Digital Design for Print and Web: An Introduction to Theory, Principles, and Techniques

Preface

Digital Design for Print and Web: An Introduction to Theory, Principles, and Techniques was written to help people succeed with digital design. It is a learning product that incorporates both video lessons and an in-depth textbook written from two perspectives—that of a student, and that of a teacher.

First I put myself in the shoes of a new designer or design student caught up in a frenzy of information. The melding of new technology, techniques, and principles causes many inexperienced designers to default to honing their computer skills, rather than establishing their design sense. This is dangerous: it creates a backlash against the creative process, which requires us to think creatively and then produce—not the other way around. As tools and technology become increasingly accessible—and powerful—I see this problem among more and more students.

To learn design, you need to recognize it and extract its principles for use in your own work. To be a digital designer, you must marry the principles of design to software techniques. You are thus engaged in using theory in practice. That is what this book is about. It will help you discover the principles of design and understand the most vital digital design techniques used today. Along the way, you will learn by seeing real-world design examples from highly prominent designers and artists. Then you will learn by doing, using step-by-step examples and tutorial movies.

As a teacher of digital design, I have come to realize ...