Design Elements, Third Edition (Understanding the rules and knowing when to break them - A Visual Communication Manual)

• The ultimate primer on graphic design's basic visual toolkit—dot, line, plane, texture, space, and contrast—and how these basics underpin all successful layouts
• An in-depth look at color—from its optical qualities and its effect on type to its potential for communication concepts and emotions
• One of the most thorough compilations of typography concepts to be found—including information on letterform structure and optics, combining typeface styles, the mechanics of detailed text typesetting, and using type as image
• An extensive overview of imagery—the endless possibilities of medium, depiction, abstraction, stylization, and how these all communicate effectively
• Methods for integrating type and image, including a tutorial on using grid systems to structure layouts
• Twenty rules for making good design—and the best ways to break them

Being a creative designer is often about coming up with unique design solutions. But when the basic rules of design are ignored in an effort to be distinctive, design becomes useless. In language, a departure from the rules is only appreciated as great literature if recognition of the rules underlies the text. Graphic design is a "visual language," and brilliance is recognized in designers whose work seems to break all the rules, yet communicates its messages clearly.