Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design (Voices That Matter)

In Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design, author Maggie Macnab takes you on an intimate and eclectic journey examining the unending versatility of nature, showing how to uncover nature’s ingenuity and use it to create beautiful and compelling designed communications.

Written for designers and creative thinkers of all types, this book will guide you through a series of unexpected a-ha! moments that describe relationships among nature, art, science, technology, and design. Through explanation and example, you will learn about natural processes, consisting of everyday patterns and shapes that are often taken for granted, but that can be used effectively in visual messaging. Explore the principles all human beings intuitively use to understand the world and learn to incorporate nature’s patterns and shapes into your work for more meaningful design.

By recognizing and appreciating a broad range of relationships, you can create more aesthetic and effective design, building communications that encompass the universal experience of being part of nature, and that are relevant to a worldwide audience.

• Teaches how to understand and integrate the essential processes of nature’s patterns and shapes in design

• Includes key concepts, learning objectives, definitions, and exercises to help you put what you learn into practice

• Features a foreword by Debbie Millman and reviews and discussions of practice and process by some of the world’s leading designers, including Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, and Ellen Lupton

• Includes profiles of street artist Banksy, creative director and author Kenya Hara, and typographical designer Erik Spiekermann

Maggie Macnab has been creating iconic logos and graphic design since the early 1980s, fueled by her passion for nature and her love of design and the creative problem-solving process. Maggie’s work has been recognized by Communication Arts, Print magazine, Step-by-Step Graphics, the American Advertising Federation, the New York Art Directors Club, and the AIGA. She speaks at conferences and schools in the United States and abroad, has owned Macnab Design since 1981, and teaches design theory at the University of New Mexico and Santa Fe University of Art and Design. She is the author of Decoding Design: Understanding and Using Symbols in Visual Communication.

Visit www.designbynaturebook.com for additional exercises and information.