> many of us back-end developers would be over the moon if we were able to make "meh" design in the first place > I thought it would be a good introduction to

> many of us back-end developers would be over the moon if we were able to make "meh" design in the first place > I thought it would be a good introduction to the fundamentals of visual design I can relate, so a recommendation from me may be a case of the blind leading the blind, but the best such book I've seen is The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams (the writer, not the actor). (It's up to four editions now but get any one; mostly only the examples change.) The second half of the book is about type, and the first half is organized around four principles: Contrast–Repetition–Alignment–Proximity, leading to a memorable acronym that you may have found elsewhere but whose origin is this book. She starts with examples of designing things like brochures and flyers, but IMO if you remember to apply those 4 principles as illustrated in the book, you go from “ugh, I don't know why this looks ugly” design to pretty effective design.