A book for 'the expanded field' of Communication Design practice
As a passionate design educator myself, I was thrilled to receive this review from Neal Haslem of RMIT University about the new edition of The Design Manual.
“David Whitbread is soon to release a re-issue of The Design Manual. This very extensive book details numerous aspects of design practice with practical tips and information from colour specification to ideation techniques to paper selection.
David has developed the Manual over twenty years and has continually expanded it to include new developments for design as well as shifts in design's understanding of itself.
As David notes, this is a book designed to be flipped through. The Manual provides a myriad of choice pull quotes with pithy tips and traps not to fall into for the unwary as well as advice on how to work with collaborators. I soon realised I was walking through my own life in design. As someone who graduated in the early 90s I have lived through these technologies, these changes and shifts in practice. This history is all here in the Design Manual, not just 20 years of knowledge but a lifetimes.
I started thinking 'what about research?', what about experience design?', what about UI/UX?', and then I found them. This Manual has been continually updated. It is, as the large page count testifies, justifiably described as 'encyclopaedic'. David even has sections on Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, new areas yet to fully impact the field.
“The Design Manual is testament to a discipline, a field, and an industry that, when I first came to it, was much simpler. This is a discipline which has gone through name changes, attitude changes and massive technological changes. All this is contained in the Design Manual. ”
The Design Manual is testament to a discipline, a field, and an industry that, when I first came to it, was much simpler. This is a discipline which has gone through name changes, attitude changes and massive technological changes. All this is contained in the Design Manual. The book evidences what I have taken to calling 'the expanded field' of Communication Design practice.
Where I work, at RMIT School of Design, we no longer attempt to offer a degree that teaches its graduates 'all there is to know', instead the onus is given to our students to navigate their way into their specialisation via a series of diverse studios. The studios we offer are representative of many of the sections and subsections of David's Manual.
David Whitbread's Design Manual is an excellent Manual. Diving into this book will give any young designer a solid foundation in the industry they are entering. It will give them a sense of where that industry has evolved from and where it might be going. As I mentioned above, in some sense it offers a history, while at the same time that it offers very useful assistance with 'how to get things done'. I have no hesitation in highly recommending this book to new designers; they will find it expansive, interesting and insightful and it might well get them out of a tricky spot when–as an adept digital designer–they are suddenly tasked with a print on paper brief.”
Is it time to build on the knowledge you learned during your design studies? The Design Manual has your back.