Renowned designer Jason Santa Maria has compiled a list of recommended books. He cautions that this is not a comprehensive survey of design books; instead, it’s based on his own reading experience.
Although Santa Maria may be best known for his Web design, the information in most of these books also applies to other design disciplines.
Read the whole list, with brief but helpful descriptions of each book, at https://jasonsantamaria.com/reading/. To whet your whistle, browse the titles below:
A History of Graphic Design
A Whack on the Side of the Head
About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography
Art As Experience
Art Direction Explained, At Last!
Bird by Bird
Comics and Sequential Art
Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus
Design Writing Research
Designing for People
Designing Interactions
Detail in Typography
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Envisioning Information
Fonts & Logos
From Lascaux to Brooklyn
Graphic Design Theory
Graphics Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines
Grid Systems in Graphic Design
How Buildings Learn
How Designers Think
How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
Letter By Letter
Logo & Font Lettering Bible
Making and Breaking the Grid
The Brand Gap
Marks of Excellence
Spunk & Bite
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
The ABC’s of Bauhaus
The Art of Looking Sideways
The Design of Everyday Things
The Elements of Color
The Elements of Typographic Style
The Form of the Book
The Typographic Desk Reference
Thinking with Type
Type & Typography
Type: The Secret History of Letters
Understanding Comics
Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on Typography
Visual Grammar
Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem Solving
What is a Designer: Things, Places, Messages
While You’re Reading
This article was last modified on December 17, 2022
This article was first published on February 1, 2010
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