These days, it’s significant to not stop learning for a minute if you want to be a professional designer. There are many online courses and offline schools that provide courses in the study of design: graphic, web, etc. However, many people still prefer studying by printed books. To make it easier for you to master new skills and gain knowledge, we’ve collected for you several design books with high ratings on book platforms and positive reader reviews.
To become a good digital or graphical designer, you need to know the basic design rules. The books below are a great start for beginners, but they will also help experienced designers refresh their knowledge a little and find interesting tools for work.
Mike Monteiro, “Design Is Work”
This is a book about design from a business perspective. You can be a professional in this field and have brilliant ideas but have no money due to your inability to run a business. The author tells how to negotiate correctly, make cooperation productive and comfortable, accept criticism, establish a workflow, and much more. There are a huge number of examples from his own experience that help readers not to step on the same rake.
The book is recommended for reading and representatives of other professions who work with clients directly. This will be especially useful if you are planning to switch to remote work and you need to communicate a lot with clients.
Leadwell, K. Holden, And D. Butler, “Universal Principles Of Design”
In this book, the authors have collected the general principles of design. Each spread of the guide contains short but capacious information on the topic and an illustration as an example. All articles are accompanied by links to the main source of information, so if you want to study the topic deeper, the reader does not have to look for a good source on his own.
The book is useful for both beginners and experienced designers, regardless of whether they create conventional illustrations by hand or are engaged in the book mockups development.
Robin Williams, “The Non-Designer’s Design Book”
Anyone taking their first steps in this area will benefit from this foundational guide. The author talks about the main principles of design and shows how different technology can transform a boring design and make something cool with examples. Robin Williams not only shows how to make the design better but also provides detailed comments on each example.
Design books like this allow you to immerse yourself in the topic and get inspired in a short time, and then gain deeper knowledge. Experienced craftsmen, with their help, can take a fresh look at their previous works. The book has sold over a million copies around the world, and it is easy to read and inspiring.
Philip Meggs, “History Of Graphic Design”
Many foreign teachers use this particular graphic design book to teach students. It contains quality illustrations with detailed commentary, significant and unique historical references. There is a lot of information, the book isn’t very easy to read, but the practical benefits are worth it – you don’t have to reinvent the wheel; you can find it in the history of world design.
Richard Poulin, “School Of Design: Layout”
The book contains the fundamentals, principles, and illustrative examples of drawing up compositional layout schemes. The author analyzes each principle in detail and explains why they are so important and how to use them as efficiently as possible.
The added value of this design book is that here you will find the work of the most successful and famous designers from different countries, with detailed explanations of the principles with which they used to solve the problem.
By the way, it’s worth noting that a properly constructed grid relieves the graphic designer from the need to make random and arbitrary compositional decisions. It’s due to a built series of spatial relationships and parameters that ensures a well-coordinated interaction of all composition elements.
So, there are more books out there that would benefit you or even force you to reconsider your views on design in general. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner designer or an advanced one – these books will help you to look at the world of design with a fresh perspective, take into account important points, and put them into practice.
