How to Use This Book

So you want to learn graphic design. It's a natural choice. If you love design, it's a great time to be alive. If the 1920s were the Jazz Age, today is the Age of Design. Visual communication has us surrounded. You cannot walk around New York or L.A., London or Tokyoany urban space, reallywithout encountering a welter of ingenuity and inspiration for your eyeballs. Head out of town, and even in the middle of the prairie, billboards scream for your attention.

Figure 0.1. This book was developed by the faculty of Sessions.edu, a New Yorkbased online school of design.

Figure 0.2. The appliance of signs. Graphic design is everywhere in the urban environment.

Who creates all this great design work? Thanks to the digital revolution, there's a new breed of artist in town. The advent of the personal computer, the spread of desktop publishing, and the increasing sophistication and relative affordability of design software applications have created a new generation of designers.

The graphic designeralso known as the art director, brand manager, graphics coordinator, digital artist, illustrator, Web designer, multimedia developer, and new media designeris responsible for the brands you covet, the products you flaunt, the ads you eye, the magazines you devour, the sites you crawl. Every visual communicationeverything you pay attention towas created by a designer.