Roger C. Parker's One Minute Designer

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Summary: nobody will ever write a book this good on Web design
Review: A paper design is self-explanatory and self-maintaining. This is why Roger Parker was able to write this superb book on design for paper. Web publishing involves collaborative maintenance of a collection of material. So one can never achieve such clarity. Anyway, this is a great book if you want to design some paper stuff and it is also good to think about why you'll never have it this easy in the Web world.

Rating:
Summary: nobody will ever write a book this good on Web design
Review: As a reference for dealing w/ specific aspects of typography, this work will prove to be invaluable to beginner/intermediate graphic designers. Simple suggestions can make a startling difference, and Mr. Parker writes w/ an experienced, clearly defined style.

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Summary: My Favorite Design Book!
Review: I adore this book! It is one of those books that I just pick up and flip to a random page, and absorb the wisdom. It is full of tiny little things you can do to make your work look more professional. This guy is amazing.

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Summary: This book is fantastic!
Review: I bought this masterpiece after I read 'The Non-Designers Design Book' by Robin Williams. The content is much the same, but explored much more thoroughly, with clear examples and well-thought layouts.

If you want to get only one book on Desktop Publishing, THIS IS THE ONE! Don't waste your time with other books.

Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Many speakers who have trouble obtaining bookings experience difficulties not because of a lack of talent, but because their marketing materials fail to project a professional image. Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer can prevent this from happening to you. Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer illustrates the details that spell the difference between design success and design failure. This book is a fast read. Best of all, you don't have to read it at one sitting because each page is devoted to a single idea. You can pick it up at any point and begin reading. Get the One-Minute Designer if your business success depends on your marketing materials projecting a favorable first impression.

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Summary: Roger Parker Makes it Easy
Review: One-Minute Designer Revised edition Roger C. Parker MIS:Press, 1997

Like it or not, if you use a computer you are a typographer, and that's anyone who arranges words within a given space: letter, report, bulletin, brochure, ad, billboard, book, sign etc. You don't have to be a graphic designer to create good typography because Roger Parker makes it easy to communicate clearly. The book is methodically organized. Each page is devoted to one subject, i.e. column width, placement, type sizes, word and letter spacing, font choice-all 204 of them. Parker writes easily, clearly, succinctly, and is always on the side of the reader, and the absence of verbiage and posturing is refreshing. Each page has direct, easy-to-understand two color illustrations that unambiguously define the text. Unlike program manuals that have incomplete or misnamed subjects, I'm impressed with Parker's contents page and glossary, which makes it easy for the reader to find information quickly. The soft cover book is a comfortable, easy to hold 7" x 9" portrait format. For quick review, the italic captions are printed in red. Text is set in one of my favorite fonts Minion, designed by Robert Slimbach one of the world's great type designers. The generous 11-point size makes is easy to read. This is a book that makes it easy to produce good looking, well organized layouts that communicate, a rarity in manuals. Parker's book should be within arm's length at a workstation, and [for the money], it's money in the bank.

Doyald Young, teacher and author: Logotypes & Letterforms and Fonts & Logos

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Summary: Provided the design sound-bytes I needed
Review: Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer provided me the practical information I needed to improve my store's business cards, letterhead, ads, brochures and flyers. It helped me identify what my staff and I were doing right and where our efforts could be improved. I especially like the way Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer saves time by leading me directly to the needed information. The before and after illustrations make each point perfectly clear.

Rating:
Summary: Roger Parker Makes it Easy
Review: This book is amazing. It lists 200 examples of good and bad design in a text/title/image/graphic perspective for business documents (which is just like a website). This book is a bible for begining or intermediate graphic designers who want to make the perfectly organized data (newsletters, website, newspaper, etc). Instead of long chapters of boring theory and idealism, it points out common design mistakes and shows a better way to do it and throws in a couple sentences of theory to it. In my opinion this is a must in anyone's library of books.

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Summary: A great design book
Review: When I ran the DTP group of the Boston Computer Society Roger was a favorite speaker. He has the gift of explaining design in terms anyone can understand, and this book can't fail to make you a better designer. It's the best design book I know.