Universal Principles of Interior Design: 100 Ways to Develop Innovative Ideas, Enhance Usability, and Design Effective Solutions (Volume 3)

by Chris Grimley, Kelly Harris Smith

Universal Principles of Interior Design presents 100 concepts and guidelines that are critical to a successful visualization and application of interior design.

Richly illustrated and easy to navigate , this comprehensive reference pairs clear explanations of every topic with visual examples of it applied in practice. By considering these concepts and examples, you can learn to make more informed and ultimately better design decisions.

The book is organized alphabetically so that principles can be easily and quickly referenced. For those interested in addressing a specific challenge or application problem, the principles are also indexed by questions commonly confronting designers. Each principle is presented in a two-page This landmark reference is the standard for interior design students, practitioners, and educators, and others who seek to broaden and improve their understanding of and expertise in interior design.

The titles in the Rockport Universal series offer comprehensive and authoritative information and edifying and inspiring visual examples on multidisciplinary subjects for designers, architects, engineers, students, and anyone who is interested in expanding and enriching their design knowledge.

Genres: Design, Architecture

216 pages, Hardcover

Published January 25, 2022

Reviews

[Alicia Bayer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a textbook encyclopedia for a course, especially in building design. There are many photos but they tend to be large public buildings or artificially curated spaces and not the interior or homes that look like anybody lives in them. This will be very practical for entry level classes of some sort. I'm not sure I agree with the use of innovative in the title but it does seem like the sort of book that would use words like "enhance usability and design effective solutions" in the title.

Two stars for it was okay, but in the proper context it would be much more useful for others I'm sure.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

[Angela Rohde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Universal Principles of Interior Design takes a classic approach to categorizing interior design concepts alphabetically into an encyclopedia format with photos and illustrations. This book is for the serious student or person looking to further their knowledge on interior design as a career discipline or serious hobby.

I could see this book being used as a teaching guide for an educator developing an interior design course, too.

As an Interior Designer myself I was impressed with the alphabetization of the 100 design concepts. I loved the format of “two pages per concept”, and the beautiful photographs to help illustrate the concept.

My favorite portions on each page were the “further reading” section and “see also” sections. These played the role in referencing you back to other concepts to see how they connected to one another, or for which books would be great to pick up to learn more about that concept.
The book has a fantastic reference guide at the back of the book, as well.

This book is not for the casual home decorator, but for someone truly interested in all that goes into interior design as a career. Professional in inspirational this book is a great collection of the fundamental design principles used for both interior design and architecture.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishers for providing an ARC in return for my honest review and opinions.

[Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book. I have always been interested in interior design. I am always looking for great books and I loved this one. When you think designing the interior of your own home. You only think of a couple of aspects light, colour textures etc. When actually there are over 100 different aspects to discover. Each of these aspects are explained over a 2 page spread including so great pictures. This book is designed for students who are doing interior design courses. However, I am not a student and found this book so very useful. I want to design my own home and got so great advice on things to consider when doing this. This is great for creating a high end looking house and with this knowledge you can keep the costs down. You Can easily pick aspects to use for each room at home or creating and industrial space. It has a wonderful layout and flows so well. I definitely learnt a lot from reading this book. The text explains everything so well. I recommend this book to all students or those looking for ideas to help design your own space.
So much praise goes out to the authors and publishing team for bringing us this fantastic and useful book. I will definitely be looking out for more books by these wonderful authors.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

*A copy of this book was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book simplifies 100 principles of interior design in a manner that is easy for beginners and amateurs. It removes pretentiousness, provides great real-life examples and yet doesn't feel like surface-level knowledge.

Reading the acknowledgements at the end, I appreciate how they've brought up the issue of western-centric histories in formal education, and how they've actively document other perceptions and featured principles, styles and designers of colour.

For most of this book, it was impossible to put down. Almost every principle was explained really well, the design of the book was well executed, and even the additional graphics that appear occasionally was such a pleasure to read. The examples provided include residential, commercial, and public spaces, so you will be able to see the principles being practiced in different ways.

[Nilendu Misra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book - as expected from Rockport (and DK!). However, the content is not as deep as UP of Design (the first in this series). Often the items look either forced (“composition”!), too shallow (“character”) or had way too many real life examples from Boston (natural, perhaps, as this was locally written during pandemic). Moreover, the typography does not lend itself well against heavy, glossy paper. A deeper black hue would be better. Kind of ironic for a book that tried to teach similar stuff. That said, some - around 30% - ideas were done very well, with annotations and further reading sections added.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important reminder to the amateur designer that interior design is more than picking out pretty furniture and carpets. This book identifies and defines 100 principles of interior design. Listed alphabetically, each one is explained and illustrated in a two-page chapter, which also includes related concepts, suggestions for further reading, and illustrations of the concept in practice. Plus, there is an index! Yay. This is an easy to read, easy to use handbook that is helpful to both professionals and beginners. #UniversalPrinciplesofInteriorDesign #NetGalley

[JCS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t realise there were so many aspects to consider when looking at interior design. This book outlines one hundred aspects, each fairly briefly, with example illustrations. I found this book fascinating. There wasn’t too much depth to it but it was enjoyable and gave the reader plenty to think about. Thank you to the authors, Net Galley and Quarto for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Nette · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you love, or know someone who loves, interior design or is a student of interior design, this book is a must-have. It is like an Interior Design encyclopedia of sorts, with great pictures so you can visually see the design in the process. With tips of other names, that might be used in that field, and information to further enhance the knowledge of design topics. This is a well-written book, a resource of sorts, useful to anyone who is into design.

[Kelly Hodgkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up the “Universal Principles of Interior Design” by Chris Grimley and Kelly Harris Smith in the hopes of picking up the key decision points and recommendations of good interior design. Whilst I did pick up two or three tips, the vast majority was familiar from my art training or so briefly covered as to share no insights. Listed alphabetically, there is no logic or story to follow, the reader needs to know how to pull these elements together for themselves. If you have no background in the arts, this may make a useful reference book. It’s three out of five on the enJOYment scale.

[Shahed Kanaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

its good if you have no background in interior design, for me I already had some so I knew mostly everything in this book but if ur starting out then go ahead!