5 recommended books for graphic design students

If you’ve just started a design course, chances are you’re on the look out for some design books to read or buy.

The trouble is, design books can be a little on the expensive side at times, and with the vast amount of them out there, it can be hard to know which are worth buying.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, particularly if you’re looking to buy a book or two as a gift and perhaps aren’t sure of what you’re actually looking for.

To help you, I’ve compiled a list of 5 books, each covering a different area of graphic design that I consider worth investing in or purchasing as a gift .

Each of these books I’ve found particularly useful and informative, and would definitely recommend to design students or beginners looking to get a good grasp of or better understanding of graphic design.

1. Graphic Design: A User’s Manual

 is more of a graphic design-specific encyclopaedia or glossary, with the aim of giving you a better understanding of the topics covered, rather than a complete background of them.

It covers a range of subjects, categorised in alphabetical order for easy reference, all related to the design industry in some way, giving you an overview of that topic, often with a little anecdote or snippet of useful information that the author Adrian Shaughnessy has discovered (probably the hard way).

Plus it’s edited by Michael Bierut, an accomplished author and designer who knows graphic design inside out.

Thanks to Shaughnessy’s writing style, you can sit down and read from the beginning, a page at a time as you would any other book, or you can simply flick through to a specific topic and find what you need to know before putting it back on your shelf until next time.

This should be of particular interest to anyone new to the design industry (hint: that means students!).

2. Stop Stealing Sheep and find out how type works

3. Typography: Macro and Microaethetics: Fundamentals of Typographic Design

An ideal book for any new design student written by Swiss designer Willi Kunz that demonstrates just what makes good design.

Kunz focusses heavily on using grid systems to arrange elements, and leans towards the clean Swiss style of design, which is no bad thing considering Swiss designers of the 40’s and 50’s were responsible for much of the fundamental graphic design principals still being taught today.

This is a brilliant book about how to use type and focusses on the key elements such as weight, space, form, counter-forms, line, shape and texture, all aspects of design that need to be considered individually in order to work together.

In fact, much of the teaching material I was given during the first year of my design degree referenced examples from this book.

Though a little pricey, this is one that’s well worth investing in as the information inside is basically the foundations on which modern graphic design is built, understanding of which is essential in order to become a good designer.

4. 100 Habits of  Successful Graphic Designers

This little beauty features short, informative articles from some of the best known creatives working today all sharing their personal experiences and advice on being a designer.

Each one offers their advice on a variety of topics that all designers are sure to face at some point, including being more creative, promoting yourself, networking, collaborating with others, working with clients and using (or rather NOT using) technology.

Whilst you could see the other books in this list as focusing on the technical side of design, focusses on the things you normally have to learn from experience (often by making mistakes).

This book won’t teach you to be a graphic designer, but it might just help you become one.

5. Designer’s Guide to Color: 1–5

This recommendation actually refers to 5 books in a series, but I’ve included them all since each book is designed as a complimentary extension of the previous.

Luckily you can normally pick these up dirt cheap.

Each book features over 1000 colour combinations arranged into patterns and categorised into moods, feelings and a wide variety of other swatches such as ‘African’ or ‘Animal prints’, with CMYK values and Pantone numbers provided for easy replication.

These are a great for finding complimentary colours or combinations to use as a starting point for creating your own swatches, and I keep all five of mine close at hand.

Any suggestions?

So there we have it. Five books that I have personally found to be educational and informative and recommend  buying for new designers and graphic design students.

Hopefully list this has given you a starting point for your book collection or helped you if you’re looking to buy a design book or two as a gift. Please let me know if you require clarification or any more information.

I’m interested in hearing your opinions on any of these books if you own them or have read them.

What are your thoughts on them? Would you also recommend them to students? If not, do you have any other suggestions?

Please let me know by leaving a comment below.