Book picks similar to
The Little Know-It-All: Common Sense for Designers by Robert Klanten
design
graphic-design
non-fiction
reference
The Stroke: Theory of Writing
Gerrit Noordzij - 2006
Concerned not with art calligraphy and beautiful forms, The Stroke is a description of the phenomenon of letters and how they are made in writing. Starting from basic principles, Noordzij begins with the white space that creates definition by surrounding letters. Then, using simple geometrical concepts, he describes in minute detail how the strokes of writing can be formed. His theory serves to repair the split that grew up, with the invention of printing, between written and typographic letters. With The Stroke, Noordzij can be seen as a prophet of digital typography committed to freeing typefaces from the constraints of their embodiment in metal.
Branding: In Five and a Half Steps
Michael Johnson - 2016
His studio, johnson banks, is responsible for the rebranding of many notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Think London, BFI, Christian Aid, and MORE TH>N, and he has garnered a plethora of awards in the process.In Branding, Johnson strips everyday brands down to their basic components, with case studies that enable us to understand why we select one product or service over another and allow us to comprehend how seemingly subtle influences can affect key life decisions. The first part of the book shows how the birth of a brand begins not with finding a solution but rather with identifying the correct question—the missing gap in the market—to which an answer is needed. Johnson proceeds to unveil hidden elements involved in creating a successful brand—from the strapline that gives the brand a narrative and a purpose to clever uses of typography that unite design and language.With more than 1,000 vibrant illustrations showcasing the world’s most successful corporate identities, as well as generic templates enabling you to create your own brand or ad with ease, Branding explores every step of the development process required to create the simplest and most immediately compelling brands.
Animals: 1,419 Copyright-Free Illustrations of Mammals, Birds, Fish, Insects, etc
Jim Harter - 1979
Simple and bold or capable of the most exquisite effects of tonal gradation, this elegant black-and-white artwork sustains no loss in reproduction and is a perfect complement to typography. 1,419 clear wood engravings present, in natural, lifelike poses, over 1,000 species of animals. Included are many different versions of the familiar animals most wanted and used by commercial artists and craftsmen. Arranged according to the following seven categories, the illustrations portray mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and other invertebrates. Selected for their visual impact and usability by artist-collagist Jim Harter, these illustrations form one of the most extensive, royalty-free pictorial sourcebooks of animals ever assembled for the specific use of illustrators, graphic designers, craftspeople, decoupeurs, and collagists. Captions give modern common-name identifications, and a thorough index provides immediate access to individual animal pictures. Because of the accuracy and detail of most of the renderings, naturalists will also enjoy browsing through this volume and using it for illustrative purposes.
The Icon Handbook
John Hicks - 2011
Thankfully we now have the place to go.Jon Hicks' 'The Icon Handbook' will become the go-to book for the modern designer; for uncovering the thought processes, the skills and the reference for designing your own icons.This book is aimed at designers who already have basic vector and bitmap drawing skills. It could be that you want to create a simple, unique favicon, or perhaps you've been asked to work on a mobile app that requires them. It starts at the basics and takes you right the way through to being able to create stunning iconography.
Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art
Sheri Gaynor - 2009
Work in the spirit of the laws of attraction to visualize the life of your dreams. Follow the journey of twelve artists, each who will set a personal dream or intention. Witness the process that each artist takes, as they create a mixed-media piece that sows the seeds of their intention. Step-by-step techniques for a variety of mixed-media processes accompany each piece of finished art. Read about how their lives changed as a result and learn how to set intentions of your own using the bonus tear-out "dream-prompt" cards.
The Industrial Design Reader
Carma Gorman - 2001
This pioneering guide traces the entire history of industrial design, industrialization, and mass production from 1850 until today. Sixty comprehensive essays written by designers, theorists, advertisers, historians, and curators detail the most crucial movements, issues, and accomplishments of industrial design. They combine news reports on the very first design workshops, aesthetic manifestos, lectures, and more from the biggest names in the field: William Morris, Henry Dreyfuss, and Victor Papanek, to name only a few. The Industrial Design Reader is an excellent resource for educators, students, and practicing designers. • Features design from not only theoretical and aesthetic perspectives, but also from a socio-political point of view, with texts from Karl Marx, Ralph Nader, and others • Copublished with the Design Management Institute, which will actively promote the book to its membership
This is Service Design Thinking: Basics – Tools – Cases
Marc Stickdorn - 2010
Service Design is a bit of a buzzword these days and has gained a lot of interest from various fields. This book, assembled to describe and illustrate the emerging field of service design, was brought together using exactly the same co-creative and user-centred approaches you can read and learn about inside. The boundaries between products and services are blurring and it is time for a different way of thinking: this is service design thinking.A set of 23 international authors and even more online contributors from the global service design community invested their knwoledge, experience and passion together to create this book. It introduces service design thinking in a manner accessible to beginners and students, it broadens the knowledge and can act as a resource for experienced design professionals.
Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design
Jan Tschichold - 1975
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
Jesse James Garrett - 2002
This book aims to minimize the complexity of user-centered design for the Web with explanations and illustrations that focus on ideas rather than tools or techniques.
MTIV Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer
Hillman Curtis - 2002
Divided into three parts, this book offers a methodology for artistic and professional work and also offers technical advice for translating this to the web.
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
Erik Spiekermann - 1993
It draws in the reader with its design and layout, making use of more than 200 illustrations and photographs. It explains in everyday layman's terms what type is and how you can use it to enhance legibility, meaning, and aesthetic enjoyment. It also includes chapters on Web typography and other forms of online text display.
