Design books

[gingerbreadmann]

So I hit Borders the other day, armed with a few too many gift cards, and when I grew tired of searching through baseball/sports research/history/stats/opinion/anything titles, I headed over to the Art section, specifically Graphic Design.

I know many of you are professionals so you probably don't need these types of books, but I was wondering if any of you had any book recommendations on at least the basic principles of design. I am obviously not a pro by any means but I would like to read up a bit about at least the basic ideas used, etc. Also, would you recommend one specifically about logos or just design in general(which is quite broad)? Or say one about only the grid principle? To me that doesn't sound like a very good "beginner" book, even though the grid, as far as I know, is prevalent in almost all aspects of design. I saw one book that caught my eye and since I know I can get any book in the store 20% cheaper on Amazon I decided to wait. It got some very nice reviews:

Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual

I will post some more when I find the note card with books I wrote down for further reference (D'oh!). Anyone feel free to weigh in with any opinions on this book or any other book that helped you/may help me in some way or aspect. (Remember though: I ain't made of cash to spend on this! )

Also, I had another question: What is the purpose of books like LogoLounge? Is it a collection of selected designers or just random logos, or is it an instructional book? I remember that the logos were presented interestingly but there wasn't much in the way of text, lol.

Thanks, GBM

[andrewharrington]

I know many of you are professionals so you probably don't need these types of books

Every respectable professional has, needs and uses these types of books on a regular basis. I look at them almost every day. Some of the best books are the older ones, written by great forefathers of modern design like Armin Hoffman, Paul Rand, Emil Ruder, et al if you're looking for theory and some really deep, intellectual writings and exercises in design. A lot of the 'how-to' books on design principles and page layout and whatnot are a little cheesy and restricting, but a good rule of thumb is that if the book is well-designed, then there is probably at least something to gain and/or learn from it. Actually, one of the best types of books out there is one that teaches you all about the technical aspect of graphic design and printing. It's not taught thoroughly enough in schools and it will give you a whole new outlook and philosophy on how you design, build and prepare your work. Things like CMYK v. RGB, spot v. process color, letterpress printing, trapping, etc. All to often I get sloppily drawn and sloppily prepared work that I have to fix in order to send it off to the printer, and it's very frustrating that most designers still don't know how to correctly and neatly prepare a file for print. There's one book called The Designer's Desktop Manual or something that's really good (has graph paper on the cover). I also love magazines like Print, I.D. and Metropolis, which expose you to new areas, styles and disciplines of design and I love design history books that really give you some perspective on design eras and geographically-specific styles, like Swiss design or South American design, for example. Another thing that is really valuable is a design annual, whether it's a magazine or a book, because whenever I need to see what styles, colors or fonts are 'in' for a client wishing to capitalize on that, I can go see all the year's best work in one or two places. Don't fall into the trap of a lame 'how-to' book like the Logo, Font and Lettering Bible, but rather stick with tried and true books that are recommended by designers, professors or other credible sources (red: not just amazon.com shoppers). One of the best series of books I've ever come across is the 1000 Series, which includes books like 1000 Type Treatments and 1000 Greetings. Great books. Also check out Fingerprint and other books focusing on handmade graphic design, which are really great, really unique and really informative.

LogoLounge is like an annual, where the year's best logos (according to the judges) are compiled and sorted out into various types and categories. Especially useful if a client comes to you and says, "I want a monogram logo." or "I want a text-only logo." You can flip to that section of LogoLounge for some springboarding ideas if you so choose.