The Best Graphic Design Books for Creatives

Table Of Content

• The last word: advice for graphic designers who want to read more
• 'Interaction of Color' by Josef Albers
• Grid Systems by Josef Müller-Brockmann
• Need help Building your Brand?
• More articles on Graphic Design
• How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
• The Graphic Design Idea Book: Inspiration from 50 Masters by Steven Heller & Gail Anderson

These books strongly introduce the key principles and practices all designers should know. Geometry is where art and design meet maths, and this instructive book explains how that works in words that non-experts can understand. The book focuses not only on the classic systems of proportioning, such as the golden section and root rectangles but also on less well known proportioning systems such as the Fibonacci Series. Through detailed diagrams, these geometric systems are brought to life, giving an effective insight into the design process. This book is a complete visual index of western typefaces from the early days of printing to the modern era.

The last word: advice for graphic designers who want to read more

These books that I will enumerate will help you learn the basics of graphic design as well as its history and relevance to us as designers. Then have a look at how we applied the principles and skills we learned from these books to create our best-selling graphic design assets. Don’t be mistaken, Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits isn’t one of those books that’s actually just a collection of blog posts. It’s an insightful and complex dialogue between her and her interviewee, their thoughts guided by her experienced designer’s sensibility. Debbie Millman also hosts a design-oriented podcast, Design Matters, which might be a good introduction to her style and approach.

'Interaction of Color' by Josef Albers

Such a book is an invaluable resource, serving as a reference guide you'll return to time and again as you refine your skills and develop your unique style. Her book is an incredible read for designers looking to conquer typography, which to many, can be a daunting facet of graphic design. Not only is this 224-page book great for graphic designers, but it is also a good read for anyone else working with text. In this another essential graphic design book, legendary designer Ellen Lupton critiques the creative process. Creative Bloq has covered design since its inception in 2012, so we know a thing or two when it comes to recommending the best design books for all your design and branding needs.

Grid Systems by Josef Müller-Brockmann

Written by legendary Swiss graphic designer Josef Mülller-Brockmann, this visual communication manual is packed with examples on how to work correctly at a conceptual level. Look for a book that showcases a variety of real-world projects, analyzing how type choices impact the overall design. By studying successful examples, you'll learn how to pair typefaces, work with layout and hierarchy, and use type to create emotion and emphasis.

It also talks about how it is expected to have a few mistakes done in the beginning. The author supports amateur designers and encourages them to try new things instead of being afraid of bold moves. The Designer’s Dictionary of Color is a self-proclaimed guidebook on the meaning and history of art and design’s 27 key colors.

More articles on Graphic Design

The best design books: We rundown the essentials - Creative Bloq

The best design books: We rundown the essentials.

Posted: Wed, 19 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Thus, trained in BI, she is a Data Science enthusiast and is on the verge to pursue a career in Data Science. This is a must-read for those who want to learn more about fonts and the printed world. This book will teach you to approach problems through focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-design. She wrote the book Graphic Design Thinking which looks at a number of strategies for generating new ideas and coming up with compelling and practical solutions. This is a playful yet thoughtful look at how to be creative, complete with colorful infographics and pictures. The Graphic Design Idea Book gives practical suggestions for fueling your creativity as well as a new perspective on your circumstance or creative dilemma.

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul

Whether you're seeking to protect your intellectual property or avoid infringing others', copyright is an absolute minefield. Copy This Book details the concepts of authorship and original creation that underlie our legal system, providing you with an essential guide for navigating the new Commons and the old laws of copyright control. At Shillington, our dedicated graphic design students are taught all about how to design for packaging—from FMCG (that’s fast... Taking a fresh look at the Swiss Style of design over the past century, this book features a series of enlightening essays by experts in the field, each beautifully illustrated with stunning visuals. Typography is a complex beast, tasking designers to balance many competing factors.

Start Me Up!: New Branding for Businesses

In this book, Kim Elam explores eight major structural frameworks beyond the grid. If you work in editorial design, dip into this book every once in a while for inspiration on layouts and infographics. Creative director Francesco Franchi draws on his publishing experience to set out a comprehensive vision on editorial design. The book examines how the transformation of news and journalism in the digital age affects the way we should approach design in the media. To create successful work that's designed to be seen, you need to understand how people see things. Written by art critic and painter John Berger and based on a BBC TV series, this bestseller explores the way we view art.

Broaden Your Perspective With Books By Black Designers & Writers - PRINT Magazine

Broaden Your Perspective With Books By Black Designers & Writers.

Posted: Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Choosing the right one to make your career smooth is extremely important as it will act as the foundation of knowledge and fundamental concepts you will use throughout your career. Thus, leveling up with a new skill set like graphic designing requires practice, determination, and perseverance to go through the books and implement the concepts. It would be tough to create a list of the best graphic design books without including one of the most respected and influential books on the topic of color theory and design. Its influence has touched many generations of artists and graphic designers and continues to do so today. Roger Remington’s Logo Modernism is a visually stunning and intellectually engaging exploration of modernist aesthetics in the realm of logo design.

Structured as 80 practical challenges and hands-on activities, it pushes designers to expand their thinking, sharpen their instincts, and gain confidence in tackling problems. This book offers you a glimpse into just how much, as archive, historian and paint expert Patrick Baty traces the evolution of pigments and paint colours together with colour systems and standards. He then goes on to examine their impact on the palettes used in interior design, from 1650 to 1960. And so this book gives a useful and comprehensive introduction to foundational psychology, in a way that directly relates to UX design. Written by David Evans, an experimental psychology PhD and senior manager of consumer research at Microsoft, this will help UX designers gain an edge in a super-competitive field.

Austria-born designer Stefan Sagmeister’s monograph revolves around 21 thought-provoking phrases, transformed into typographic works for various clients around the world and has been since updated. His second text, Made You Look, spans 20 years of his graphic design in depth and complements this book perfectly. In a world in which even rebellion and anti-consumerist strategies are appropriated, this is an illuminating read.

This book is worth a read for designers of any experience level, especially if they want to deepen their understanding of colors and their usage. Luckily, books like Alina Wheeler’s Designing Branding Identity can help you learn practically everything you need on the topic. This book covers more than 100 subjects, tools, checklists, and diagrams on branding. It offers 50 case studies, 700 illustrations, and over 400 quotes from design gurus, branding experts, and CEOs. It showcases more than 35 of his most notable projects, including insights into his eclectic creative process and behind-the-scenes.

We hope you find a good book that sparks fresh inspiration and new ways of thinking—no matter how you define yourself as a designer. You’ll learn the significant types of grid layouts, how to construct them, and how to break the rules skillfully. It’s essentially the authority on using grid principles to communicate visual messages.