Design by Nature

12/13/2011 · No Responses

In Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design, author Maggie Macnab takes you on an intimate and eclectic journey examining the unending versatility of nature, showing how to uncover nature’s ingenuity and use it to create beautiful and compelling designed communications.

Written for designers and creative thinkers of all types, this book will guide you through a series of unexpected a-ha! moments that describe relationships among nature, art, science, technology, and design. Through explanation and example, you will learn about natural processes, consisting of everyday patterns and shapes that are often taken for granted, but that can be used effectively in visual messaging. Explore the principles all human beings intuitively use to understand the world and learn to incorporate nature’s patterns and shapes into your work for more meaningful design.

By recognizing and appreciating a broad range of relationships, you can create more aesthetic and effective design, building communications that encompass the universal experience of being part of nature, and that are relevant to a worldwide audience.

Teaches how to understand and integrate the essential processes of nature’s patterns and shapes in design
Includes key concepts, learning objectives, definitions, and exercises to help you put what you learn into practice
Features a foreword by Debbie Millman and reviews and discussions of practice and process by some of the world’s leading designers, including Milton Glaser, Stefan Sagmeister, and Ellen Lupton
Includes profiles of street artist Banksy, creative director and author Kenya Hara, and typographical designer Erik Spiekermann

Table of Contents
Section I: Memory: Remembering What We Know
Chapter 1. Aesthetics: Enjoy the Ride
Chapter 2. Efficiency: Go with the Flow
Chapter 3. Nature’s Ethics: Everyone’s Business

Section II: Matter: Understand and Create
Chapter 4. Patterns: Nature’s Dynamics
Chapter 5. Shapes: Nature’s Vocabulary
Chapter 6. The Elements: Nature’s Sensuality

Section III: Motion: The Experience Enhanced
Chapter 7. Structure: Building Beauty
Chapter 8. Symmetry: A Balancing Act in Two or More Parts
Chapter 9. Messaging: A Meaningful Medium