The Form Book: Creating Forms for Printed and Online Use

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500515085 ISBN 13: 9780500515082

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2010

A unique and practical guide to what good form design can achieve in business and communication.

Order forms, invoices, applications, and questionnaires are all standardized ways of requesting or presenting information, designed to focus on the essentials and so make life faster and simpler. But if a form is too complicated, confusing, or obscure, it can become a barrier to clear communication, wasting time and money and potentially harming the public’s perception of a business or brand. Successful forms do exist―efficient, streamlined, even stylish―but they are a challenge to create.

Filled with practical advice and inspiring ideas, this book covers everything from grids and graphic devices to fonts and formatting, comparing all the options and clearly illustrating the advantages of each approach. An extensive collection of innovative form designs from top designers and studios showcases a range of thoughtful, elegant, or witty solutions to the task of form creation and proves that attention to even the smallest design elements can make a big difference in the way that people and organizations interact. 350 color illustrations

About the Author:

Borries Schwesinger studied communications design in Potsdam and Milan. He now designs books and magazines, branding, and information graphics.

Review:

“One of the designer’s roles is to turn disorder into order, particularly when it comes to everyday documents like forms for banks, insurance companies, utilities, the census and so much more. When they are logically, rationally and, yes, handsomely designed, it could mean the difference between minutes and hours of labor. This is why The Form Book: Creating Forms for Printed and Online Use, by Borries Schwesinger, is so necessary. Not only is this an invaluable handbook for designers, it should open the eyes of anyone who produces forms.”
- The New York Times Book Review