Start off your collection with these essential design books.
Christmas can be a great time to top up your book collection. If you're a student looking for inspiration or information, these graphic design books are a great place to start. These titles cover the fundamentals of graphic design and will help prepare you for your future career. Whether you rent them from the library or pick up a copy for yourself, these are the essential texts that be on your bookshelf.
The following books will add real-world context to your studies, give you that extra spark of inspiration, and help you hit the ground running as a more rounded designer when you enter the industry.
01. Paul Rand: A Designer's Art
Branding legend Paul Rand explores the why of graphic design in this collection of essays
Held by many to be the father of modern branding, American art director and graphic designer Paul Rand is best known for his logo designs for big-name clients such as IBM, UPS and NeXT. His book Design, Form and Chaos is out of print – although it's worth seeking out for insight into some of his most famous identity work – but for the full Rand, you want his 1985 book, Paul Rand: A Designer's Art.
Over the course of 27 essays he explores the process of graphic design in general: why it's important; the impact it can have on society; what works, what doesn't, and most importantly, why.
02. Layout Essentials
You need to know the rules of using grids before you can break them
It may not be the most exciting part of the job, but it's essential for graphic designers to understand grid theory. Grids are the basis for all design projects – and only once you know the rules can you start to explore how to break them. This book from Beth Tondreau covers 100 principles for using grids, and it has just been updated and revised with fresh content for 2019.
Pentagram co-founder Alan Fletcher wrote a number of books over the course of his career, but this is the best known: an ultimate primer in visual intelligence, questioning the way designers think about everything from colour to composition.
Consisting of 72 chapters filled with anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, it's an irresistible collection of wisdom and insight designed to delight and inspire anyone who appreciates the interplay between word and image.
04. How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
Adrian Shaughnessy is a no-nonsense bible for design students
Design consultant and writer Adrian Shaughnessy’s seminal text is a no-nonsense career manual to help lead you through the perks and pitfalls of the modern design industry.
As the title implies, at the core is the premise that once you graduate and take your first steps into professional life, there’s a risk of settling into mindless and unfulfilling bread-and-butter projects if you’re not careful.
Shaughnessy’s book is a manual for independent-minded designers who prefer to work on something more meaningful and rewarding, and as such is packed with the kind of advice you won’t get taught at college.
This revised 2010 edition includes chapters covering professional skills, the creative process, and global trends: including green issues, ethics and the rise of digital culture.
05. A Smile in the Mind
Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart and Greg Quinton update the seminal design guide of the 90s
A Smile in the Mind was fast-established as one of the most influential design books when it was published in 1996, and was given an overhaul 20 years later under the watchful eye of The Partners’ ECD Greg Quinton.
While How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul will shore up your business savvy and get you ready for the machinations of the industry, A Smile in the Mind is visual stimulation for the mind: a springboard for ideas-driven design.
Ultimately, the book establishes wit as the magic ingredient to develop a truly engaging brand, as illustrated by an extensive selection of inspirational projects from around the world over the last four decades. All told, a great reference for developing and strengthening your ideas.
06. Branding: In Five and a Half Steps
Track the process of a design mogul as he graciously reveals his process
Johnson Banks’ open source rebrand of Mozilla put the award-winning agency’s thorough creative process firmly in the public eye, inviting comment and critique from the public at large.
In a similar spirit of transparency, creative director Michael Johnson lays bare the wisdom of over two decades at the forefront of the branding industry with his 2016 book Branding In Five-and-a-Half Steps – an invaluable manual about the creative process.
For Johnson, there was a perfect sweet-spot between the many dense tomes on brand strategy, and the equally prolific inspirational showcases. This book demystifies the links and overlaps between the two, and is both practical and inspirational.
In it, he breaks down the five steps in Johnson Banks’ branding process – including a fluid ‘half-step’ between strategy and design – and explains how it all works, from the perspective of a world-class studio.
If the full 10-word title of Shaughnessy’s book isn’t quite wordy enough for your newly established design bookshelf, up steps Michael Bierut to triple it, with: How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world.
Published in 2015, the veteran designer and Pentagram New York partner puts a fresh twist on the conventional monograph by treating it as a combination of manual and manifesto.
Using 35 projects by way of demonstration, Bierut illustrates the varied role that graphic design plays in the modern world, from his own invariably entertaining perspective.
By including rough sketches and rejected ideas alongside the finished work, he also makes the towering success of his career much more accessible to anyone at the start of theirs – and the book is packed with insights into the creative process.
Our final recommended book is a fascinating 2017 anthology of thought-provoking essays by art director, author and lecturer Steven Heller. These will help hone your critical edge and question the changing role of design in the wider world.
Covering the full spectrum of graphic design and related art and culture, Heller’s 40-plus essays cover everything from the relationship between design and sex to the role of design in the recent US Presidential race.
Read these highly-recommended books, and you’ll be well on the way to becoming a well-rounded, 21st-century designer when you graduate.
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Nick has worked with world-class agencies including Wolff Olins, Taxi Studio and Vault49 on brand storytelling, tone of voice and verbal strategy for global brands such as Virgin, TikTok, and Bite Back 2030. Nick launched the Brand Impact Awards in 2013 while editor of Computer Arts, and remains chair of judges. He's written for Creative Bloq on design and branding matters since the site's launch.
