Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is an overview and step-by-step guide on organizing typography within a gridded composition. This book contains over 100 visuals ranging between diagrams and design samples that epitomize the vast amount of layouts working with a simple grid can produce. Elam delves into all of the possible combinations one can create with a simple 3x3 grid in order to help design novices understand the importance and variability of the grid.
Read MoreWeaving by Katie Treggiden is a collection of essays and profiles of contemporary weavers. There are 21 featured designers of various genders, ages, races, and nationalities, making this book one of the best representative collections of contemporary weavers. With each profile focusing on the modus operandi of each creator, the reader is able to build an understanding along as some context as to why the weavers create what they do. There are significantly less essays than profiles, but the essays help build a contextual foundation that helps the reader comprehend today’s world of weaving.
Read MoreWritten by apparel entrepreneur, Jeff Finley, with contributions from other designers in the business, Thread’s Not Dead, focuses on the in’s and out’s of owning and running a successful apparel design business. With a multitude of topics ranging from freelancing, to contracting, to design fundamentals, and marketing, this book is written for the novice who is eager to jump into the industry.
Read MoreDon’t Get a Job…Make a Job is a collection of designers’ experiences of working for themselves immediately, or almost immediately after graduating or dropping out of college. Curated by Gem Barton, this book is structured to provide a multitude of different types of advice to aspiring design entrepreneurs.
Read MoreSyllabus is a collection of hand-drawn and written syllabi, sketch collections, and musings from the classes Lynda Barry taught at the Art Institute at University of Wisconsin. These classes revolved around the concept of how memory plays a part in unlocking certain beneficial aspects to storytelling and drawing. Her classes provided insight into how anyone, regardless of drawing ability and experience, can benefit from consistent memory and journal exercises.
Read MoreFiona Humberstones’s manifesto, Brand Brilliance takes readers on the journey of discovering their company’s brand, and making it stronger and more recognizable. This book focuses on three major topics: strategy and aesthetics, building a website, and marketing. This is where Humberstone guides readers on bridging the gap between their audiences’ needs and their brands' messages.
Read MoreGraphic Design for Art, Fashion, Film, Architecture, Photography, Product Design, and Everything In Between features a collection of contemporary graphic design work from the Western World that epitomizes the use of collaboration with other fields of design. It focuses on a designer/project/client basis with questions and answers intertwined within. All of the work is centralized around the concept that graphic design is more impactful when it is used in collaboration with other fields of design.
Read MoreDesigning Your Identity is a compendium from Promopress, featuring examples of stationery identities from designers around the world. This book is full or work with stunning color palettes, typographic pairings, and logos that will inspire any designer, novice or pro.
Read MoreStart Me Up is a compendium of contemporary corporate business identities from across the globe. Each page is filled with breathtaking imagery and innovative work that is so hard not to fall in love with. There is so much positive visual stimulation that oozes from this book.
Read MoreMaking It focuses on educating crafters who are interested about turning their hobbies into ventures. This handy guide covers a wide range of topics from branding, money management, selling platforms, making a following, and bringing about brand awareness. Although it covers a wide range of topics, at 160 pages, it is not too long or overwhelming, making it an ideal book for someone who is interested in testing out the business waters, or someone who is just starting their business and don’t have the time to invest in an abundant resource.
Read MoreThere is no contest that book hauls are a fun favorite for a lot of people. It allows us to vicariously shop for books that we secretly want but either aren’t sure if they are worth it, or we don’t have the money to splurge at the moment. Either way, it is always fun to see what people collect. These are some of my latest book purchases that I will be reading, reviewing, and posting about in the upcoming weeks.
Read MoreWritten by London-based designer, Adrian Shaughnessy focuses on the how-to’s of becoming a successful graphic designer from thinking skills, education, getting a job, establishing a career, owning a studio, and where design is headed towards the future. he also features several interviews with several prolific graphic designers at the end of the book. Shaughnessy’s writing is concise, insightful, and logically charming, making this book easy to read, hard to put down, and informational no matter what stage of your career you’re in.
Read MoreToday I finally bit the bullet and purchased the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook Pricing & Ethical Guidelines. I have been accumulating some more freelance graphic design opportunities and decided that there is absolutely no reason that this book should not have a spot in my library.
Read MoreWhat We See When We Read is a fully illustrated exploration of what humans see while we are reading. It focuses on how we visualize the narrative, characters, and our senses while reading fiction. Written by Peter Mendelsund, Associate Art Director of Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, this book delves into the theory of the phenomenology of what our minds do while exploring the words of our favorite books.
Read MoreJon Contino’s debut book, Brand by Hand, is his first monograph featuring his work as a graphic designer in New York. The book begins off telling the quick story of his childhood and early life into the arts and graphic design, but then transforms into various lessons he has learned throughout his career.
Read MoreHow to Have Great Ideas focuses on curating a collection of idea generative activities that can spark inspirational ideas in any creative individual. Written for designers of any background, Ingledew mixes theory and practice to help, literally, anyone come up with ideas.
Read MoreAll great design focuses on communicating a message, whether it’s figurative or literal. Design can communicate the importance of politics as seen during the 2016 presidential election, the destruction of the environment as seen in Al Gores, An Inconvenient Truth, and social issues as the Black Panther Movement. Storytelling does the same exact thing;
Read MoreWhatcha Mean What’s a Zine is the all-to guide about the zine, how to make it, and how to distribute it. With its quirky illustrations, type-writer-esque fonts, and overall lack of formal format, this book emphasizes the basics of zine culture that will have any reader eager to make a zine before they can even finish reading this book.
Read MoreGeometry is one of the biggest elements within design. Without it, there would have never been the Bauhaus movement, no Midcentury Modernism, and certainly no Memphis.
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