This unique, go-to guide for designers fully details the essential layout and design skills needed to succeed in this competitive industry. With fun and practical application, it offers valuable insight into strategy and business when working in the real world with real clients, starting with basic information on layout principles before delving more deeply into theory and application on a project-by-project basis. Illustrated with real-world assignments and case studies, this guide offers a behind-the-scenes take on the entire process and steps necessary to go from concept to final outcome, including how to overcome challenges presented along the way.

This book outlines and demonstrates basic layout/grid guidelines and rules.

Take your design work to the next level with Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop (Third Edition), the essential easy-to-use guide for designers working in every medium. With over 150,000 copies in print, this new edition makes a classic text relevant to a new generation of designers. Updates include: A cross-cultural inclusive re-envisioning of design history related to the grid, including alternative approaches to layout Expanded discussion of grid use in interactive, UX/UI scenarios Greater equity in the representation of design work by women and BIPOC designers Grids are the most basic and essential forms in graphic design—and they can be the most rigid. This book shows you how to understand the rules of the grid to use them effectively, and then how to break them, resulting in phenomenal cohesive layouts. Timothy Samara explains the history of the grid and shows examples of grid basics, such as column, compound, and modular grids. He shows methods for building and using grids, and offers numerous examples of stunning design projects using a variety of imagery and typography. Pages are filled with hundreds of large, full-color layout concepts and diagrams that educate and inspire. After mastering the grid, discover how to break it using conceptual designs that deconstruct and flip the grid successfully. Split, splice, and shift; create spontaneous compositions; make narrative constructs; work on an axis; use intuitive design; and more to create unique layouts or other projects. See ideas in action with eye-catching layout examples. With this book you will: learn how grids work. be inspired to explore new concepts for using—or not using—grids. discover achievable alternatives for boring layouts. get the results you want using fresh design elements. learn designers’ processes via fascinating case studies. see numerous examples of successful layouts created with and without grids. communicate ideas effectively using visual language. This new, expanded edition presents the most comprehensive, accessible, in-depth exposition of layout concepts ever published.

From a professional for professionals, here is the definitive word on using grid systems in graphic design since 1981.

Provides information on designing easy-to-use interfaces.

New in Paperback! An inspired resource for creating excellent layouts Layout Workbook is one of five volumes in Rockport's series of practical and inspirational workbooks that cover the fundamental areas of the graphic design business. In this edition, author Kristin Cullen tackles the often perplexing job of nailing down a layout that works. More than a collection of great examples of layout, this book is an invaluable resource for students, designers, and creative professionals who seek design understanding and inspiration. The book illuminates the broad category of layout, communicating specifically what it takes to design with excellence. It also addresses the heart of design-the how and why of the creative process. Cullen approaches layout with a series of step-by-step fundamental chapters (a "how-to" of layout) addressing topics such as The Function of Design, Inspiration, The Design Process, Intuition, Structure and Organization, The Interaction of Visual Elements, Typography, and Design Analysis. The book offers inspirational quotations and a unique, progressive design that truly reflects its content.

Before and After magazine's focus on clarity, simplicity, and elegance has won it legions of fans--fans who will welcome this second volume of the definitive Before and After Page Design by John McWade. Truly an icon of the graphic design community, his insistence on approaching design not as mere decoration but as an essential form of communication is vividly apparent in this cohesive primer on page design and layout. And you could not hope for a better, more qualified teacher. McWade shows readers how to arrange and present information using today's powerful graphics tools. Readers will learn how to design single-page and multi-page documents, brochures, and ads; why one typeface works better than another; and much more. Best of all, they'll discover how to think visually transforming the images in their heads into something that communicates effectively on the page.