One Designer’s Favorites
As a designer, I think it says a lot about your motivations, philosophy, style by what you can find on your bookshelf. Over the years I’ve accumulated a number of good reads as gifts and peer recommendations. Short of conversations and lectures I love to glean information from books and revisit them months or years later. A fresh perspective often reveals tidbits I overlooked or a reflection of my professional growth. Without further ado here are the books atop my bookshelf.
Copy This Book
By Eric Schrijver
I’m not a lawyer and I presume if you’re reading this you aren’t either. That being said if you are a designer of any sort you ought to know how copyright laws work in your favor. (or don’t)
Wait don’t skip to the next book yet!
Seriously, this may be one of the most digestible law books out there. Eric’s chapters are categorized in a way that’s easy to skip to a section that mostly relates to your field/interest. If the only thing you read in the whole book was the Graphic Design chapter I’d say you are far better off than not as a freelancer. Preview: you own the copyright of that logo, not your client
Recommendation for whom? Anyone who makes anything
Sequential Drawings (The New Yorker Series 2015)
By Richard McGuire
The minimalist illustrator in me proudly holds this book aloft for all to see. It’s a collection of spot illustrations from The New Yorker. These space fillers may be a relic of print media that sequentially tell a story that may bear no importance to the written words that surround it. Yet, these simple black and white illustrations convey stories and personalities. This book inspired my own series of illustrations that a released on Instagram.
I’d recommend this to any visual designer out there who is challenged to give a voice to something that has no written words or colors. So many brands these days are looking to the narrative to convey their message. This book demonstrates storytelling at the crossroads of minimal and emotional.
You’ll finish the whole book in a relatively short amount of time but I loved showing this book off to the designers I’ve mentored over the years.
Recommendation for whom? Any illustrator with an appreciation for storytelling
Illustrations of mine that were directly inspired by this book:
Delft Design Guide
As somebody who has pivoted their career path from marketing to that of a product designer the Delft Design Guide has helped fill a number of knowledge gaps. This book has sustained me in my education in the wake of my completed masters degree. The guide is composed of a number of designer tools including; perspectives, models, approaches, and methods.
I look at this book as I would a seasoned professor, providing friendly advice with a hint of concern for your choice of approach. Each spread contains one of the former tools that we have at our disposal asking the What, When, How for each technique. Often what I find most helpful in each section is the limitations for each technique. It’s not enough to know all the tools but rather to know the appropriate time/situation to use them.
Recommendation for whom? Those new to the game of UX research and even experienced folks