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Affinity Designer Workbook
Learn to work like the professionals with the first ever official guide to Affinity Designer, the award-winning design software. Published by the makers of Affinity Designer, it contains more than 400 full colour pages of instructions, guides and insider tips to help anyone make the most of the software's speed and power. As well as learning valuable vector and raster design techniques, readers can follow step-by-step guides to re-create nine projects, commissioned especially for the book from leading illustrators and designers. Tear-out 'cheat sheets' display the keyboard shortcuts designed for use in the different Personas, or modes, within the app. Guest illustrators include Paolo Limoncelli, a UX/UI designer and illustrator from Italy. His contribution, titled The Whittler, tells the story of a robot that lost his leg and tries to fix it using a branch from a tree he found in the forest. Others are The Panther, a lesson in flat vector character design by Ben the Illustrator; Reflected Skyline by Romain Trystram, which demonstrates the use of dramatic light and reflections; Kevin House's isometric illustrations in Wine Cellar; and The Fisherman, a 3D illustration by Jonathan Ball, aka pokedstudio. The Affinity Designer Workbook also includes four design projects for readers to follow, teaching brand and logo design, designing for print, UI and apps. They are contributed by Tom Koszyk-founder and creative lead at Hologram Design in Warsaw-and Affinity's own Creative Director Neil Ladkin.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2016
37 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 13, 2017
The book is beautifully designed, and if not anything else it's nice to exhibit it on the shelf because of the perfect use of colors. But it's also a good reference point to the program itself and to workflow of the different projects from branding, illustrations to the apps.
I was mostly interested in the app workflow and projects. There is just two of them. It would be lovely if Serif would make another book about wireframes, more app projects, more ux/ui.
But I also loved the illustration projects with all the details and workflow presented. This field would too need its own book :)
I was mostly interested in the app workflow and projects. There is just two of them. It would be lovely if Serif would make another book about wireframes, more app projects, more ux/ui.
But I also loved the illustration projects with all the details and workflow presented. This field would too need its own book :)
March 24, 2019
I enjoy using the software, but it's apparently not as easy to explain or elucidate. Some of the specific features to do specific things -- I'm thinking like a toolbelt or cookbook -- are missing from this book, among other criticisms:
1.) It's heavy. It feels like it was created as a coffee table book rather than a manual or guide to work through. It doesn't feel educational, and it certainly isn't any fun lugging around with my (much lighter) iPad Pro as I learn their software. It needs to be as lightweight as the software they create.
2.) It's inaccessible. It doesn't feel like it was written to teach, or written to get a person started creating what they have in mind. Instead, the book walks through a bunch of workflows that seem far from what I actually want to do, have in mind, etc. The approach is just off. I didn't buy Affinity or this workbook to create what it wants me to create, or learn what it wants me to learn. Instead, I want to know the fastest, easiest way to accomplish tasks that I have in mind approaching a vector design software like Designer & Illustrator.
3.) It's not representative of the types of things many designers want to create. I'm specifically thinking of Japanese audiences with their drawings and art style, but also general simple, colorful graphics like logos, icons, bar button items, and the like. They showcase stuff that's either too generic (like clipart-style art) or too advanced & real (like realism). It's not a good book to flip through when figuring out what kinds of artwork you'd create using Affinity.
Overall, the right approach would've been to take the marketing on their homepage for Designer, broken into several types of artwork, and then teaching from there. I just don't see people having the patience to try some of their workflows, because people generally approach design software wanting to make a specific visual or image in their mind, and needing a clean, clear, modulated breakdown of those steps rather than a precreated result. The endgoal of the book is very different from what those designers have in mind.
1.) It's heavy. It feels like it was created as a coffee table book rather than a manual or guide to work through. It doesn't feel educational, and it certainly isn't any fun lugging around with my (much lighter) iPad Pro as I learn their software. It needs to be as lightweight as the software they create.
2.) It's inaccessible. It doesn't feel like it was written to teach, or written to get a person started creating what they have in mind. Instead, the book walks through a bunch of workflows that seem far from what I actually want to do, have in mind, etc. The approach is just off. I didn't buy Affinity or this workbook to create what it wants me to create, or learn what it wants me to learn. Instead, I want to know the fastest, easiest way to accomplish tasks that I have in mind approaching a vector design software like Designer & Illustrator.
3.) It's not representative of the types of things many designers want to create. I'm specifically thinking of Japanese audiences with their drawings and art style, but also general simple, colorful graphics like logos, icons, bar button items, and the like. They showcase stuff that's either too generic (like clipart-style art) or too advanced & real (like realism). It's not a good book to flip through when figuring out what kinds of artwork you'd create using Affinity.
Overall, the right approach would've been to take the marketing on their homepage for Designer, broken into several types of artwork, and then teaching from there. I just don't see people having the patience to try some of their workflows, because people generally approach design software wanting to make a specific visual or image in their mind, and needing a clean, clear, modulated breakdown of those steps rather than a precreated result. The endgoal of the book is very different from what those designers have in mind.
May 12, 2020
The book is really well written, with lots of detailed information and pictures showing step by step instructions. Although the latter half of the book lost me (seeing as I'm not a designer, and I'm mostly just interested in the basics), the first half was exactly what I needed.
My only criticism is the hardback physical edition of the book I had was a bit large and cumbersome to read. It's presented much more like a coffee table book, than something you'd be able to have on your desk, to learn from.
My only criticism is the hardback physical edition of the book I had was a bit large and cumbersome to read. It's presented much more like a coffee table book, than something you'd be able to have on your desk, to learn from.
July 11, 2018
It is nice to have a paper manual put together by the developers who made the program along with project tutorials of designers who use the program every day. A Must read if you want to really know the program!
January 15, 2021
Amazing workbook. It begins by showing all the basics and explains the user interface in detail. There are also some examples which you can follow and get to know the workflow.
It's an amazing workbook that will tell you everything you need to know about the software.
It's an amazing workbook that will tell you everything you need to know about the software.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews