Design is a creative field that produces meaning and optimizes functionality for consumers. Whether you’re an aspiring designer, a design student, or even if you already work at a design studio, it’s essential to improve your skills and stay relevant in the design industry. Reading the best design books is a great way to learn about the fundamentals of design, get exposed to influential designers, and gain inspiration from new graphic design ideas.
Businesses constantly aim to improve customer satisfaction by improving user experience and user interface design. Product design and industrial design shape our built environments, all of which make design a diverse industry with many opportunities for employment. Read on for the best books to learn design and find some tips on how to pick the best books for design.
How Can I Choose the Best Books for Designers?
The most important strategy to use when choosing the best books for designers is to briefly review the book content to see if it seems appropriate. Below are some more specific tips for picking the best books for design.
Tips for Choosing the Best Design Books
- Narrow your search. Check if the design book is geared toward beginners or more advanced designers. Also, check the publication date or edition as recent design publications tend to cover design innovations.
- Examine the book. Does the table of contents mention a topic relevant to your career growth? Read the intro to get an idea of the book’s subject matter.
- Read design book reviews. Access concise summaries and critical evaluations of the book by reading some reviews.
- Check for recommendations from design experts. High-quality design books often include interviews with other designers.
- Check the book format. See if the book is available in an electronic format or if it’s available only in hard copies. This will help you decide if you can read it on the go or if you will have to create time in your schedule to read it.
The 10 Best Design Books: An Overview
| Name | Publisher | Topics Covered |
|---|---|---|
| A Designer’s Art | Princeton Architectural Press | Typographic form, visual communication symbols, and a designer’s problem |
| Branding in Five and a Half Steps | Thames and Hudson | Design strategies, implementation, and engagement |
| Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team | Wiley | Brand identity, design implementation, and integration |
| Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design | Wiley | Information architecture, web design, and coding requirements |
| Graphic Life | The Images Publishing Group | Images, places, and symbols |
| Grid Systems in Graphic Design | Niggli Verlag | Grid, grid fields, and three dimension |
| How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul | Princeton Architectural Press | Creative process, design interpretation, and idea creation |
| The Art of Looking Sideways | Phaidon Press | Patterns, culture, perception |
| Work for Money, Design for Love | New Riders | How to find clients, the right fee to charge, and when to decline a job |
| 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design | Laurence King Publishing | Typography, white space, pixelation |
The 10 Best Design Books: A Closer Look
Below you will find a list of the 10 best design books. Whether you are a beginner in the field of design or you have dabbled in this field before, the following list contains some great books to help you in your quest to enhance your design skills.
1. A Designer’s Art
- Author: Paul Rand
- Best for: Beginners
Design is an art form grounded in communication because designers aim to deliver relevant content to a specific audience. Many early-career designers miss this, focusing on design elements like shape or color without considering what these elements could signify to a viewer. Rand challenges this approach with in-depth lessons discussing his design approach in theory and practice.
This classic graphic design book also highlights practical concerns for designers, such as trademarks, legibility, and more.
2. Branding in Five and a Half Steps
- Author: Michael Johnson
- Best for: Intermediate-level designers
This book presents the reader with a roadmap to create branding that resonates. Michael Johnson argues that the first of the five steps is to investigate what your brand is and why the world needs your brand. Johnson includes a lot of illustrative examples to stimulate design thinking and also delves into product and market research.
3. Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
- Author: Alina Wheeler
- Best for: Advanced designers
Whether you want to build a personal brand or lead a design team, this book will help you along the way. It outlines the main steps of building a brand identity: research, design, implementation, and integration. This book also takes a deep dive into 100 branding topics with accompanying checklists and diagrams and over 700 samples of brand touchpoints.
4. Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design
- Authors: David Dabner, Sandra Stewart, Abbie Vickress
- Best for: Beginners
Graphic design shapes traditional and digital media. Understanding the history of design is, therefore, essential if you want to create and execute a successful modern design. This book will help contemporary designers learn the difference between modern and traditional design through illustrative examples of cutting-edge design software and more conventional techniques.
5. Graphic Life
- Author: Michael Gericke
- Best for: Advanced designers
Michael Gericke distills four decades of his own design career into this book, discussing multidimensional design motivated by the art of storytelling and the celebration of place. He provides rich insight into the design world with over 375 illustrative images and 125 examples of projects that use digital media, exhibitions, posters, and more.
6. Grid Systems in Graphic Design
- Author: Josef Muller-Brockmann
- Best for: Intermediate-level designer
It’s necessary to understand the principles of grid systems to create a well-balanced and properly structured design. This book explains how to become a graphic designer and produce a logical and consistent information structure on a page. You will learn about grid fields and their rules as well as methods to correctly and easily use grid fields in different kinds of design work.
7. How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
- Author: Adrian Shaughnessy
- Best for: Beginners
This is an excellent book not only because it seeks to help aspiring designers make neat and expressive designs but also because it also emphasizes the importance of being fairly financially compensated for creative work. It explains how to manage and improve your creative process, interpret a client’s brief, and generate ideas when you’re uninspired. It also provides practical advice on kickstarting your professional career, all presented with an accessible tone for newcomers to the world of design.
This book also contains inspiring interviews with master designers, including Neville Brody, Andy Cuz, John Warwicker, and Rudy VanderLans.
8. The Art of Looking Sideways
- Author: Alan Fletcher
- Best for: Intermediate-level designer
Fletcher writes about how to harness “visual intelligence” by learning to weave imaginative designs into eye-catching illustrations. This book also provides the reader with an exhaustive collection of anecdotes, curious facts, and serious science. This book on visual design moves from design theory to first-hand accounts of insights on design collected from different parts of the world.
9. Work for Money, Design for Love
- Author: David Airey
- Best for: Beginners
Design newbies have tons of questions about how to flourish in their fledgling careers. David answers these questions from his wealth of industry experience and provides a comprehensive guide to improving your design process. The book also contains case studies, anecdotes, and advice from respected designers like Jerry Kuyper, Maggie Macnab, and Von Glitschka.
10. 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design
- Author: Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne
- Best for: Beginners
Incite your imagination and embrace graphic design thinking with 100 brilliant ideas (from the last 100 years) that changed the design world. Access an extensive scope of interconnected graphic design concepts, from age-old techniques to digital media. Immerse yourself in Steven Heller’s expert guidance on loud typography, pixelation, paper cutouts, and more.
Alternative Ways to Learn Design
In addition to reading from the best books for design, you can also join some of the best design principles bootcamps to enhance your design skills. Bootcamps provide you with experienced instructors, a curriculum, and opportunities to help kickstart your career. Bootcamps also offer an opportunity to seek out mentors for professional growth.
Is Learning Design Worth It?
Yes, learning design is worth it! If you’re interested in creative work with practical application, design might be a great career path to consider. Designers are well compensated, earning an average annual salary of $77,200, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Design FAQ
Some of the most popular design careers include graphic designer, UI/UX designer, and multimedia artist.
Some of the best UX designer tools are Adobe XD, Figma, Google Forms, and Testbirds.
You can study a design book effectively by highlighting the main points you want to retain. If you come across topics you struggle with, consider seeking external resources, like online design communities, for extra help.
After studying a design book, you must dedicate time to practice what you’ve learned. This will help solidify your knowledge and improve your skills. You can also look for books that are specific to the subject you want to study. For example. If you want to learn product design, there are many books that can help you with that.
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