April 4 response.

Chapters one through six in The Non-Designer's Design Book deal with the four basic principals of the Joshua Tree theory and how best to apply them.

These principles are as follows; Proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast.

By usage of visual emphasis the book breaks down why each of these four principals matter and how best each one can be used.

For example in chapter three, which discusses alignment. This encomphases facets that I as a writer would never think of. It states to make sure, on p. 45, that the aligning of text and heads and subheads matchup. Being a writer, I've always simply seen my job to be filling the spaces on the page with no regard as to what's actually being placed on the page, or how my words are positioned ... especially not as to how they're aligned.

And then, in chapter five the book discusses the principle of contrast. It says that if two items are not identical, then making them vastly different aids in extreme contrast which appeals to readers, p. 65. This design goes hand-in-hand with all the reversal black and white heading my graphics 221 teacher had me create last quarter. It's interesting that instead of learning how to do so on a design program, I'm actually acquiring from the text now why it's done.

These chapters, including six which is a review of the principals, break-down nicely the four principles presented. I especially enjoyed the visual aid.