Affinity Designer Workbook

by Serif Europe Ltd.

Erfahren Sie, wie die Profis mit dem ersten offiziellen Leitfaden für Affinity Designer arbeiten - die revolutionäre preisgekrönte Design-Software. Auf mehr als 400 Vollfarb-Seiten zeigen die Entwickler von Affinity Designer und einige namhafte Designer der Designbranche, wie Sie mit praxisorientierten Beispielprojekten die bestmögliche Nutzung von Softwareoptionen ermöglichen. Nicht nur finden Sie viele Tipps und Tricks sowie detaillierte Informationen über Raster- und Vektor-Design-Techniken, sondern Sie können auch genau verfolgen, wie die Illustratoren und Designer ihre neun Projekte umgesetzt haben, die speziell für dieses Buch entworfen wurden. Darüber hinaus gibt es auch einige abnehmbare "Cheat Sheets" mit Tastenkombinationen für die verschiedenen personas (Modi) der Software. Paolo Limoncelli, ein UI / UX Designer und Illustrator aus Italien, ist einer der Gastkünstler dieses Buches. In seinem Projekt "The Whittler" erzählt er die Geschichte eines Roboters, der sein Bein verloren hat und ihn mit dem Zweig eines Baumes reparieren will, den er im Wald gefunden hat. Weitere "The Panther" von Ben der Illustrator zeigt Ihnen, wie Sie ein flaches Figuren-Design mit Vektorgrafiken erstellen. "Reflected Skyline" von Romain Trystram ist eine lebendige und dramatische Umsetzung von Licht und Reflexionen, während "Wine Cellar" von Kevin House Sie in die Welt der isometrischen Illustrationen bringt. Und dann gäbe es "The Fisherman" - eine Figurillustration mit einem 3D-Look von Jonathan Ball (auch bekannt als pokedstudio). Die Affinity Designer-Arbeitsmappe enthält außerdem vier Designprojekte, mit denen Sie verstehen, wie Sie Markenmaterial und Logos entwerfen, Designs für den Druck erstellen oder eine App-Benutzeroberfläche erstellen können. Diese Projekte wurden von Tom Koszyk, dem Gründer und Creative Director von Hologram Design in Warschau, sowie von Neil Ladkin, dem Creative Director von Affinity, zusammengestellt.

Genres: Design, Reference, Art, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published October 18, 2016

Reviews

[Tea Zbašnik · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is beautifully designed, and if not anything else it's nice to exhibit it on the shelf because of the perfect use of colors. But it's also a good reference point to the program itself and to workflow of the different projects from branding, illustrations to the apps.
I was mostly interested in the app workflow and projects. There is just two of them. It would be lovely if Serif would make another book about wireframes, more app projects, more ux/ui.
But I also loved the illustration projects with all the details and workflow presented. This field would too need its own book :)

[Hots Hartley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy using the software, but it's apparently not as easy to explain or elucidate. Some of the specific features to do specific things -- I'm thinking like a toolbelt or cookbook -- are missing from this book, among other criticisms:

1.) It's heavy. It feels like it was created as a coffee table book rather than a manual or guide to work through. It doesn't feel educational, and it certainly isn't any fun lugging around with my (much lighter) iPad Pro as I learn their software. It needs to be as lightweight as the software they create.

2.) It's inaccessible. It doesn't feel like it was written to teach, or written to get a person started creating what they have in mind. Instead, the book walks through a bunch of workflows that seem far from what I actually want to do, have in mind, etc. The approach is just off. I didn't buy Affinity or this workbook to create what it wants me to create, or learn what it wants me to learn. Instead, I want to know the fastest, easiest way to accomplish tasks that I have in mind approaching a vector design software like Designer & Illustrator.

3.) It's not representative of the types of things many designers want to create. I'm specifically thinking of Japanese audiences with their drawings and art style, but also general simple, colorful graphics like logos, icons, bar button items, and the like. They showcase stuff that's either too generic (like clipart-style art) or too advanced & real (like realism). It's not a good book to flip through when figuring out what kinds of artwork you'd create using Affinity.

Overall, the right approach would've been to take the marketing on their homepage for Designer, broken into several types of artwork, and then teaching from there. I just don't see people having the patience to try some of their workflows, because people generally approach design software wanting to make a specific visual or image in their mind, and needing a clean, clear, modulated breakdown of those steps rather than a precreated result. The endgoal of the book is very different from what those designers have in mind.

[Daniel Hollands · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is really well written, with lots of detailed information and pictures showing step by step instructions. Although the latter half of the book lost me (seeing as I'm not a designer, and I'm mostly just interested in the basics), the first half was exactly what I needed.

My only criticism is the hardback physical edition of the book I had was a bit large and cumbersome to read. It's presented much more like a coffee table book, than something you'd be able to have on your desk, to learn from.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is nice to have a paper manual put together by the developers who made the program along with project tutorials of designers who use the program every day. A Must read if you want to really know the program!

[Martin Ferenec · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing workbook. It begins by showing all the basics and explains the user interface in detail. There are also some examples which you can follow and get to know the workflow.
It's an amazing workbook that will tell you everything you need to know about the software.