Reddit reviews Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design
We found 7 Reddit comments about Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Rockport Publishers
Oh boy, history of graphic design was my favorite thing in college and during my thesis research. It puts so much into perspective once you go trough all the little things in history. Here are some books i would recommend:
[Graphic Design, Referenced – by Bryony Gomez-Palacio] (https://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Design-Referenced-Language-Applications/dp/1592537421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467706816&sr=8-1&keywords=graphic+design+referenced)
The Elements of Typographic Style – by Robert Bringhurst
The Fundamentals of Graphic Design Paperback – by Paul Harris
Design Elements, 2nd Edition by Timothy Samara
Thinking with Type – Ellen Lupton
From history, great stuff on: Bauhaus, Dada, Brodovitch,Helvetika (there's even a great documentary on Helvetica), Gestalt principles, Whitespace... You could try and get some textbooks on these topics or just google.
(protip: type into google name of the book and finish the search with filetype:pdf there are many books that you can get free pdfs that way)
I seem to get asked this a lot, but here is my list, posted here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1uq58s/good_graphic_design_books_for_a_beginner/ceklj3y
> These are all books that I absolutly love, and bought for either personal use or to accompany different courses while I was getting my BFA in GD. I have seen some of them both are brick and mortar book stores, and college book stores. If you get a chance to see them in person before buying, leaf through them to get a feel.
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> Megg's History of Graphic Design, absolutely essential to understanding where graphic design comes from historically. IMO the best GD history book on the market, at least the most encompassing. One of my favorites, was very helpful writing different papers and researching historical styles.
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> Graphic Design School. Another great book, focuses more on design process and stuff like that. This one more walks you though being a designer. Gives tutorials on different things too, which is useful.
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> Graphic Design Referenced is a really great book that is a bit of a hybrid. This book describes a lot of design terms, styles, and general knowledge while referring to historical and modern examples.
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> Those three for me are really essential books for new graphic designers, I learned more from those three than I can express. Below are a few more books I really like, but might be a bit more advanced than someone just getting started might want.
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> Another book I have used a lot, and almost included with those three is above. Thinking with Type. Really great intro into typography.
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> More advanced even.
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> How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
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> A Graphic Design Student's Guide to Freelance
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> Hope this helps!
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Keep in mind this is just a starting point. There are tons upon tons of inspiration books out there for graphic design stuff, not to mention educational books on all sorts of specialties. I love graphic design books, the hard physical copy of them. When I'm stuck on a project I like to flip through them, read a bit, and then revisit my work again.
Here are the books currently in my amazon wishlist, so I can't vouch for them, but I do plan on eventually owning them.
Wish List:
I would suggest Graphic Design Refrenced and Meggs History of Graphic Design
I am in almost the same situation.
I have also been looking for books for motivation, inspiration and so on.
Here are some stuff that keep getting recommended as well as other books that I think are interesting judging by their description and reviews (note: I haven't read anything yet I am just sharing my searching results from the past 2 or 3 days):
For creative problems
For Inspiration
And this one seems to go into depth of the business itself:
Like I said, I haven't read any of those but maybe this will save some time for you or for other people searching for books.
There is also Thinking with Type, The Elements of Typographic Style, Universal Principles of Design, Deign for how people learn, How to be a Graphics Designer without losing your soul.
Edit: I was actually going to make a thread similar to this but I am gonna post my similar question here anyway,
Does anybody know of more books for people who are already involved in the medium ?
A lot of recommendations I see around the internet seem to be for someone just starting graphics design or still in school but rarely is it something for a higher level.
I really liked Graphic Design, Referenced for an overview. My favorite thing is lots of links between different trends, people, etc. It's a good start.
What kind of background do you have in graphic design?
Any formal or informal education?
Do you have any work to showcase?
What are your ultimate goals?
Its easier to help you out if we know more about where you are right now. Regardless, one of the books I've found useful is this:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Design-Referenced-Language-Applications/dp/1592537421/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_pap?ie=UTF8&qid=1370562672&sr=8-1&keywords=graphic+design+referenced
It is pretty much an almanac of all things design related.
I'll try to give you a fair answer.
In order to answer your question, I must specify that there isn't a single point of view about what graphic design is. There's people who do work that's based on computer softwares for the 90%, such as photomanipulations or 3d work and still call themselves graphic designers because in the end what they did will be slapped on a poster.
There's people who consider graphic design as something based on pure creativity and artistic ability. Open an issue of Computer Arts or just look at their website, and you'll know what I'm talking about. Alas, those people keep calling themselves graphic designers, but they're not.
Graphic Design is a problem-solving discipline, not a mean of artistic expression. A graphic designer creates identity programs, packaging, books, things that require skills in organizing information and conveying a message in the simplest way possibile. So, to answer your questions:
How artistic do you need to be?
As far as I am concerned, zero. I can't even draw a flower. You are a designer, you design solutions. You don't make art.
How exactly do you get in to graphic design?
Books. Read books, tons of books. It's the best education you can get, even better than what you get in design school, although a formal education is necessary for other aspects of the job.
For a portfolio, you usually show examples of printed work (corporate identity, packaging, posters, you name it) and some online work, such as websites layouts and mobile apps. The balance between print and online depends only on what you enjoy doing the most.
Am I totally off base as to what graphic designers do?
As I said, graphic designers design solutions to problems. A problem might be that a client comes to you and needs an identity program for their new business. You'll have to design a mark or a logotype that conveys the values of their business, as well as other components of the identity such as stationery, business cards, packaging or whatever they need.
For everything that you do, you need to be able to organize the information in the clearest way possible. You need to know about layout, color theory, typography etc.
I suggest that you start by finding out about the work of the best designers alive and not. The first book that I recommend to everyone is Graphic Design Referenced, because it's a brilliant synthesis of everything that you need to know about graphic design. Naturally, you'll need way more books to truly become involved, but this is the best start.