice book, the way it is organized, is very didactic. It start talking about the four basic principles of design: proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast. Always using real examples. The other stage of the book is about typography, explaining in detail about types with or without serif. As the title already explains, is a book for beginners. If you are just beginning to study design, I recommend this book.

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Nov 22, 2008 Mindy rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This books proves that you don't know what you don't know until you know it! :)
I will never look at a page of print with the same eyes again.
This easy to read and humorous book taught me enough to just be dangerous with fonts and contrast and colors.
But seriously a few hours reading has immensely improved the look of the documents that I prepare for work, school and my personal stuff. ...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Briana rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fantastic for someone who has never read a design book in her life, like me. Incredibly practical and exactly what I needed - I often wind up designing fliers, cards, and small advertisements but I never had the slightest idea what I was doing. Now I feel mildly competent.

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Jul 19, 2012 Jenny (rapid tortoise) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

It's a life-saver for people who, like me, are visually challenged.
I devoured this book in two days, learned about 4 basic rules and designed 2 ads which I didn't hate (and that means a lot). Definitely a keeper, will be re-reading it soon. ...more

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Jul 22, 2014 Mary Catelli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction-other

A book I've found useful in designing both webpages and book covers.

Covers a great many issues in how to organize and display your material for most impact. Without reference to its content, which once or twice tweaked me as a little excessive. Particular attention paid to fonts. ...more

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About Robin P. Williams

Robin P. Williams

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Robin P. Williams is an American writer of computer-related books. She is particularly known for her manuals of style The Mac is Not a Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book, as well as numerous manuals for various Mac OS operating systems and applications, including The Little Mac Book. Williams has also spent years studying William Shakespeare, and in 2006 issued her book Sweet Swan of Av ...more