Design Education

Scrivs recently revised and republished an old post of his titled You Are Not A Designer And I Am Not A Musician that is worth reading. In it he bemoans the lack of proper design training that seems to be widespread in the web design industry.

While reading Johannes Itten’s The Elements of Colour I came across an experience of his that speaks to colour theory, but fits perfectly well with the discussion at hand:

When asked if there are general rules and laws of color for the artist, or the appreciation of colours governed solely by subjective opinion, he replied, “If you, unknowing, are able to create masterpieces in color, then un-knowledge is your way. But if you are unable to create masterpieces in color out of your un-knowledge, then you ought to look for knowledge.”

If we can extend this argument into the craft of web design, it seems to say that it’s okay if you don’t have an understanding of design (color theory, grids, typography etc.) as long as the work that you create is of “masterpiece” quality. The keyword here is “materpiece”. Is it really possible to create a masterpiece without having any kind of design knowledge? I would say that’s very unlikely, almost impossible. Maybe Itten felt the same way, after all, he was telling this to students who had come to Bauhaus school to learn about design.

Even if we acknowledge that a masterpiece can be created with un-knowledge, imagine how much more superior that person’s work can be with proper design training.

What I’ve done to help myself

If you’re getting paid to design, you owe it to your clients to understand design thoroughly, and this should go without saying. However, understanding design doesn’t simply mean checking out galleries, it means understanding the core principles, theories and history.

My first degree was in Computer Science which was mostly mathematics and programming. Even though web design held the most interest for me, I was forced to acknowledge that I didn’t have any proper training in it. A few years ago I started to buy books and read them.

Essential graphic design books for web designers

Here are a list of some that I’ve either finished reading or am partway through, starting with the easiest-to-read.

• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton – This one is particularly useful to anyone now learning about typography, I recently read it a second time partly to refresh my knowledge and partly because it’s very well designed.
• Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara
• The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten
• Interaction of Color by Josef Albers
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

After all, as Itten said, “we can be released from subjective bondage only through knowledge and awareness of objective principles.”