The Shape of Design
Frank Chimero - 2012
My name's Frank Chimero. I've spent the better part of the last two years writing and speaking on design and thinking about the topics that orbit the practice: storytelling, concept, craft, and improvisation. I want to take all of the ideas I've had and connected these past few months and capture them in a book format.I've been teaching for the past 5 years, and I've always been a bit frustrated that there isn't a nice, concise book that overviews the mental state of a successful designer while they go through their creative process. For instance, many say that graphic design is visual communication. A cornerstone of communication is storytelling, and yet you'd be hard-pressed to find any discussion of how to tell stories with design in any design book. This should be remedied.There are new challenges in the world that need to be discussed, and I think design is a prime lens to consider these topics. As our world moves faster and as things become less stable, it becomes more important for individuals to embrace ambiguity, understand paradox, and realize that two things can conflict and still somehow both be true. We must realize that logic doesn't always work, and that sometimes nonsense is the best answer. These are the topics I intend to address in the book.The Shape of Design isn't going to be a text book. The project will be focused on Why instead of How. We have enough How; it's time for a thoughtful analysis of our practice and its characteristics so we can better practice our craft. After reading the book, I want you to look at what you do in a whole new light. Design is more than working for clients.But really, this book aims to look at the mindset and worldview that designing develops in order to answer one big, important question: How can we make things that help all of us live better?"
The Complete Manual of Typography
James Felici - 2002
Jim Felici brings together a vast amount of knowledge in this book. Must-have!" --Erik Spiekermann, author, Stop Stealing Sheep (and Find Out How Type Works)This book is about how type should look and how to make it look that way; in other words, how to set type like a professional. It releases the craft knowledge that used to reside almost exclusively in the heads of people working in type shops. The shops are gone, the technologies have changed, but the goal remains the same. This book explains in very practical terms how to use today's computerized tools to achieve that secret of good design: well-set type.Beautifully designed and richly illustrated, The Complete Manual of Typography is an essential reference for anyone who works with type. Designers, print production professionals, and corporate communications managers can go straight to the index to find focused answers to specific questions, while educators and students can read it as a textbook from cover to cover. You'll find:History, basic concepts, and anatomy of good typography, concisely presented and indexed for quick reference by busy professionals. Straight-ahead instructions for how to manage fonts, handle corrupted or missing fonts, and find the characters you need. Clear, useful explanations of what makes good type good (and bad type bad) . Detailed guidance on controlling the fundamentals of type, including measure, point size, leading, kerning, and hyphenation and justification. Practical advice on how to fix and avoid composition problems such as loose lines, bad rags, widows and orphans. Hard-to-find rules for managing indents and alignments, skews, wraps, expert-set characters, and tables. Scores of workarounds that show how to wring good type out of uncooperative word-processing and layout programs.
Designing Interactions
Bill Moggridge - 2006
Designers of digital technology products no longer regard their job as designing a physical object--beautiful or utilitarian--but as designing our interactions with it. In Designing Interactions, award-winning designer Bill Moggridge introduces us to forty influential designers who have shaped our interaction with technology. Moggridge, designer of the first laptop computer (the GRiD Compass, 1981) and a founder of the design firm IDEO, tells us these stories from an industry insider's viewpoint, tracing the evolution of ideas from inspiration to outcome. The innovators he interviews--including Will Wright, creator of The Sims, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, and Doug Engelbart, Bill Atkinson, and others involved in the invention and development of the mouse and the desktop--have been instrumental in making a difference in the design of interactions. Their stories chart the history of entrepreneurial design development for technology.Moggridge and his interviewees discuss such questions as why a personal computer has a window in a desktop, what made Palm's handheld organizers so successful, what turns a game into a hobby, why Google is the search engine of choice, and why 30 million people in Japan choose the i-mode service for their cell phones. And Moggridge tells the story of his own design process and explains the focus on people and prototypes that has been successful at IDEO--how the needs and desires of people can inspire innovative designs and how prototyping methods are evolving for the design of digital technology.Designing Interactions is illustrated with more than 700 images, with color throughout. Accompanying the book is a DVD that contains segments from all the interviews intercut with examples of the interactions under discussion.Interviews with: Bill Atkinson - Durrell Bishop - Brendan Boyle - Dennis Boyle - Paul Bradley - Duane Bray - Sergey Brin - Stu Card - Gillian Crampton Smith - Chris Downs- Tony Dunne - John Ellenby - Doug Englebart - Jane Fulton Suri - Bill Gaver - Bing Gordon - Rob Haitani - Jeff Hawkins - Matt Hunter - Hiroshi Ishii - Bert Keely - David Kelley - Rikako Kojima - Brenda Laurel - David Liddle - Lavrans L?vlie - John Maeda - Paul Mercer - Tim Mott - Joy Mountford - Takeshi Natsuno - Larry Page - Mark Podlaseck - Fiona Raby - Cordell Ratzlaff - Ben Reason - Jun Rekimoto - Steve Rogers - Fran Samalionis - Larry Tesler - Bill Verplank - Terry Winograd - Will Wright
Graphic Design School: The Principles and Practice of Graphic Design
David Dabner - 2013
With examples from magazines, websites, books, and mobile devices, the Fifth Edition provides an overview of the visual communications profession, with a new focus on the intersection of design specialties. A brand-new section on web and interactivity covers topics such as web tools, coding requirements, information architecture, web design and layout, mobile device composition, app design, CMS, designing for social media, and SEO.