Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design

List Price: $40.00

Customer Reviews:

Lots of examples, little guidance [Posted on 2007-12-06]
I bought this book expecting to find guidance on how colors work and how to use them. The book provides this, but not in the way I expected.

If you are looking for:
- A deep discussion of color theory with specific examples of what works and what does not or
- Insights from industry about how the choice of colors can affect production costs, choice of material, etc or
- Information about tools that can help with color selection, matching or proofing,
DON'T buy this book.

This book is about color palettes only and its approach is to give you lots of examples from the real world, from which *you* must build your own understanding of color. As a survey of the use of color by many well-known designers for clients of all kinds, this book excels. The most valuable parts are not the examples themselves, but the text accompanying them where the designers outline the reasons for their choices. All this is perhaps clear from the title, but I didn't think so.

A severe shortcoming of this book is it provides no examples where a choice of colors failed--for whatever reason.

Since readers have consistently criticized Rockport's use of the word "Workbook" for books in this series, let me suggest a way of looking at it that justifies it. The way I used this book was to go through an example, look at every line, fill, shading or photograph and use the color palette in several ways in some designs I cooked up-- constantly experimenting--until I felt I understood how those colors interacted and changed their overall feel. That's the workbook aspect that totally worked for me so I have no problems with this book being called a "Workbook".

If you regularly read graphic design sites/blogs, you won't find anything new in this book. But if you are starting on the path to understanding color in graphic design, this is a great resource.

Good basic book on color. [Posted on 2008-02-07]
This book was a good basic book on color. I feel that there are better books out there that go more into color theory and I'm in the process of looking for those. Overall this book is great for beginning graphic design professionals.

LOVED IT! [Posted on 2008-02-13]
Has lots of ideas for color use. Loved the section on the cultural meanings of color. So many interesting things to consider. Has some basic color theory, how to convey your message with color, etc. Very helpful for the graphic designer or visual artist.

Very Helpful [Posted on 2008-03-09]
I found this book to be extremely helpful in understanding colours and their relationship with design. It's easy to read and has some great examples.

AWESOME!! [Posted on 2008-06-08]
I own dozens of graphic design books and the Color Design Workbook is one of the most useful books I own. I highly recommend it. It not only breaks down the theory of color and how it applies to design, it also gives examples of how color has hindered or helped in real world design projects. The page design is also fabulous...glossy pages with interesting design, yet readable information. Using color incorrectly is one of the most common blunders in graphic design so understanding it is crucial. Note: This book discusses color theory and relationships, not color management. A good color management book is: Practical Color Management: Eddie Tapp on Digital Photography (Eddie Tapp on Digital Photogra)

This book is part of a TERRIFIC series of graphic design books by Rockport. (The series also visually looks great together since the publishers shrewdly designed all the bindings to match and line up together on the shelf.)
So far there are only 5 (including the Color Design Workbook), but hopefully they will add more books to the very useful series:
Logo Design Workbook: A Hands-On Guide to Creating Logos

Typography Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Type in Graphic Design

Publication Design Workbook

Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design

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