The Designer's Color Manual is an Enjoyable Book That Might Re-Open Your Eyes and Your Mind

The human eye, the camera lens, the printed page, and the computer screen receive and transmit color in very different ways. In fact, there are dozens and dozens of ways to approach color in theory and practice. This new book, the Designer's Color Manual, organizes these dozens of ways into 22 easily digestible chapters.

Be certain that this is not a book that is heavy with technical information or in-depth descriptions of color management tools. Instead, the Designer's Color Manual suggests how to best "think" about color in every environment, from Renaissance art to the World Wide Web to package design. The authors take the reader on a journey that reveals many insights into how we respond to color, both consciously and unconsciously, in the hopes that the reader might use those insights in new and creative ways.

Every color our eyes perceive is greatly influenced by its surrounding colors. This simple insight could permeate a discussion of color in fine art as easily as it could permeate a discussion of color in soft-proofing. This book attempts to introduce the reader to the correct ways to think and talk about key elements of color theory, practice, and application, addressing a wide range of issues specific to graphic design in both print and digital media.

Author Tom Fraser takes many graphics-related practices into account - interior design, digital rendering, packaging, and merchandise design - aiding the designer in mastering the far-reaching effects of color in almost any project. Heavily illustrated with over 1,000 color images, the Designer's Color Manual considers the topic from dozens of disciplines and perspectives.

About the authors: Tom Fraser has over ten years of experience designing books, marketing materials, and advertisements. Today he is creative director at Designer Training Ltd. in London. Adam Banks is former Editor-in-Chief of MacUser UK, and has worked with digital imaging since the early 1980s. He lives in London.

Designer's Color Manual: The Complete Guide to Color
Theory and Application By Tom Fraser and Adam Banks
$29.95 at www.chroniclebooks.com
9-1/4" x 10-1/16"; 224 pp.
Paperback; June, 2004