10 Best Graphic Design Books

TOP 10 Graphic Design Books every graphic designer should read in 2021

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Nowadays there are plenty of great books about graphic design, and you might have some trouble picking up one, that is why I created this list with the 10 Best Graphic Design books that I consider essentials.

 

With this selection of books, you will learn everything about graphic design theory, brand, and identity, logo design and get plenty of design inspiration.

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Designing Brand identity is a must-have book if you want to learn more about Branding and Brand Design. This book written by Alina Wheeler is the best guide to Design a Brand Identity with her universal five-stage process for brand development and later the implementation of the design.

 

This book is divided into three sections that are brand fundamentals, process basics, and case studies where you will learn every step of branding from beginning to end.

  • Publisher: Wiley; 5th edition (October 16, 2017)
  • Author: Alina Wheeler

There are many talented graphic designers in the world and they decide to start freelance, but many of them fail on the try because they don’t get discovered by people and very few people or no one is able to see their works because they don’t know how to get exposure, and this situation is very frustrating to graphic designers and if you have felt identified with that situation, don’t worry, this book is made for you.

In this book written by Austin Kleon, he will show you 10 things that nobody told you about getting discovered, and this book will help you to find an audience and build your name as a Graphic Designer.

  • Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
  • Author: Austin Kleon

As graphic designers, we need to work with creativity and imagine unique concepts to create new designs, but this the theory and many times designers suffer creativity blocks and get frustrated by the lack of ideas.

 

With this book written by Austin Kleon, he will show you a Creativity Guide with 10 things nobody told you about being creative, this book will help you boost your creativity and avoid the lack of ideas.

  • Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
  • Author: Austin Kleon

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Interaction of Color is also a must-have book for every Graphic Designer, this book written by Josef Albers was conceived as a handbook and teaching aid for artists. In this book, Josef Albers will explain to you the interaction of Color and complex color theory principles.

 

This is an essential resource on color, and you will learn things as color relativity, intensity and temperature, vibrating and vanishing boundaries and the illusion of transparency, and more about color. If you want to learn more about the color theory you also have my post about everything you need to know about color theory.

  • Publisher: Yale University Press
  • Author: Josef Albers

The Graphic Design Idea Book written by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson covers all the key elements of a great design and gets inspiration from 50 different Masters of Graphic Design. In this book, you also will find seminal works from great graphic designers as Paul Brand, Neville Brody, and Stefan Sagmeister.

 

If you are looking for Graphic Design inspiration, learn new professional techniques, and refresh your knowledge on design this book is made for you!

  • Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
  • Author: Steven Heller and Gail Anderson

Have you ever wondered which is the best logo design in the world? if your answer is yes, then you already have the answer to your question with this book.

 

Some of the best Branding experts come together to decide which is the best logo design, and they have created the definitive list of the 50 best logos ever, in this book you will also see the creative processes behind the most memorable identity design works ever.

  • Publisher: Various
  • Author: Various

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If you are a Graphic Designer or are you learning design, you already will know how important are grids for Graphic Design. That is why is essential to have this book in your collection.

 

This book was written by the iconic swiss graphic designer Josef Muller-Brockmann, and it’s the perfect guide to mastering the grid system in Graphic Design with great examples on how to work correctly with grids.

  • Publisher: Niggli Verlag
  • Author: Josef Muller-Brockmann

If you are looking for some good Logo Design Inspiration and learn something more about Logo History, this book was written for you. This book is written by Jens Muller and published by Taschen who is already known for produce some of the best books about art, design, and Photography.

 

In this book, Jens Muller has collected approximately 6000 trademarks registered during 1940-1980. Jens Muller examines the distillation of modernism in graphic design and how corporate identity has born. Muller organized and divided all of these logos in three categories, geometric, effect, and typographic to give you a great logo design inspiration.

  • Publisher: TASCHEN
  • Author: Jens Muller

If you want to learn everything about Typography, this book is for you. Written by Robert Bringhurst, a Canadian typographer, poet, and translator, this book is the best guide and history of Typography.

 

The Elements of Typographic Style is a perfect manual about typography combining practical, theoretical, and historical information to better understand the importance of Typography in Graphic design, and if you are looking for a book about type and typography you need to start with this one.

  • Publisher: Hartley and Marks Publishers
  • Author: Robert Bringhurst

Graphic Design: A history is a must-have book for every graphic design student and is on every graphic design agency. As the name suggests this book written by Stephen K Eskilson covers all the history of Graphic Design and the design trends during the years.

  • Publisher: Laurence King Publishing
  • Author: Stephen K Eskilson

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Conclusion

As I mentioned in the introduction there are plenty of graphic design books that are really great, but sometimes with that amount of options, it’s hard to choose which one to read and which is worth it to spend your money on. That is why I wanted to create this List with 10 Essential books every Graphic Designer must have on their shelves, and with all these books you will find really useful information and learn everything about Graphic Design, Logo Design, branding, and typography.

 

Hope you will find this post really helpful and find it easier to choose your next Graphic Design book to read, and if you want to see more posts about design books I recommend you read these other posts.

Best Graphic Design Books 2021 Every Designer Should Read

If you found this post useful you might like to read these post about Graphic Design Inspiration.

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