Even though prices of color printers are crashing through the floor it will be along time until it is economical to use color in day to day business settings. Making color copies is still expensive and, let's face it, they look muddy. Even the new color printers, inexpensive though they may be, do not produce sharp output and can be expensive to run. So we still need black and white output and we need it to look good. The Gray Book is filled with black & white design ideas and interesting ways to make black and white copy look interesting.
January 8, 1997
There is a lot of advice on using contrast and basic design techniques but the best part about The Gray Book is the wide variety of sample layouts and idea triggering samples. The annotated design gallery is a great source for, mostly, easy to adapt design ideas. Sometimes I find myself with the design blahs and feel that nothing I dream up is interesting or looks good. Sometimes a double cappuccino will get me going again but rarely do I get design inspiration from caffeine. When I find myself in these moods I've learned that books like The Gray Book can trick my creative brain cells into a more receptive mode. Besides just swiping ideas from The Gray Book I find myself thinking of other ways to use some of the ideas presented in it and can often turn the creative Blahs into beauty, sweetness, and light (!).
The Gray Book has been a deskside companion of mine for several years and have been stimulated to undreamed of design heights many times by browsing it's pages. Yes, there is a lot of practical knowledge here-desktop publishing tips including scanning, contrast, shading techniques, how to use and not use screens, page design elements, help with logo design and more. But I value The Gray Book as a source of inspiration and, no matter how dog eared it may become, my copy will have a place on the bookshelf close to my desk for years to come.
