Powered by Design

Renée Stevens is an interactive and immersive designer, educator, and speaker. Her creative work focuses on innovative ways design can help overcome learning disabilities and create more accessible and inclusive learning environments. For over a decade she has run her own interactive design studio. You can find her teaching at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where she is the Associate Chair of the Visual Communications Department, overseeing the undergraduate and graduate design programs. In 2017, she was named an Educator to Watch by GDUSA. As a speaker, she has been invited to speak around the world. She lives in New York with her husband and two children who keep her creating every day. You can learn more at reneestevens.design.

In Powered by Design, educator, designer, and public speaker Renee Stevens brings a truly up to date and thoughtful approach to an introduction to graphic design. As Assistant Professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University, Stevens created this book to be at home equally in academia and outside of the school setting. With a conversational and approachable tone, Stevens' book is for anyone who wants to gain a more practical understanding of what graphic design is today, and the power and potential it has: from students to novice graphic designers to anyone who wants to build a solid foundation of design skills so that they can work more effectively with professional designers. Stevens covers topics such as: Choosing the right typefaceHierarchy and visual weightCreating design systemsBalancing tensionVisualising dataUnderstanding colour and moodDefining a story structureUser testing and critiqueImmersive designDetermining when a design is finishedHow to make a living with designWoven throughout is the crucial idea that you must embrace empathy in everything you design in order to create work that is the most inclusive. Design has the power and potential to make real impact in our everyday lives, and this book will show you how to do that starting with your first design experience.

Chapter 1: Design ThinkingChapter 2: Designing for HumansChapter 3: Expressive TypographyChapter 4: Relationships Are HardChapter 5: Lay It All OutChapter 6: The WholeChapter 7: Tell a StoryChapter 8: Do LessChapter 9: Meaningful ExperiencesChapter 10: Activate the SensesChapter 11: Time and SpaceChapter 12: Make a LivingChapter 13: Design in Circles