Before & After: How to Design Cool Stuff

John McWade

Nov 2009 · Peachpit Press

About this ebook

Before and After magazine's focus on clarity, simplicity, and elegance has won it legions of fans--fans who will welcome this second volume of the definitive Before and After Page Design by John McWade. Truly an icon of the graphic design community, his insistence on approaching design not as mere decoration but as an essential form of communication is vividly apparent in this cohesive primer on page design and layout. And you could not hope for a better, more qualified teacher. McWade shows readers how to arrange and present information using today's powerful graphics tools. Readers will learn how to design single-page and multi-page documents, brochures, and ads; why one typeface works better than another; and much more. Best of all, they'll discover how to think visually transforming the images in their heads into something that communicates effectively on the page.

Ratings and reviews

This wasn't a book you really read. This was a book about graphic design so the pictures and captions took preeminence over content. It was however, a good book. I don't think of myself as having an eye for design but it was basic enough that I could follow along. It had multiple "Projects" which gave complete template instructions for newsletters, announcements, etc. Overall, this book was worth my time to read as it got my mind thinking more like a designer, and provided several usable projects and examples. I'm hanging on to my library copy as a long as I am allowed, referencing it as needed. If you're in any place where you regularly create any sort of documents, it's worth a quick "read" through. Enjoy the pictures too!

About the author

Designer, teacher, and author John McWade has been at the forefront of the graphic design and desktop publishing worlds for several decades. The very first beta user of the desktop publishing program Aldus PageMaker, he went on to found the first desktop publishing company, PageLab, to take advantage of the new tools. With his partner Gaye McWade, he founded the acclaimed Before and After magazine.