Graphic Design

Reading & Resources

updated: 2.18.14

Nicholas Kuder
nicholas.kuder@wmich.edu
3110 Richmond Center for Visual Arts

269.387.2444
office hours: Mon. & Wed. 1112

Design Center: 269.387.2435

BOOK DESIGN BINDING

Books, Boxes & Portfolios: Binding, Construct & Design, Step-By-Step, Franz Zeier
Designing Books: Practice and Theory, Jost Hochuli, Robin Kinross
Five Hundred Years of Printing, Sigfrid H. Steinberg
The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design, Jan Tschichold
On Book Design, Richard Hendel
The Oxford Companion to the Book: Two-volume set, Michael Suarez, H. R. Woudhuysen
A Short History of the Printed Word, Warren Chappell, Robert Bringhurst
Why There Are Pages And Why They Must Turn, Robert Bringhurst
COLOR

This list is intended as a topical

guide to help you wade into the
ever expanding (and murky) pool
of design related reading
material. Particularly useful
items are marked with a .

The Art of Color, Johannes Itten

The Elements of Color, Johannes Itten
Colour: a Workshop for Artists and Designers, David Hornung

[ A practical nuts and bolts guide to color. ]

Interaction of Color, Josef Albers
FORM

Art and Visual Perception, Rudolf Arnheim

Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus and Later, Johannes Itten
Point and Line to Plane, Wassily Kandinsky
Type, Image, Message: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop, Nancy Skolos, Tom Wedell

[ A practical guide to combining type and image to make meaning. ]

Visual Grammar, Christian Leborg
FUNDAMENTALS

Basic Principles of Design 2, Manfred Maier

Basic Visual Concepts And Principles, Charles Wallschlaeger, Cynthia Busic-Snyder
Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual, Timothy Samara
Design Elements, Form & Space, Dennis Puhalla
Elements of Design, Gail Greet Hannah
The Fundamentals of Graphic Design, Paul Harris, Gavin Ambrose
Graphic Design: The New Basics, Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips
Graphic Design Thinking, Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips
Graphic Design Sources, Kenneth J. Hiebert
Inside/Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design, Malcolm Grear
The Language of Graphic Design, Richard Poulin
A Primer of Visual Language, Donis A Dondis

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. joseph addison

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Designing Programmes, Karl Gerstner

The Designer and the Grid, Julia Thrift, Lucienne Roberts
The Geometry of Design, Kimberly Elam
Grids, Gavin Ambrose, Paul Harris
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type, Elam
Making and Breaking the Grid, Timothy Samara
Modular i & ii, Le Corbusier
The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, and Architecture, Gyorgy Doczi
Der Typografische Raster: The Typographic Grid, Hans Rudolf Bosshard

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GRIDS SYSTEMS

Graphic Design
Reading & Resources

FILM

Art & Copy

The Five Obstructions
Helvetica
Linotype: The Film
Objectified
Typeface
JOURNALS

BaseLine
Design Issues
Dot Dot Dot *
Emigre *
Eye
ID Magazine *
Print
Typographica *
U&lc *
Visible Language
X-Height
ORGANIZATIONS

aiga
Design Inquiry
Soc. of Typographic Aficionados
PODCASTS

Back Story
Design Matters
Designing Minds
Freakonomics
Paul Rand Lecture Series
Radio Lab
Studio 360
Ted Talks
99% Invisible

Nicholas Kuder
nicholas.kuder@wmich.edu
3110 Richmond Center for Visual Arts

269.387.2444
office hours: Mon. & Wed. 1112

Design Center: 269.387.2435

HISTORY THEORY

79 Short Essays on Design, Michael Bierut

Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design, Mark Foster Gage
After Theory, Terry Eagleton
Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse, Katherine McCoy, Michael McCoy
Critical Theory & Practice: A Coursebook, Keith Green, Jill LeBihan
Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design, Maggie Macnab
Design Dialogues, Steven Heller, Elinor Pettit
Design Research: Methods and Perspectives, Brenda Laurel
Design Studies: Theory and Research in Graphic Design, Audrey Bennett, Steven Heller
Design Writing Research, Ellen Lupton, Abbott Miller
Dutch Graphic Design: A Century, Kees Broos, Paul Hefting
Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design, Steven Heller
Emigre No.70: The Look Back Issue, Rudy VanderLans
Graphic Design: A Concise History, Richard Hollis
Graphic Design Theory: Graphic Design in Context, Meredith Davis
Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, Helen Armstrong
Graphic Design Time Line: A Century of Design Milestones, Steven Heller, Elinor Pettit
A History of Graphic Design, Philip B. Meggs

[ The definitive text on the subject. ]

Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design [vol. 15], Bierut, Drenttel, Helfand, et al.
No Logo, Naomi Klein
No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism, Rick Poynor
On Dialogue, David Bohm
The Sense of Order, E. H. Gombrich
Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige
Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on Typography, Robin Kinross
Visual Thinking, Rudolph Arnheim
Visual Research: An Intro. to Research Methodologies in G.D., Ian Noble, Russell Bestley
Ways of Seeing, John Berger
Women Of Design, Armin Vit, Bryony Gomez-Palacio
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Designing for People, Henry Dreyfuss

The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman
As Little Design As Possible: The Work of Dieter Rams, Sophie Lovell, Klaus Kemp, Jonathan Ive
INFORMATION DESIGN

GRAPHIC DESIGN

2/4

Envisioning Information, Edward Tufte

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative,
Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information, Manuel Lima

