25 Graphic Design Books That Will Change Your Approach To Design

Welcome to our important Graphic Design Books list if you’re a graphic designer looking for fresh ideas and techniques to improve your design skills. You’ve also come to the perfect location if you specialize in a different aspect of design.

New specialty positions and definitions are constantly being established as the design profession evolves. While understanding the differences between UX and UI design is crucial, it’s also vital to realize that the finest designers rarely specialize in one area.

1.Thinking with Type
— by Ellen Lupton

I still have a copy of this book, which was one of the first graphic design books I ever read. The book’s design adds to its value by providing beautifully illustrated examples of how to put the topics presented in the book into practice.

“According to the publisher, “Ellen Lupton delivers clear and focused guidance on how letters, phrases, and paragraphs must be aligned, spaced, ordered, and shaped.” From typefaces and type families to kerning and tracking to using a grid, the book covers all you need to know about typography.”

2.Now You See It and Other Essays on Design

Michael Bierut is a partner at Pentagram Design, and his work may be found in the permanent collections of museums all around the world, including MoMA and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

According to the publisher, “Bierut engages with an engaging and diverse array of problems in more than fifty excellent and digestible short writings over the past decade.”The topics covered in the essays include design history, practice, and method; urban architecture and design; design fake stories; pop culture; Hydrogen gas ( h2 cookies, Peggy Noonan, baseball, The Sopranos; and an inside look at his experience designing Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign’s “forward” logo.”

3. Designing Brand Identity

Alina Wheeler’s best-selling guide to branding contains a wealth of knowledge for both branding and design students. It now includes extended coverage of social media cross-channel synergy, crowdsourcing, SEO, experience branding, mobile devices, wayfinding, and placemaking, and has been revised for the fifth time. Designing Brand Identity is divided into three sections: brand fundamentals, process basics, and case studies. It offers in-depth assistance for both designers and full branding teams, taking them through a universal five-stage method for brand development and execution.
Paula Scher, a partner at Pentagram, states: “Alina Wheeler explains what identity design is and how it works better than anyone else,” she says. “There’s a reason this classic is in its fifth edition.” With a foreword by Debbie Millman, host of the Design Matters podcast, you know you’re in excellent hands.

4.Branding: In Five and a Half Steps

This is a must-read for everyone interested in branding. In his book, Branding: In Five and a Half Steps, renowned graphic designer Michael Johnson deconstructs the branding process. Johnson acknowledges the non-linear nature of branding with a vital half step, which marks the fluid interplay between strategy and design.

The first half of the book is organized around a straightforward six-question paradigm; the second half examines the design process using over 1,000 contemporary brand identities from around the world. It’s the ultimate visual guide to building a great brand identity, with step-by-step instructions. It’s a must-read for everyone working in the branding field, and it’s especially useful for students and novice designers.

5. Logo Modernism

Taschen publishes some of the most beautiful publications, and Logo Modernism is no exception. Jens Müller explores the distillation of modernism in graphic design and how these attitudes and imperatives gave rise to corporate identity by bringing together around 6,000 trademarks registered between 1940 and 1980.

Müller contains a wide range of logos organized into three categories – geometric, effect, and typographic – to both educate and provide a comprehensive index of inspirational logo designs to inform your own work.

6.50 Best Logos Ever

It’s usually a good idea to look back for ideas for your work. A team of prominent branding and identity design specialists has compiled the ultimate list of the 50 best logos ever in this fascinating book. The book delves into the creative processes behind some of the world’s most recognizable identity design work. Check to see whether your favorite logo made the list.

7.The Elements of Typographic Style (v4)

This history and guide to type by Canadian typographer, poet, and translator Robert Bringhurst, first published in 1992, is an important typographic resource. We can see why leading typographers Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones deem it “the finest book ever published about type.”

The Elements of Documents is a wonderfully written manual that includes practical, theoretical, and historical knowledge as well as a deeper philosophy and knowledge of the issue. You’ll save a lot of money if you start with this book if you’re seeking a book that covers the finer points of type and typography. The Latin alphabet and its character’s appendix is a fantastic piece of eye candy that any designer will appreciate.

8.How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul

If you’re just getting started in graphic design, How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul might help you navigate the more academic and philosophical parts of the field.

“This new, expanded edition adds new chapters on key expertise, the design side, and global themes such as social responsibility, ethics, and the advent of digital technology to this essential classic. according to the publisher. How to Be a Graphic Designer provides straightforward, succinct advice as well as focused, no-nonsense tactics for establishing, running, and promoting a studio, as well as getting work and interacting with clients.”

9. Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming

This is Ellen Lupton’s second novel to make the list. Lupton is the design curator of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, and in Graphic Design Thinking, she draws on both her own knowledge and experience as well as interactions with industry leaders.

“Graphic Design Thinking explores a number of ways to encourage fresh thinking in order to arrive at compelling and practical solutions,” according to the publisher. A brief narrative text explains each technique, which is followed by a range of graphic demonstrations and case studies.”

10. Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type by Kimberly Elam

One of the primary concepts of design is to create an effective composition that works. Kimberly Elam, a well-known graphic designer, teacher, and bestselling author, wrote this book. It gives you the knowledge you need to understand what grid-based design is and how to utilize it wisely and effectively to achieve the desired impact.

11. William Lidwell, Kristina Holden, and Jill Butler’s Universal Principles of Design

Whatever you’re working on as a designer, whether it’s a brochure, a painting, a video game, or a new technology, you’ll be faced with comparable challenges. Of course, you can’t be an expert in every discipline, but no one can deny that creating excellent design requires a specific combination of academic and practical knowledge and skills.

William Lidwell has compiled a wealth of practical information for any graphic designer. This book has been a best-seller in a number of countries, and now it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth your time. This book is simple to read and offers numerous particular examples and graphics to aid learners.

12. Third Edition in Color

Artists and designers can participate in a workshop.
Hornung, David
Colour: A workshop for artists and designers is an excellent resource for art students and professionals alike, taking a practical approach to color. It effectively bridges the gap between color theory and practices with its succession of particularly designed exercises and in-depth conversations, inspiring confidence and knowledge in anyone working with color. This third edition includes more current examples drawn from textiles, graphic design, illustration, and animation, in addition to painting.
A new design, new assignments, and an extended explanation of digital approaches have all been added to the mix.

13. Form and Space are two design elements.

Dennis Puhalla is a character in the film Dennis Puhalla
Students will gain an aesthetic awareness of form in the context of organizing space in Design Elements: Form and Space. The book takes a very scholarly approach to give readers objective criteria for evaluating a composition’s strengths and flaws. The ideas of spatial forces, visual aesthetics, color structure, spatial structure, and ordering strategy are all taught to students. The work offers spatial organization as a visual language whose structure is formed by the graphic elements of point, line, plane, and volume, as well as their visual qualities.

Its structure is made up of graphic elements such as point, line, plane, and volume, as well as their visual qualities.
The book explores the logic of placement, grouping, alignment, visual flow, and spatial divisions, as well as color harmonies, via this perspective. Students are given visual demonstrations of these principles that progress from basic concept layouts to appealing, complicated compositions. The text has been updated with fresh graphics and drawings, as well as additional content, to ensure that it is current and relevant.
Design Elements is an amazing resource for students of graphic design and an enduring reference book for experts in the field, serving as a real example of the concepts and principles it teaches. Dennis M. Puhalla, Ph.D. is a design professor at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, where he teaches visual language design, color theory, and visual aesthetics to undergraduate and graduate students. For eleven years, Professor Puhalla was the director of the School of Design, where he pioneered new and forward-thinking programs. He graduated from North Carolina State University’s College of Design with a PhD in information design.
He graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning with an M.F.A. and a B.S. in design. Puhalla’s professional work has been shown in galleries across the country and is held in public and private collections.

14.The Non-Designer’s Design Book

Robin Williams is the author of this book.

The fundamental ideas of design are introduced in this book. It deconstructs design principles and uses examples to demonstrate them step-by-step. Grids and logos, on the other hand, are not covered. Beginner and intermediate designers will benefit from this book.

It covers themes such as design concepts, color design, type design, and type design with a combination of typefaces. It also offers font usage suggestions, a professional design approach, brand design tips, and other projects.

15. What is Graphic Design?

The design doesn’t happen in a vacuum. This book begins with an examination of all aspects of design, including economics, ethics, technology, and other artistic domains, as well as theories and advances in these fields.

It looks at how design has changed through time, from its origins in medieval Germany until today, when it encompasses company logos, publications, TV subtitles, and websites.
What should you learn about graphic design?
The term “graphic design” usually refers to both the manufacturing process (design) and the finished output. Logos (trademarks and brands), publications (magazines, newspapers, and books), print advertisements, posters, billboards, website visual elements, signs, and product packaging are all examples of graphic design.

For example, trademarks or other works of art, layout text, and pure design components such as uniform images, shapes, sizes, and colors may all be seen on product packaging.

16. David Airey’s Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities

It’s never a bad idea to brush up on your brand-building skills. This well-known book provides several examples, sketches, logos, working with customers’ recommendations, and other practical material to help you grasp how to do it well and make brand building simple.

