Another Book About Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Bad - Hardcover

Gonyea, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805075763 ISBN 13: 9780805075762

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2007

Synopsis

In A Book About Design, Mark Gonyea taught us why a complicated design does not necessarily mean a good design. Now he's back in super-heroic form to demonstrate that the beauty of "complicated" can be found in its underlying simplicity.


Mesmerizing to look at and easy to understand, this book breaks down more design concepts and lets you see through the eyes of a graphic designer.

Budding artists young and old will find Mark Gonyea's explanations helpful and informative.

About this title

About the Author

MARK GONYEA is the author of A Book About Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good.He honed his skills at the Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art before working briefly as a designer in Manhattan and then settling down in Vermont.

Reviews

Grade 1–5—This lively volume is just as successful as the author's A Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good (Holt, 2005). Once again, Gonyea presents a deceptively simple introduction that effectively combines concise text and dramatic visuals to illuminate some of the basic principles of graphic design. Catchy chapter titles ("Don't Stand So Close to Me") and a vibrant palette of blues, reds, and yellows make the title appealing and entertaining. Artistic concepts such as foreground and background, positive and negative space, unity, and complexity are explained in terms that children can easily understand. The culminating chapter employs each principle, step by step, to show how an artist creates a finished picture—the eye-catching superhero featured on the cover. Youngsters will gain a deeper understanding of just what goes into a scene in a comic strip or graphic novel, and may be inspired to create their own graphic designs. A welcome addition.—Robin L. Gibson, Granville Parent Cooperative Preschool, OH
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Gonyea follows up his A Book about Design: Complicated Doesn't Make It Good (2000) with another title that aims to make basic design concepts accessible to young people. "Every design begins with a foundation to build on The Big Picture" reads the opening text, which is illustrated with three vertical bars, each shaded in a primary color. Throughout the book, Gonyea uses this visual foundation, demonstrating how ideas such as foreground and background, repetition and size of shapes, and positive and negative space can affect a final composition. The definitions of terms are as minimal and clear as the visuals: "The foreground in a design is what's closest to you," for example. With just a few sentences or words on each page, and many questions aimed at viewers ("Where would you place another dot?"), this is an interactive sequel that will leave kids eager to play with the concepts in their own pictures, while the final image of a flying, muscled superhero will have particular appeal to aspiring comics artists. Engberg, Gillian

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805075763
• ISBN 13: 9780805075762
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Gonyea Mark
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160