The Graphic Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Graphic Designers Need to Know Every Day

ISBN: 9781592538515

The Graphic Design Reference & Specification Book: Everything Graphic Designers Need to Know Every Day by Poppy Evans and published by Rockport is an essential reference guide for any graphic designer working in any form or capacity. This book should be a requirement for any student or working designer, and rivals the pencil and ruler especially for the digital professional.

In an age filled with standards there must be an easier way to get information. It is true we do live in a Google world where we can search for things in milliseconds but this specification guide is a central source, or your Bible, a place you can trust will have the information you need every time and it has been edited by experts so you can trust it will give you the right information; it’s not just some Joe Blogs on a random forum.

The specifications include areas like:

1. Measurement Conversion Charts
2. Copyright and Trademark Standards
3. Proofreading and Copyrighting
4. Imaging and Colour
5. Type
6. Grid Design basics
7. Paper
8. Bindings and Folds
9. Envelopes and Folders
10. Packaging Styles
11. Postal Standards
12. bar Code Standards
13. Printing and Finishing
14. greening Graphic Design
15. User Experience and Interface Design
16. Standards Forms and Contracts

Questions like how much space to leave in the gutter when designing barrel folds, how to layout a template for a box, and the ratios of each part, as well as metric conversion charts, standard envelope sizes for the USA, Europe, Canada and Asia are just a small snippet of the detailed information you will find in the The Graphic Design Reference & Specification Book.

Although it is quite thick book it is actually quite short, but it is a nice sized book as a reference and the information is very accessible easy fast to find. The consistent diagrams throughout help you quickly gather information you need. Although not a negative but what would also be of great value is if the title came with a free app for smartphones that can also be used as these days not everyone has a book on them, but they certainly have a phone.

The Graphic Design Reference & Specification Book is not exactly something you will enjoy reading or something you will read on a nice Summer’s day, but it is an important companion title for any professional graphic designer and not to mention students. Students who are often unfamiliar with standards and specifications will in fact likely get the most out of this title. And for the working professional, well one can only commit so many things to memory!

There really aren’t that many books out there like this one, and it is certainly an important reference book and I am surprised I haven’t seen more attempts at an all inclusive guide for graphic designers. Evan’s has done a terrific job at producing this handy compact book and I am sure you will appreciate it as much as I have in the last few days putting it to the test.

[rating:4.5]