Patina Style


Brooke Giannetti - 2011
    The antique and imperfect and the slightly worn combined with natural materials and a subtle color palette create a look that is both timeless and fresh.

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.

Hello, My Name Is Awesome: How to Create Brand Names That Stick


Alexandra Watkins - 2014
    In this entertaining and engaging book, ace-naming consultant Alexandra Watkins explains how anyone--even noncreative types--can create memorable and effective brand names. No degree in linguistics required.The heart of the book is Watkins's proven SMILE and SCRATCH Test. A great name makes you SMILE because it is Suggestive--evokes a positive brand experience; is Meaningful--your customers get it; uses Imagery--visually evocative to aid in memory; has Legs--lends itself to a theme for extended mileage; and is Emotional--moves people.A bad name, on the other hand, makes you SCRATCH your head because it is Spelling challenged--looks like a typo; is a Copycat--similar to competitors' names; is Restrictive--limits future growth; is Annoying--frustrates customers; is Tame--flat, uninspired; suffers from the Curse of Knowledge--only insiders get it; and is Hard to pronounce.Watkins also provides up-to-date advice, like making sure that Siri spells your name correctly. And you'll see dozens of examples--the good, the bad, and the "so bad she gave them an award." Alexandra Watkins is not afraid to name names.

A Smile in the Mind


Beryl McAlhone - 1996
    Witty thinking is playfulness with ideas, words playing against images, and unexpected connections prompting new insights. It is clever thinking, not funny drawing.A Smile in the Mind analyses the intricate thought processes behind the apparently forward images. It shows how to make the case for witty solutions and, through a series of in-depth interviews with the world's top designers, suggests how to get inspiration. Gathering together the best examples of graphic wit over the past three decades, this book includes work from over 300 designers in the USA, Britain, Europe and Japan. Written with insight and a subtle lightness of touch, it offers designers a friendly read, a helpful sourcebook and a dynamic trigger for ideas.

Black and White (and a Bit in Between): Timeless Interiors, Dramatic Accents, and Stylish Collections


Celerie Kemble - 2011
    And the inspiration is all around us—from nature (a zebra’s stripes, tree trunks rising from drifts of snow) to old Hollywood movies and fashion to black-and-white photography and patterns we encounter in our everyday lives (crossword puzzles and the pages of our favorite novels). In Black and White (and a Bit in Between), acclaimed interior designer Celerie Kemble trades in her signature vivid palette for this iconic aesthetic, highlighting the black and white work of design stars and peers, including Bunny Williams, Thomas O’Brien, Mary McDonald, Victoria Hagan, Mark Hampton, Delphine Krakoff, Brad Ford, Philip Gorrivan, Carrier and Co., and Miles Redd, and welcoming you into more than 100 spaces in every imaginable aesthetic. Woven throughout are her witty observations and expert advice on choosing the best paints and finishes, adding patterns and accessories, building an entire room scheme based on inspiration found in nature, collecting black and white objects, and even choosing the perfect accent colors. With more than 350 gorgeous color photographs, this is a vividly photographed celebration of a timeless scheme, infused with inspirational tips, glimpses into showstopping homes, and proof that a limited palette is anything but.

Detail In Typography


Jost Hochuli - 2005
    Hochuli begins with a consideration of how human beings read, moving on incrementally to considerations of letter, word, and line as well as word-space and line-space. Hochuli concludes by examining whole paragraphs and how they carry meaning. Produced in Switzerland to the highest standards, Detail in Typography embodies critical thinking and articulate design in its own physical form.

Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design


Khoi Vinh - 2010
    In recent years, web designers, too, have come to discover the remarkable power that grid-based design can afford in creating intuitive, immersive, and beautiful user experiences. "Ordering Disorder" delivers a definitive take on grids and the Web. It provides both the big ideas and the brass-tacks techniques of grid-based design. Readers are sure to come away with a keen understanding of the power of grids, as well as the design tools needed to implement them for the World Wide Web. Khoi Vinh is internationally recognized for bringing the tried-and-true principles of the typographic grid to the World Wide Web. He is the former Design Director for NYTimes.com, where he consolidated his reputation for superior user experience design. He writes and lectures widely on design, technology, and culture, and has published the popular blog Subtraction.com for over a decade. More information at grids.subtraction.com"

Make It Bigger: (illustrated monograph on the design process and work of Paula Scher)


Paula Scher - 2002
    An outspoken voice in the world of graphic design for more than twenty years, Paul Scher has developed a worldwide reputation for her bold, modern graphics and her incisive critiques of the design profession.

The Anatomy of Type


Stephen Coles - 2012
    The Anatomy of Type (The Geometry of Type in the UK) is all about looking more closely at letters. Through visual diagrams and practical descriptions, you’ll learn how to distinguish between related typefaces and see how the attributes of letterforms (such as contrast, detail, and proportion) affect the mood, readability, and use of each typeface. Nutritional value aside, the spreads full of big type are nice eye candy, too.The 100 typefaces featured in the book are hand-picked by the author for their functionality and stylistic relevance in today’s design landscape. Along with several familiar faces (Garamond, Bodoni, Gill Sans, Helvetica), you’ll also discover contemporary fonts that are less common — and often more useful — than the overused classics.

Graffiti Alphabets: Street Fonts from Around the World


Claudia Walde - 2011
    Each artist received the same brief: to design all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet within the limits of a single page of the book. The result is a unique typographical sourcebook featuring over 150 specially designed, original alphabets exclusive to this book.

Hand Job: A Catalog of Type


Mike Perry - 2007
    No longer relegated to designer's sketchbooks, hand-drawn type has emerged from the underground as a dynamic vehicle for visual communicationfrom magazine, book, and album covers to movie credits and NFL advertisements. As the practice and appreciation of hand-drawn type grows, its time to celebrate the work of those typographers whose every letterform is a work of art.Hand Job collects groundbreaking work from fifty of today's most talented typographers who draw by hand. Graphic designer and hand typographer Michael Perry selects work representing the full spectrum of design methods and styles. Each hand-drawn work is entirely shaped by the artist's unique processevery one a carefully executed composition enhanced by unplanned "accidents" of line, color, and craft. Hand Job also includes photographs of found type,artists studios, and the tools that help make typography come to life. Whether you are looking to invigorate your design work or are just in need of a little offbeat inspiration, Hand Job will have you reaching for your favorite pen.

The Politics of Design: A (Not So) Global Design Manual for Visual Communication


Ruben Pater - 2016
    With communication comes responsibility; are designers aware of the meaning and impact of their work? An image or symbol that is acceptable in one culture can be offensive or even harmful in the next. A typeface or colour in a design might appear to be neutral, but its meaning is always culturally dependent. If designers learn to be aware of global cultural contexts, we can avoid stereotyping and help improve mutual understanding between people.Politics of Design is a collection of visual examples from around the world. Using ideas from anthropology and sociology, it creates surprising and educational insight in contemporary visual communication. The examples relate to the daily practice of both online and offline visual communication: typography, images, colour, symbols, and information.Politics of Design shows the importance of visual literacy when communicating beyond borders and cultures. It explores the cultural meaning behind the symbols, maps, photography, typography, and colours that are used every day. It is a practical guide for design and communication professionals and students to create more effective and responsible visual communication.

Type and Typography


Phil Baines - 2002
    Newly expanded with fifty additional pages of text and eighty-five new illustrations, this second edition reflects the exciting developments in typography since the first edition was published in 2002.

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop


Timothy Samara - 2003
    Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user not only to be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applied in real-world projects.Text reveals top designers' work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice.

Meggs' History of Graphic Design


Philip B. Meggs - 1983
    Under the new authorial leadership of Alston Purvis, this authoritative book offers more than 450 new images, along with expansive coverage of such topics as Italian, Russian, and Dutch design. It reveals a saga of creative innovators, breakthrough technologies, and important design innovations.