Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential DOS and Don'ts

This is a great coffee table book for a designer. My son even likes to read the short thoughts which is really cool!

If you're looking for in depth guide book, this isn't for you. If you're looking for quick pointers across the field, this is pretty awesome.People complained about "thou shall" and " "thou shall not". I'm happy to say the publisher/ author/ someone listened... The pages say do and don't and look clean and modern. So don't let the reviews about being old fashioned scare you away from this book.I'm a novice designer, so there are things that I didn't know about in this book. The book doesn't explain all the vocabulary in detail, but that's ok. It tells me what I don't know and I can Google from there. Seriously, it's quicker to flip through this book with do and don't on each page and then Google then to buy like 50 other books that go into detail.It's meant to be a guideline, not a deep reference book.And like all guidelines, you get to be the final say. If you don't like one of the things they say do or don't... That's fine. But it's still a really good jumping off place

reads like a first draft. often repetitive, while simultaneously, disagreeing with itself. touches on concepts without going in depth on any.some insights. but, unconvinced this was the only resource to have found them.has kind of a weird, snarky vibe that takes a major detour from actually being about graphic design.

Le graphiste, comme le reste de l'humanité, surestime énormément ses connaissances. Ce Mein Kampf pourra lui remettre les pieds sur terre.

I bought this book as much out of curiosity as anything else, to see if the rules were the same as I remembered them to be :-) It's proven to be not only a good source of amusement (the writers have taken a witty approach to the subject at times) but also a handy reference and reminder as to the numerous pitfalls in graphic design. The description says the reader can either dip in at random or use the book as a source of a daily lesson - there are 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts after all ;-) But I would find it difficult to stop reading after just one `lesson'. It's the type of book which draws you in to the extent you can spend quite a while flitting from one page to the next. Though if anyone takes one rule from the book it should be rule 001 Thou shall not use Comic Sans.Although I said the book was wittily written (try saying that fast after a few drinks) that does not detract from the fact that the book is full of accurate and informative rules, and I'd say there are many folk out there today that would benefit from owning a copy.