Essential Graphic Design Solutions

by Robin Landa

ESSENTIAL GRAPHIC DESIGN SOLUTIONS features PART 1: FUNDAMENTALS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN, of the bestseller, GRAPHIC DESIGN SOLUTIONS, to provide a focused study of design basics. Covering print and screen media, this book examines conceiving, visualizing and composing solutions to design problems with a comprehensive examination of typography; a broader investigation of creativity and concept generation; visualization and color; an updated timeline; an online chapter about building a Portfolio and the job search; and more. Providing excellent illustrations of historical, modern and contemporary design, this book is a great resource. Now available to accompany this edition, CourseMate with eBook brings concepts to life with projects, videos of designers in the field, and portfolio-building tools.

Genres: Design, Art Design

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Robin Landa holds the title of Distinguished Professor in the Robert Busch School of Design at Kean University of New Jersey. She is included among the teachers that the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching calls the “great teachers of our time.” Most recently, Landa was a finalist in the Wall Street Journal’s Creative Leaders competition.
Professor Landa has won many awards for design, writing, teaching, and creative leadership, including: National Society of Arts and Letters, The National League of Pen Women, New Jersey Authors Award, Creativity, Graphic Design USA, Art Directors Club of New Jersey, The Presidential Excellence Award in Scholarship from Kean University, and the Rowan University Award for Contribution to Design Education.
Landa is the author of twelve published books about graphic design, branding, advertising, and creativity including Graphic Design Solutions, 4th edition (Wadsworth), Advertising by Design, 2nd edition (John Wiley & Sons), Designing Brand Experiences (Cengage Learning), and Thinking Creatively (HOW books). Her books have been translated into Chinese and Spanish.
Co-authoring with her colleague Professor Rose Gonnella, she wrote Visual Workout Creativity Workbook (Cengage Learning); and co-authored 2D: Visual Basics for Designers with Gonnella and award-winning designer Steven Brower. Known for her expertise in creativity, Landa penned Thinking Creatively (HOW), and co-authored Creative Jolt and Creative Jolt Inspirations (North Light Books) with Rose Gonnella and Denise M. Anderson. Robin’s article on ethics in design, “No Exit for Designers,” was featured in Print magazine’s European Design Annual/Cold Eye column; other articles have been featured in HOW magazine, Step Inside Design, Critique, and Icograda. Robin’s Amazon Shorts—“Advertising: 11 Insights from Creative Directors” and “Branding: 10 Truths Behind Successful Brands”—both reached the #1 spot on the Shorts best-seller list.
Robin has lectured across the country at the HOW International Design Conferences, Graphic Artists Guild conference, College Art Association, Thinking Creatively conference, Art Directors Club of New Jersey, and the One Club Education Summit. She has been interviewed on radio, television, in print, and the World Wide Web on the subjects of design, creativity, and art.

Reviews

[Sandra Winkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I teach graphic design (high school grades 10-12) and this book is wonderful. It is well written and offers students a variety of exercises and projects to teach the theories and technical applications of design.

[Jackie Baumgartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I held onto after college, and decided to reread it this year! The book contains a wealth of information on the graphic design industry, the conceptualization process, theory, case studies, graphic design history, interviews, methods and techniques, and much more.

I consider it a fully comprehensive guide for beginners and veterans alike. It was published in 2014, and holds up well in 2025.