Using the knowledge of the world’s most famous graphic creators, David Airey will take you through the creation of a memorable brand logo, from the first basic ideas to their ultimate implementation. This book covers all you need to know about generating ideas, bringing them to life, and communicating with clients from A to Z.

17. Paul Rand’s Design, Form, and Chaos

This book draws on the experience of Paul Rand, one of the most successful logo designers of the twentieth century, who created logos for IBM, ABC, and NeXT. He talks about challenges that all graphic designers will confront at some point in their careers. The book will assist new designers in gaining a proper understanding of the field. Learning firsthand from such an established professional will not only provide you with useful advice but will also motivate you to advance your career.

18. Johannes Itten’s The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color

This book covers a wide range of color theory topics. It investigates how consumers are unwittingly and unwillingly influenced by designers’ color choices, as well as how this might be exploited. The Art of Color aids in the discovery and development of a sense of color by giving visual assistance for studying color theory through a variety of examples and illustrations.

Many designers, painters, and other artists who rely on color to communicate with their audience and convey certain thoughts or emotions use it. This book has been reissued multiple times and is used in the educational programs of many art schools across the world, demonstrating its high utility.

19.100 Best Typefaces Ever

The title says it all, and the book’s selection of the best typefaces has a solid reason. The renowned font foundry FontShop AG performed a poll based on historical importance, FontShop.com sales, and aesthetic excellence. The best fonts ever were chosen for this book, with a few additions from the specialists at Computer Arts magazine. It not only defines the list but also provides some background about each typeface.

20. Typography Book: Just My Type

Fonts are an important aspect of graphic design. Garfield’s typography lesson encourages you to examine your favorite typefaces thoroughly and see their importance in any piece of design. A good typeface has the capacity to make (or wreck) any work by hiding in plain sight and speaking to an audience almost intuitively. A terrible typeface, on the other hand, can have a detrimental impact on your design job. Using this design book, choose the correct typeface for your projects.

21. Graphic Design Fundamentals: How To

Beirut, a protégé of design icon Massimo Vignelli and the recipient of one of the most illustrious graphic design careers in history, provides us with this design manual. It is a must-read for each designer on the planet. He shares his perspective of what graphic design is and how to use it to sell things, explain things, make things seem better, make people laugh, cry, and – every now and then – change the world, as the cover so eloquently declares. This graphic design book is a monograph from one of the greats himself, featuring his work/creative process, interaction with clients, and the problems experienced by designers!

22. Interaction Of Color by Josef Albers is a graphic design book about colours.

Albers digs into the principles of sophisticated color theories for the color strategist in you. This book is a handy reference guide for topics including temperature, color intensity, color relativity, vibrating and vanishing boundaries, the illusion of transparencies, and reversed grounds, with over 50 case examples. This book has acted as a guide for painters and artists who have included color strategy into their work, not simply graphic designers.

23. Work Hard & Be Nice to People

Anthony Burrill’s Work Hard & Be Nice to Other people is brief and snappy in its advice and approach, informed by his world-famous typographical prints. Due to its utter lack of pretension and full heart, his concise, aphoristic advice can make a huge impact by cutting all the fat from the message.

The book is a reworked paperback edition of Anthony’s earlier book, Make it Now, with all-new content. It’s a moving, personal story of what a renowned designer looks for in creatives, and how to get the most out of yourself without selling your soul or behaving badly towards others.

24. Work for Money, Design for Love-by David Airey

If you’re just starting out in graphic design, especially as a freelancer, this book is a great place to start. In Work for Money, Design for Love, David Airey, author of Logo Design Love, deconstructs the business aspect of design.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: “Unlike other dry business books, Logo Design Love author and worldwide designer David Airey tackles the issues that many designers face when they first start out on their own…

David ultimately answers their burning questions with tales in this book. case studies and excellent recommendations gleaned from Ivan Chermayeff’s, Jerry Kuyper’s, Maggie Macnab’s, Eric Karjaluoto’s, and Von Glitschka’s experiences.”

25.Format for Graphic Designers

This book provides a straightforward introduction to the creative use format in art and design, from traditional print to digital formats for mobile phones and tablets. Format for Graphic Designers leads the student through the significance of format in both the purpose and the story of a design, using 200 inspirational examples from modern international designers. The writers examine novel solutions by looking at the physical features of formats – traditional and experimental, print and digital – as well as how and why experienced designers choose particular formats for work through case studies.
Everything from books and periodicals to point-of-purchase displays, packaging and direct marketing is covered.