This new series, Basics Design Series, from AVA will incorporate five titles: Format, Layout, Typography, Image and Colour; each representing the fundamentals of graphic design. This series will provide design students and anyone with an interest in creativity with an indispensable reference tool and a thorough knowledge of the building blocks of Graphic Design.

Format concerns the physical dimensions of a product and the space one has to best present the graphic elements of a design. Product shape and size is a neglected but key aspect of a design's eventual impact, and within all print and digital media a creative approach to format selection can produce dramatic results.

Armed with knowledge of different folding options the designer is open to additional creative possibilities that can have a pronounced effect on the finished product, whether it's an annual report, a book, a package or a magazine insert.

This instructive handbook examines in detail books, magazines, posters, direct mail, brochures, and Web pages to see how effectively they communicate, how appealing they look, and how strong an impact they make on the user. The original ideas showcased throughout are inspirational.
About Ambrose & Harris

Gavin Ambrose is a practicing graphic designer and a part-time tutor on the Masters' TypoGraphic and the Undergraduate Information Design courses at the London College of Printing. Upon graduating with a Masters Degree in Communications from Central St Martins he worked as a freelance designer for several design agencies, including Studio Myerscough, Rodney Fitch & Co. and Masius. Current commercial practice includes clients from the arts sector, galleries, publishers and advertising agencies and he is the author/designer of previous books on branding and packaging. Gavin lives and works in London.

Paul Harris PG Dip London College of Printing, is a freelance writer and editor who has written for magazines and journals both in London and New York including Dazed & Confused, and has previously written about packaging design. Paul lives and works in London