Best Graphic Design Books: Details Every Designer Should Read
Graphic design sits at the intersection of art, marketing and communication, and its tools, techniques and principles keep changing with software, hardware and marketing. Designers who stop reading after their studies fall behind.
The best graphic design books cover:
- Brand identity
- Logos
- Elements of design
- Typography
- Current trends in graphic design
- New technology guides
- Design studios
- Seeing art in graphic design
- Design history
- Design theory
- Inspiration catalogs
as well as how to manage a career and a life in a fast-paced industry. You can’t read them all, so here are the best ones.
Best Graphic Design Books
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
by Austin Kleon
Part of ambition is modeling yourself after those you’d like to be like. Austin’s philosophy of ruthlessly stealing and remixing the greats might sound appalling at first but it is actually the essence of art. You learn by stealing, you become creative by stealing, you push yourself to be better by working with these materials. Austin is a fantastic artist, but most importantly he communicates the essence of writing and creating art better than anyone else I can think of. It is a manifesto for any young, creative person looking to make his mark. Pair up with Show Your Work which is also excellent.
Founder/Brass Check
Building a Big Small Business Brand: How to Turn Your Brand into Your Most Valuable Asset
This book belongs in the hands of every small business owner serious about beating their competition and becoming more successful than ever imagined. Building a Big Small Business Brand shows how with real-world examples and plenty of eye-candy to make it worth reading over and over again. It also belongs in the hands of every graphic designer, providing tools to help communicate to their clients the ever increasing importance of branding.
Owner/ChromaGraphics
How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery
Ed runs one of the most straightforward sites dedicated to demystifying and discussing various aspects of the art world. Now, in How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery, he's packed–in understandable terms–information I wish I had known before starting my gallery.
Owner/Zach Feuer Gallery
Introducing Culture Identities: Design for Museums, Theaters and Cultural Institutions
I find Museums and institutions in Singapore are generally very safe in design. This book opens up a whole new world of how western graphic designers are experimenting with new systems of design and the works created are very fascinating. You also get to hear from both the designers and clients view of the design. It inspires me to keep pushing the current standards of Singapore further as the shape of design grows in Singapore. This book is very inspiring for young designers as it will push them to think out of the box. It will let them understand how the designers and clients think about design (like why it is designed in a certain way) and they can learn tips and lessons from them.
Partner & Art Director/The Workbench
Poster Graphics
Posters are mostly used to present information. This book showcases experimental poster design. The works are very free form, very abstract and shows how information can be presented in a very unique manner. This book will show how graphic design can translate information in a very fun and expressive manner - Information can be translated into pictograms and patterns; Texts can be expressive and unique. Loosen up and let your senses take charge.
Partner & Art Director/The Workbench
Geometry of Design
Recommended by Marius Ciuchete Paun (Web designer)
Source: How Web Designer Marius Ciuchete Paun Turned from Struggling-Reader to Audible-Devourer
Brandjam: Humanizing Brands Through Emotional Design
by Marc Gobe
A powerful new concept from renowned designer and business guru Marc Gobe.I’ve always known that I’ll be working for designing or art-related job fields. And branding has been fascinating to me, now I look back and realise how much advertising and branding books I’ve been crazily reading during my teen days. It changed my creative thinking of how impactful branding is to a company, how emotion is tied to designing and business, to manipulating.
Founder/Marchbaby Collective
The Laws of Simplicity
by John Maeda
There are just way too many books that impacted the way I live and see things. One of them is The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda.
Founder & Design Director/The Workbench
Envisioning Information
The master when it comes to taking complicated data and turning it into beautiful charts and graphs that are easy to understand. If you’re into graphic design, print design, web design, you name it, you’re going to get some really good information and how tos out of these books. He has a whole series of these books.
Co-founder/Digg
Chip Kidd: Book One: Work: 1986-2006
by Chip Kidd
Recommended by Karen Pfaff Manganillo (Co-Founder/By Karen and Jess)
Source: Jessica Lauria and Karen Pfaff Manganillo, About the Reads that Inspired Them on Their Journey
Arbitrary Stupid Goal
Certainly my favorite book cover of the year, the graphic designer’s memoir drops you right into a kid’s eye view of 1970s Greenwich Village. With it’s chunked sections and hand-drawn illustrations, it gave me the same kind of quick, skippy joy I get when reading Vonnegut.
Writer, artist
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
These three books are about how people actually use design in their lives. They helped me understand this very basic idea: There are no dumb users, only bad designers. Take the time to create based on how your design will be interacted with. Test it. Iterate. That's how you become a good designer.
Writer, Photographer, Designer
Real Artists Don’t Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age
by Jeff Goins
I just dropped reading a book that was not delivering on its promise and pulled Jeff Goins’ Real Artists Don’t Starve out of my “read-next” stack. It was gifted to me by my altMBAAlumni friend Brigitte Anderson Cutshall who would make a great guest in this series!
Author, Stoic Guitarist
Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design
Recommended by Christopher Lochhead (Host/Legends and Losers Podcast)
Most recommended by leaders
The books from this collection that the most leaders on The CEO Library recommend (two or more), ranked by the number of distinct recommenders.
1. Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon 9 recommenders
Part of ambition is modeling yourself after those you’d like to be like. Austin’s philosophy of ruthlessly stealing and remixing the greats might sound appalling at first but it is actually the essence of art. You learn by stealing, you become creative by stealing, you push yourself to be better by working with these materials. Austin is a fantastic artist, but most importantly he communicates the essence of writing and creating art better than anyone else I can think of. It is a manifesto for any young, creative person looking to make his mark. Pair up with Show Your Work which is also excellent.
2. Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin 6 recommenders
While I was thinking of the best books to add to this short list, I realized that not even half of them are directly related to digital marketing. This is because I believe that the best marketers are people who understand human nature deeply and aim to bring out the best in it. Call me naive, but that’s how I see it. If I were to want to pursue a career in marketing, I’d read anything by Seth Godin (Linchpin in particular).
3. Building a Big Small Business Brand: How to Turn Your Brand into Your Most Valuable Asset by Dan Antonelli 4 recommenders
This book belongs in the hands of every small business owner serious about beating their competition and becoming more successful than ever imagined. Building a Big Small Business Brand shows how with real-world examples and plenty of eye-candy to make it worth reading over and over again. It also belongs in the hands of every graphic designer, providing tools to help communicate to their clients the ever increasing importance of branding.
4. How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery by Edward Winkleman 2 recommenders
Ed runs one of the most straightforward sites dedicated to demystifying and discussing various aspects of the art world. Now, in How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery, he's packed–in understandable terms–information I wish I had known before starting my gallery.