Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Robin Williams has an easily readable style and manages to communicate sometimes complex and sophisticated concepts simply and directly. She rightly assumes that, though most people can recognise bad design when they see it, they don't know why it's bad and are therefore powerless to fix the same problems in their own work.

The bulk of the book is given over to explaining how, by sticking to four basic design principles--contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity--you can eliminate design gremlins from your work. In searching for a memorable and appropriate acronym for this principled approach, Williams admits she was only semi-successful.

The second half of the book deals with how to use type. Once again the approach is to explain simply, directly and with illustrated examples how the relationship between typefaces is defined.

As a college teacher, Williams can't resist the temptation to dot little quizzes, tests and mini-projects throughout the text. These are mostly good fun and reinforce what you've read, though even if you decide to ignore them they won't spoil your enjoyment of the book.

The Non-Designer's Design Book is the kind of book you could read in your lunch break. Its attitude is more "sketch in the margin with a pencil", than "complete the projects on the CD". It would be an ideal primer for anyone starting a design course, as well as those who want to improve the look of their memos. --Ken McMahon

Average Customer Rating:

Excellent - used everything here for my ppt presentations

Customer Rating:

I bought this book based on the stellar "Presentation Zen" by Garr Reynolds. (A must-read if you do presentations of any type). What I was seeking to glean from this book was how to improve the look of my PowerPoint presentations. Though Robin doesn't cover this specifically, everything she writes about can be applied to the design of the slides. The book is aimed at 'non-professional' designers. By this I mean those of us who design things in our work, but aren't trained to do so, e.g. flyers, event alerts, newsletters, reports, business cards, studies, articles, etc. I found it funny how often she tells us not to be "wimps" in our design choices. I mean she REALLY tells us a lot. But her point is we need to be bold, not "wimps", in our design choices ... but only once we know the basics. All in all an excellent read. Good examples, good overview at the end of each section, and good pop quizzes to make sure we were paying attention :-)

Not quite as awesome as you'd be led to believe.

Customer Rating:

I like the concept of this book - a design book that's written for those who aren't essentially designers, but need to use design in everyday life. Based on the idea that you've never studied design before, Williams covers the essential topics and points out the biggest mistakes that beginners make with clear examples, and plenty of "before and after" shots so you not only see why something looks terrible, you also see how simply it can be fixed. It's a short book and it's not difficult to understand. However, I just can't bring myself to give it anything higher than 3 stars because Williams' writing style verges on patronising, and I found it almost TOO basic in places - once you've read it, you'll pretty much never need to refer to it again. If you're a design student, then don't even bother with this. If you're someone who uses design on a casual or non-professional level then you'll benefit from borrowing this book from your local library and reading it cover to cover, but I wouldn't spend any money on it.

The best...	Customer Rating:
This is probably the best book in design and typographic principles for a novice that I have read. It has lots of examples and ideas how to use type and design, and not to forget it has a list of the fonts used in the examples which I think is very helpfull. If you have none or little experience in design or typography this is the book to get.

Prevent design crimes

Customer Rating:

Coming from a fine art background rather than graphic design, and having done design work for many people over the years, I have always had nagging doubts that I might be committing design crimes without realising it. Was I choosing the right typefaces? Was I striking the right balance between design and readability? The answer is, that what has taken me many years to learn by trial and error, the author has condensed into a clear, easily understood, step-by-step read. It has also taught me quite a few tricks I had never considered. You are taken through a series of single designs, looking at different aspect each time: Contrast, repetition, structure etc. and by the end you have a professional looking layout that can hold it's head up high. Highly recommended as an easily digestible read for beginners, or others who just needed to know some of the important design rules without going too deep. Wish I'd read it years ago.

Super Guide

Customer Rating:

This book is easy to read and covers all the principles that can make great design. It doesn't matter if you want to put together a report, a flyer or the local nursery school jumble sale poster, this book will help you to design a more impressive result. I would go as far as to say this book should be required reading for any non-professional designer that is responsible for producing literature for group or public consumption. A great starter for anyone interested in design.