| This book by Ji Yong Park starts out a little abstract and somewhat pretentious as the author introduces topics of graphic design such as aesthetics, creativity and functionality. However, once past this, the book has some good information for graphic and digital designers. The author's technique throughout the book is to introduce a topic with discussion and simplified sample graphics. Then a design assignment is given to the reader. This is followed by a small gallery of the best designs created by Dr. Park's students for a similar assignment. Although the gallery had a nice variety of artwork, the author only discusses one of the samples and why he considered it the best. I would have preferred a thorough discussion of each of the samples in the gallery. This would give the readers the much needed practice in recognizing and applying design principles to actual artwork. That being said, this book does a good job of covering digital design as it pertains to the web and discusses specific limitations of the digital medium. So what exactly does the author cover in this book? He begins with the elements and principles of good layout design. The first few assignments ask the reader to create both a static and dynamic website design using four design elements; graphics, text, navigation bar and web banner. Next, the author discusses the Gestalt theory and the grid in detail. He concentrates on using the grid to solve common digital design challenges such as the visual limitations of the web browser, the necessity for breaking the webpage into sections and scrolling. Moving on, the author discusses working with shape, line, texture, form and perspective. He also covers color theory and typography and their advantages and limitations in digital design. Dr. Ji Yong Park teaches visual communication and digital design at Central Queensland University in Australia.
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