Product Review

Design Fundamentals: Notes on Type looks like a design student’s sketchbook with handwritten notes and full-color, hand-drawn illustrations. But it’s more than that. This gorgeously illustrated “notebook” is a full-blown typography course in disguise. Young designers are lured in by the lush graphics and quirky layout only to discover by the end of the book that they’ve learned all of the key concepts taught in a foundational course on type. They’ll learn about the history of letterforms, the anatomy and physiology of type, the basics of measurements and spacing, how to recognize and choose type for design projects, and more. 

Fun and fast-paced, this creative notebook isn’t required reading, it’s desired reading; and it’s the third in a series of Design Fundamentals books that students will want to keep and enjoy long after they’ve mastered these basic building blocks of design.

This book includes:
• Core instruction on the history, anatomy, and structure of type
• Direction on the basics of measurement and spacing: leading, kerning, indents, and line lengths both in text and display sizes, and optical measurement considerations.
•  Examination of the use, mood, and “voice” of type as seen in creative work and professional examples
• Exercises and projects for practice and concept development
• Strange and delightful illustrations created specifically for this book (to inspire action)
• A companion website stocked with additional projects, a bibliography, glossary, and links to additional visual examples.