Popular Lies About Graphic Design

The book’s described as “an attempt to debunk the various misconceptions, half truths and, in some cases, outright lies which permeate the industry of design.”

It’s excellent, mainly for Craig’s opinions, but also for the visuals he uses to express them.

“When a headline or piece of communication is presented in such a way that you can’t imagine it ever looking any other way; when you can’t pick a hole in the kerning of a single pair of letters; when you are struck between the eyes by a treatment so perfect that it seems almost familiar, and the elegant colourway and choice of typeface is pitch perfect… That is effortless design. To the casual observer, it may look like a simple task — and the tools we use are getting better and better (and making us lazier and lazier). For the rest of us, we have to work at it. We have to squint at the screen and stay up late. Walk away from it for days at a time, come back to it, start again, change things up, throw it away and try different typefaces in various combinations before finally — often begrudgingly — sending the work to print. Shaking our head as the file uploads wondering if there were something we could have done for it to be better.”