While the web is full of design-oriented sites and blogs, there’s no substitute for turning the pages of a beautifully photographed book. To experience the best of today’s design innovators, browse the luscious pages of one of these outstanding books. You’ll return again and again to the rich inspiration curated within them.
1. The Elements of Graphic Design
Equally useful for the professional or the novice, this reference book presents graphic design fundamentals in a fresh format. Author Alex W. White is a clear and thoughtful educator, and many design professors require their students to study the essential concepts of this book.
2. Los Logos No. 7
This graphic design book is the most recent in the exceptional Los Logos series. The series was started in 2002, and each edition presents the most recent aesthetic transformations in logo design trends across a range of industries. The 400-page book connects today’s looks with evolving design applications, and shines a light onto graphic communications for the coming seasons.
3. Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
Now in its fourth edition, this classic offers a full toolkit for building the identity of your brand. It will guide you through the initial phases of defining your organization’s identity and creating a framework for matching abstract concepts to visual messaging. Richly illustrated with real-world examples, the book offers a clear pathway from concept to image.
4. Type Matters
One of the shortest and most useful typography books, Type Matters provides a clear overview of basic terms and usage concepts. The pleasing design offers plenty of simple tips and beautiful details, and its straightforward organization makes it a valuable reference for every professional who works with type.
5. Print & Pattern: Geometric
Produced from the popular design blog Print and Pattern, this book explores patterns, motifs and surface coverage graphics in its vibrantly colored pages. It draws inspiration from tribal designs around the world as well as from mathematical formulas, and it is equally applicable to website design and three-dimensional work. The author has assembled examples of work from master designers for the use of a broad spectrum of readers.
6. The Best American Infographics 2015
If you need to visualize data, this outstanding compilation should be your starting point. Shaping information into clear graphic format is at the core of today’s graphic design, and even complex concepts can be conveyed effectively through images. This mind-bending book will take you places in science, literature, politics and more through its stunning graphic innovations. Interesting explanations accompany each of the graphic pages.
7. Judge This
Created by award-winning designer Chip Kidd, Judge This is a print extension of the TED talk he gave on visual first impressions. In an illustrated story format, this book takes you along with its author as he talks about how product designs do (or don’t) engage the emotions. It’s an entertaining way to explore just how we are affected (or not) by graphic design.
Graphic design books are essential in moving your perception just a little sideways from the stereotyped and the boring. Expert designers know that their own originality is nourished and recharged by viewing the ways in which other artists have pushed the design envelope. When you spend time with exceptionally innovative work, and read about why it’s exceptional, your own design efforts will inevitably improve.
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Brand strategist. Creating design tools to empower creative entrepreneurs. Author of the Lean Branding book. MA in Design Management from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).
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