What's design all about? It's a big question, and luckily there are any number of articles and free ebooks you can read that might explain it for you.
Sometimes, though, you don't want to have to hack all the way through someone's treatise on flat design; instead you want something succinct that gets straight to the heart of the matter. Basically, you want a diagram.
Luckily, Mitch Goldstein (opens in new tab) has you covered. A designer and assistant professor at Rochester Institute of Technology's School of Design, he's come up with A Helpful Diagram (opens in new tab): a series of, yes, helpful diagrams that explain a bunch of design issues at a glance.
Best of all they're Venn diagrams: the best kind of diagram, we're sure you'll agree. Over the course of 20 of them, Goldstein covers a range of subjects including design education, typography, inspiration and that perennial favourite, Adobe.
You'll also find some useful observations on how designers spend their time, the role of sports in design, and the absolute final word on whether print is dead or not.
It's an essential collection of bite-size design wisdom, and it's not Goldstein's first such collection of tidbits; he's also the man behind Design Process (opens in new tab), a fabulously minimal one-pager that comes up with a random pithy design tip every time you refresh it.
You can see the whole collection of helpful diagrams here (opens in new tab). And if you have your own delightfully terse nuggets of design advice, why not share them in the comments?
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