Typography (esp. for screens) and compositional principles

David Ramos (ramos@american.edu)

Type (especially on screen), grid systems, layout, and composition.

Typography; graphic design for screens

I’ve got too much respect for the discipline to call it “visual design.”

• Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style.

• Ellen Lupton, Thinking with Type.

• The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web
• On Web Typography
• Google Webfonts that Don’t Suck
• TypeTester (tool to compare screen type)
• Guide to CSS Font Stacks: Techniques and Resources
• A Way Back: font stacks in great depth
• The Thinking with Type website has concise discussions of typography basics, with excellent visual examples

Fundamentals of design

• Design principles: similarity and proximity

Process

• Following a Web Design Process (big picture view, aimed at large client projects)
• Taking the Guesswork Out of Design
• Design research and process (created for a media/journalism NGO)
• Design Process in the Responsive Age
• Photoshop for the web
• InDesign for the web (I’d recommend InDesign for comps over Photoshop)
• HTML/CSS code as part of design process (closer to how I work)
• Designing the Boston Globe’s new responsive site