Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals
The topics covered in this book are comprehensive, but vary in the level of detail and intended audience. It it more of a theoretical guide for the design process, and a technical guide for the printing process. The early chapters about graphic design history, process and elements provide a good introductory overview of topics that could each fill an entire book on their own for more advanced students. The later chapters abruptly turn to more technical and in-depth information about printing technologies, from the perspective of preparing completed files for printing. There is very little technical information associated with the design process, and there is no mention of some print considerations that often challenge beginners, such as margins and bleeds. A number of software programs are referenced (such as Adobe InDesign), but without any discussion of the strengths of different software programs and how to set up documents for different projects.
I did not observe any factual errors. There are a few topics where a specific workflow is presented as the best or standard way to do things, when there are other valid workflows (especially in other industries), and some of the historical information is so succinct that it oversimplifies cause and effect. There are very few mentions of web design and web publishing at all, and most of these overplay the idea that the web requires a wholly different approach.
The historic information will remain relevant, and references to software or design standards are up to date with the latest versions. This should be relatively easy to update should any standards change in the future. The final chapter about web2print technologies feels somewhat dated since the ability to order products online (including printed design products) is well-established and not a novel way of conducting business.
A significant weakness in many of the chapters is the lack of visuals, which would greatly improve the clarity when describing visual principles and processes. The chapters with visuals have the best clarity for this reason. The writing styles vary between authors, as expected, but overall the writing is clear and understandable. There is often not enough context for jargon and technical terminology, and some of the analogies are more confusing than helpful — this seems like material that could work well in a lecture format, but is difficult to follow in the text. This is true of both the historic and technological information. It could be a good in-class exercise to have students split up the first chapter and find visuals and supplementary information for the many names and movements that are mentioned.
There are no overt contradictions of ideas or terms, which is a strength considering the multiple authors. The perspectives are very different, however: The initial chapters are written from a creative perspective, and the later chapters are from a technical perspective. The overall structure of each chapter is consistent, with an overview followed by sub-chapters and concluding with review questions. However, there are differences with whether vocabulary terms are in bold type, whether block quotes are used, how material is cited in the text, etc.
Modularity is a true strength of this book. The later chapters on print production have a more limited audience, but the early chapters on design history and process could be relevant for many courses, and are written at a mostly introductory level. Chapter 3, about design elements, would work especially well as a standalone chapter in a wide range of courses. Chapter 2 is also an excellent overview of graphic design as an iterative process, which would be useful in many courses of different levels.
This book is fairly well-organized, but there are some inconsistencies with the chapter organization. For example, Chapter 3 defines typography terms that are used, without definitions, in Chapter 1. The idea of "grid" is discussed several times before it is formally defined in Chapter 3.4. The overview of printing methods in Chapter 6 makes the information in Chapters 4 and 5 much easier to understand. There is some redundant information, such as discussing variable data in Chapter 6 and again in Chapter 7. This is a benefit for modularity, though.
The online interface is organized well and easy to navigate between chapters. The option to increase/decrease font size is a useful feature. There are some chapters without any visuals at all, which is a lost opportunity for a book about visual design.
There are no distracting typos or grammatical errors. Minor errors that other reviewers have pointed out (such as "complrments" in Chapter 3.2) have not been corrected yet.
The book is not insensitive and does not use many examples. The design history is presented from a European and North American perspective, so that could be an opportunity for broader inclusion, but it does not compare unfavorably to similar texts on this topic. Similarly, technical information puts an emphasis on North American standards, but that is appropriate given the expertise of the authors and the intended student audience. The fact that other standards exist in the world is mentioned.
This book is primarily focused on a corporate/commercial design perspective, though this is not stated; small changes in vocabulary or examples could make it more applicable to news design, nonprofit and education design, etc. Adapting the first several chapters of this text for design thinking in different fields would be an excellent collaborative project for faculty in other disciplines.