Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans: 365 Graphic Design Sins and Virtues: A Designer's Almanac of Dos and Don'ts [Hardcover & e-books]

Tony Seddon

Sean Adams

John Foster

Peter Dawson

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(from the publisher) Ask any graphic designer the world over about their preferred approach to setting type, choosing a color, or beginning a new layout, and you will rarely get exactly the same answer twice. All designers have their own way of working and their own combinations of the thousands of techniques one can apply when planning a new design project. But there are some dos and don'ts that always figure in any heated debate about what one should or should not accept as the right way to create the best graphic design.
 
This book looks at key dos and don'ts, bringing them together in the form of a classically structured almanac. Packed with practical advice, but presented in a light-hearted fashion, the advisory rather than dictative approach means designers can take or leave the advice presented in each rule as is typical of most creatives with their own strong views on what does and does not constitute good design practice. Individual entries will either bring forth knowing nods of agreement or hoots of derision, depending on whether or not the reader loves or hates hyphenation, has a pathological fear of beige, or thinks that baseline grids are boring.
 
Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans is the must-have collection of the best advice that any graphic designer should have at his fingertips, with each entry combining a specific rule with a commentary from a variety of experienced designers from all fields of the graphic design industry. Grouped into six, color-coded categories–typography, color, layout, imagery, production, and the practice of design–but presented numerically and in mixed groups, the reader can either dip in at random or use the book as the source of a daily lesson in how to produce great graphic design.

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(from Michael) The title of Thou Shall Not Use Comic Sans relates to an often inappropriately used and overused typeface. The title is one of 365 dos and don’ts for both new and experienced designers. The advice is lighthearted, not stern, and the authors recognize that obedience to some rules is optional.
 

The number 365 alludes to a suggestion of reading and learning one rule per day for a year. In actuality, the book can easily be read in a few hours. You can read it in numerical sequence, by choosing a section such as typography or color, or just pick a random page.

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It’s a good book for the john, or for reading during TV commercials.
 

Each rule is accompanied with a commentary from an appropriate expert. I can say (without bragging) that I knew most of the 365 rules. It was nice to see experts backing up at least one rule I had devised myself—design books as a series of two-page spreads, not single pages (number 97).

 

$16.49 paperback, order from Amazon.com

$9 Kindle, order from Amazon.com

​$18.36 paperback, order from Barnes & Noble

$11.29 Nook, order from Barnes & Noble
 

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