* Out of print / back issues only

Adobe
Betatype
Emigre
Font Bureau
Font Font
Font Shop
Garage Fonts
Hoefler & Frere-Jones
House Industries
itc
Linotype
Lost Type
P22
Process Type Foundry
T26
Typotheque
Veer
WEBSITES

blog.eyemagazine.com
brainpickings.org
designobserver.com
fastcodesign.com
grainedit.com
imprint.printmag.com
ministryoftype.co.uk

269.387.2444
office hours: Mon. & Wed. 1112

Design Center: 269.387.2435

MISCELANEOUS

Armin Hofmann: His Work, Quest and Philosophy, Armin Hofmann

The Art of Looking Sideways, Alan Fletcher
Design As Art, Bruno Munari
Designing Universal Knowledge: The World as Flatland, Gerlinde Schuller
Ed Fella Documents, Vincent Tuset-anres
Emergence, Steven Johnson
In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki
A Pattern Language, Christopher Alexander, et. al.
Living with Complexity, Donald A. Norman
Printed Matter / Drukwerk, Karel Martens, Jaap van Triest, Robin Kinross
The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda
The Nature and Aesthetics of Design, David Pye
This Way That Way, Keith Godard
You Can Find Inspiration in Everything, Paul Smith
Visualizing Research: A Guide To The Research Process In Art & Design, C. Gray, J. Malins

[full pdf at: www.upv.es/laboluz/master/metodologia/textos/Visualizing_Research.pdf]

Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, Leonard Koren
SEMIOTICS

Gerd Arntz: Graphic Designer, Ed Annink, Max Bruinsma

This Means This, This Means That: A Users Guide to Semiotics, Sean Hall
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language, Umberto Eco
Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to Intl Graphic Symbols, Henry Dreyfuss
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott Mccloud
Visible Signs: An Introduction to Semiotics, David Crow
From Hieroglyphics to Isotype: A Visual Autobiography, Otto Neurath
The Transformer: Principles of Making Isotype Charts, Marie Neurath, Robin Kinross
THINKING PROCESS STRATEGY

The Art of Looking Sideways, Alan Fletcher

The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, Twyla Tharp
Do the Work, Steven Pressfield
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, David Allen
Imagine: How Creativity Works, Jonah Lehrer
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, Austin Kleon
Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
The Use of Lateral Thinking, Edward De Bono
The Universal Traveler, Don Koberg, Jim Bagnall
Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite, Paul Arden

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TYPE FOUNDRIES

Nicholas Kuder
nicholas.kuder@wmich.edu
3110 Richmond Center for Visual Arts

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Graphic Design
Reading & Resources

Graphic Design
Reading & Resources

Nicholas Kuder
nicholas.kuder@wmich.edu
3110 Richmond Center for Visual Arts

269.387.2444
office hours: Mon. & Wed. 1112

Design Center: 269.387.2435

TYPOGRAPHY

[ A comprehensive and systematic reference to typography. A book for those serious about type. ]
An Essay on Typography, Eric Gill
Experiments with Letterform and Calligraphy, Andre Gurtler
Finer Points in the Spacing & Arrangement of Type, Geoffrey Dowding
Inside Paragraphs Typographic Fundamentals, Cyrus Highsmith

[ This compact book demystifies the fundamentals of typography though diagrams and clear explanations. ]
Introduction to Typography, Oliver Simon
Letter Fountain, Joep Pohlen, Geert Setola
Manuale Typographicum, Hermann Zapf
My Way to Typography, Wolfgang Weingart
Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Designs Golden Age, Steven Heller, Louise Fili
Shaping Text: Type, Typography and the Reader, Jan Middendorp
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, Erik Spiekermann, E. M. Ginger
A Typographic Workbook, Kate Clair, Cynthia Busic-Snyder
Thinking With Type, Ellen Lupton
Twentieth-Century Type, Lewis Blackwell
Type & Typography, Phil Baines, Andrew Haslam
Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vols. 1 & 2, Taschen
A Type Primer, John Kane
Typographic Design: Form and Communication, Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs
Typography; Graphic Design in Context, Denise Gonzales Crisp
The Typographic Desk Reference, Theodore Rosendorf
Typographie: A Manual of Design, Emil Ruder
Typography: Macro and Micro Aesthetics, Willi Kunz
Typology: Type Design from the Victorian Era to the Digital Age, Steven Heller, Louise Fili
A View of Early Typography: Up To About 1600, Rob Carter
WRITING

The Elements of Style, William Strunk, E. B. White

How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One, Stanley Fish
On Writing Well, William Zinsser

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c a r l s ag a n

About face: Reviving the Rules of Typography, David Jury

Abz, Julian Rothenstein, Mel Gooding
A Compendium for Literates, Karl Gerstner
Alphabets and Other Signs, Julian Rothenstein
American Wood Type: 18281900, Rob Roy Kelly
Asymmetric Typography [Typographische Gestaltung], Jan Tschichold
Designing With Type, James Craig
Detail In Typography, Jost Hochuli
The Elements of Typographic Style, Robert Bringhurst, Warren Chappell

GRAPHIC DESIGN

What an astonishing thing a book

is. Its a flat object made from a tree
with flexible parts on which are
imprinted lots of funny dark
squiggles. But one glance at it and
youre inside the mind of another
person, maybe somebody dead
for thousands of years. Across the
millennia, an author is speaking
clearly and silently inside your head,
directly to you. Writing is perhaps
the greatest of human inventions,
binding together people who never
knew each other, citizens of distant
epochs. Books break the shackles
of time. A book is proof that humans
are capable of working magic.