The “Design Basics Index”, by Jim Krause, is an inspiring 360 pages of informative design education and eye candy. Unlike most design books which only show examples and provide no real explanation to decisions that had been made, the Design Basics Index really provides an in-depth look at how to learn to make informed design decisions and how to create aesthetic appeal in the process.

This is one of those books I have to say is extremely well done, worth the money to purchase it and creates a classic. But things could be said to deter you from making the decision to purchase. So let’s take a look at what it contains and what type of people shouldn’t bother making the purchase.

This book serves the purpose to both be eye candy (visually inspiring only) and informative (actually goes to great lengths to teach the reader on subject). That’s rare! Now, I can’t scan in some of these pages and show you examples because, well, I’d probably get in trouble and I’d hate to think I’m stealing content from someone else. Luckily enough though, Amazon is allowing us to search inside of this book and I can provide to you what they provide to us anyway (link to that feature will be provided at the end of the article). So let’s look at how the book presents both sides of both eye candy and informative reading with these “borrowed” images.

Inspiring layouts that direct the reader within the book while also informing:

The book in of itself is a great example of communication design but Krause uses each page to either direct our reading through the book or to educate us. It’s very inspiring while being educational. If you need inspiration, just thumb through it. If you want to be more informed about design decisions, both in print and on the internet, then you can actually read it. Lovely. My only real complaint - it’s impossible to sit it on the desk with the pages open to reference.

Now, there are a few personality types I know of that may not either find the energy to thumb through it when they need inspiration or don’t actually like to read enough to enjoy the information here. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any and everyone, in or out of design to learn more about how to design well. But I have to say that if you want to learn more but can’t stand to read over THREE HUNDRED packed pages full of analytical discussion about design, then don’t pick it up. I have to admit that even I had trouble sitting down in a few sessions to read it cover to cover. You really have good intentions to read it all at once but it’s just impossible. My advice to everyone is to read 20 pages in one sitting, no more or less. You should find it much more enjoyable then!

Tip: Alignment

Krause gives a great example of how elements visually seem to be smaller, larger or aligned to the eye and how designers need to compensate. You’ll find this information on pages 88-89 in the book, but here’s a small tutorial on the subject I threw together referencing the material.

It would seem that the top of that “g” is aligned horizontally but it isn’t. If it were, it would seem unbalanced, the “o” within that “g” would look small. A similar thing happens with two shapes next to each other; since the circle is taking up less space than the square, it seems smaller. In my example they may seem to be the exact same size but as you can see from the close-up, I compensated and made the circle larger. Sometimes the white space around elements affect the element itself. As a general rule remember that if you’d like a couple of elements next to each other to look balanced and one of those elements allows for more white space, it should probably be a little bit larger than the one with less white space around it.

“Design Basics Index” is a great informative resource. The good news is that if you love Krause, you’ll love all his other books too.
Buy it on Amazon - they have “search inside” available and it’s been rated 5/5stars.