Design Essential Index

by Jim Krause

Combining three invaluable, practical design books for idea-hungry designers, the Design Essentials Index offers designers solutions for everything from design basics to new systems for combining colors to an in depth examination of creative an practical applications of type. This uniquely designed box set includes Jim Krause's best selling guides Design Basics Index , Type Idea Index and Color Index 2 to give designers a wealth of practical design info at their fingertips.

Genres: Design, Reference

1080 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2007

About the author

Jim Krause has worked as a designer in the Pacific Northwest since the 1980s. He has produced award-winning work for clients large and small, including Microsoft, McDonald's, Kodak, Cingular Wireless, Washington Apples, Levi Strauss, Paccar/Kenworth, and Seattle Public Schools. Jim Krause has written over 15 books on design, creativity, and digital photography. His books are widely popular and are on sale around the world. Several have been translated into multiple languages.
Krause's latest books are Color Index XL, Lessons in Typography, Visual Design and Color For Designers.
When Jim isn't working on books, he can usually be found riding or racing either a motorcycle or a bicycle, hiking, reading, roasting coffee beans in his back yard, drinking espresso, or doing an art project of some kind or another.

Reviews

[Jessica]

I was stumped and sad when I could not find my "Design Basics Index" - but then I saw the Essential Kit, including "Color Index," about which a designer friend raved glowingly. I've always loved color and taken time to admire details and differentiations pertaining to it, so at first I thought it might be cheating to buy such a book. However, not the case, and the book displays a masterfully simple approach to demonstrating the affects of varied color combos. I'm onto "Type Idea Index" now, and if you've ever bonded with the printed word, you'll want to closely examine how meaning, tone, approach (and how much more?) can be melded into the letter forms and textual bodies, with the precision that Krause applies.


* "Design Basics Index" does contain 10 or so benign, but apparent, typographical errors; as a note for future publications. The text is very well-written overall, however, with enjoyable style, insight and an encompassing perspective. You easily forget a typo, until the next one. And then you wonder how it fits in. Because it doesn't.