Visual Composing

Book excerpt: For courses in Document Design, Information Design, Visual Communication, Visual Rhetoric, or Desktop Publishing. Moving beyond a how-to book, Visual Composing: Document Design for Print and Digital Media explores the best practices in document design and why these practices work. Chapters consider the five criteria that contribute to effective visual composing (clarity, unity, usability, tone and aesthetics) and how these elements balance to form visually attractive and usable documents. Numerous examples illustrate relevant principles and exercises allow students to both evaluate and design documents. Covering both print and digital media, it presents the research behind best practices and gives students a more sophisticated understanding of why certain design principles are recommended.