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Books for Designers


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Get the foundation books before you move on to those trendy Rockport books. :P

GRAPHIC DESIGN MANUAL by Armin Hofmann

THE NEW TYPOGRAPHY by Jan Tschichold

GRID SYSTEMS by Josef Muller-Brockmann

THE GRAPHIC ARTIST & HIS DESIGN PROBLEMS by Josef Muller-Brockmann

TYPOGRAPHY by Emil Ruder

MY WAY TO TYPOGRAPHY by Wolfgang Weingart

UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN by Kidwell, Holden & Butler

PAUL RAND: CONVERSATIONS WITH STUDENTS by Michael Kroeger

MEGGS' HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN 4th ed.

UNDERSTANDING DESIGN by Kees Dorst

That's a good start to an excellent design library

I still don't have a website, but I have a dribbble now! http://dribbble.com/andyharry

[The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the position, strategy or opinions of adidas and/or its brands.]

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Logo Font & Lettering Bible: by Leslie Cabarga

Just bought that book last week.

No offense, but I would [emphatically] not recommend that book. When I picked it up, I couldn't stop asking myself, "If the book itself is not well designed in the least, with little to no attention given to organization, functionality, flow and proper use of typography, how is it going to teach me anything about good design?" I think it has a few good tips for beginners, and it does have a good bit of useful info in general, but its faults outweigh its strengths in my opinion; the info there is nothing that you couldn't get elsewhere, in a snappier package with more equity. In fact, I remember reading a review that I found terribly accurate. EDIT: Here it is. In conclusion, I suppose it's good to have, but I would definitely not lean against it for much.

The best website for previewing design books is definitely YouWorkForThem. Believe me when I say there's a better book [or books] than the Logo, Font & Lettering Bible. You just need to find them. Start with the history book. Buy books written by and about the names you find in the history book. You can't go wrong that way. There's a reason why these people have been immortalized in the annals of graphic design, and likewise, there is a reason Leslie Cabarga will probably not be. His body of work looks, at times, like the heaps of scrap paper Michael Doret throws in the recycling bin every week.

I still don't have a website, but I have a dribbble now! http://dribbble.com/andyharry

[The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the position, strategy or opinions of adidas and/or its brands.]

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What you thinks of design basic index by Jim Krause? I was browsing through that book at local Barnes & Nobles the other day.

Same deal. I have Design Basics Index, but I haven't looked at it since I began formal education. It's not well-designed, uses lackluster examples and is very elementary/beginner-oriented. His whole series is like a set of books on common sense if you ask me.

I still don't have a website, but I have a dribbble now! http://dribbble.com/andyharry

[The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the position, strategy or opinions of adidas and/or its brands.]

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  • 2 months later...

Since I didn't want to start a new thread, I'll just bump this.

I'm looking into getting some logo books, as that's what really interests me as of now. I don't want just a book like logolounge where it just has a crap load of logos listed (but I wouldn't mind it), I'd rather something that explains logos and how to make them good, like the real analysis of logos. Breaking them down, even redesign things, where it says what was bad and what's good, etc.

I've found some that look good (rockport), does anyone have any input?

Logos - Making a Strong Mark http://www.rockpub.com/description.asp?isbn=1-59253-078-8

Logo Design Workbook http://www.rockpub.com/description.asp?isbn=1-59253-234-9

LogoMania http://www.rockpub.com/description.asp?isbn=1592532527

Really Good Logos Explained http://www.rockpub.com/description.asp?isbn=1592534279

Logo Design That Works http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Design-That-Wor...l/dp/156496759X

Also, something about becoming a graphic designer may be good. Something that takes you through the process of looking for colleges, etc. Anything like that?

Thank you!

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erikas | go birds | dribbble 

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I think I'm leaning towards Logos - Making a Strong Mark and Logo Design That Works. They both offer something that shows the progress of a logo from it's conceptual stages to the final product, something that really interests me.

EDIT: Thanks to GBM, I had no idea you could look at free previews of the books. I actually looked at that book he was looking at as well, Design Matters: Logos 01 and it looks really good. On the other hand, Logos - Making a Strong Mark I didn't think was all that great from the 20 or so pages I saw of it. Logo Design That Works looked pretty good as well, and I really thought Logo Design Workbook looked great for a beginner of making logos.

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erikas | go birds | dribbble 

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I think I'm leaning towards Logos - Making a Strong Mark and Logo Design That Works. They both offer something that shows the progress of a logo from it's conceptual stages to the final product, something that really interests me.

EDIT: Thanks to GBM, I had no idea you could look at free previews of the books. I actually looked at that book he was looking at as well, Design Matters: Logos 01 and it looks really good. On the other hand, Logos - Making a Strong Mark I didn't think was all that great from the 20 or so pages I saw of it. Logo Design That Works looked pretty good as well, and I really thought Logo Design Workbook looked great for a beginner of making logos.

If you are getting into design, it's not all logos. In my experience, logos are a tiny portion of what I do. You'll need to have a strong background in type and layout more than anything else.

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Oh I know that. But at this point in my "career" I'm not doing anything professionally and just want to focus on the logo aspect of things now. When I'm a senior I'll probably get books on layout and such, but at this point, no. Thanks for the input though.

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erikas | go birds | dribbble 

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