Design for non-designers
9.00–4.00
‘Meetings room’, University House, Australian National University
Cost: $150 (members); $250 (non-members)
About the course
The ‘Design for non-designers’ workshop is especially relevant to editors who deal with designers and need to know enough about design matters to function fully as editors.
Topics to be covered include:
- an introduction to design and layout
- typography
- working with colour, photographs and illustrations
- the web and print.
In the first topic, David will tackle the tricky subject of what constitutes ‘appropriate’ design, including consideration of visual literacy; the principles behind the ‘eye flow’ of a person reading Western text and the implications of this for positioning text and graphics on the page.
The second topic deals with readability and type selection.
The third topic looks at two (not necessarily opposing) demands of publishing—displaying creativity and working within a tight budget. This session will be of particular use to editors whose tasks include picture selection and sourcing or commissioning images.
The final topic is on website design conventions and the requirements for smooth navigation and retaining readability.
David Whitbread is the author of The Design Manual (UNSW Press, Sydney, 2001) which won an Australian Award for Excellence in Educational Publishing in 2002. The second revised and expanded edition was released in 2009. He also co-wrote and art directed the sixth edition of the Commonwealth Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (Wiley, Brisbane, 2002). Formerly Design Director of the Australian Government Publishing Service and Head of Graphic Design at the University of Canberra, he is currently the Corporate Communications Manager at an Australian Government agency in Canberra.