Reddit reviews Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (2nd Edition)

Elements of Style

Stop Stealing Sheep

Grid Systems

Two things that is very helpful is to know type and grids.


On typography my favorite is: The Elements of Typographic Style

Another good one is Stop Stealing Sheep


For grids, I like this one: Grid Systems in Graphic Design

Making and Breaking the Grid
is not too bad either.

Here's a few I like:

• Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style
  
• Designing Brand Identity
  
• Draplin Design: Pretty Much everything
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid
  
• Graphic Artists Guild Handbook
  
• 30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime

Sorry to say this is very common. I met Erik Spiekermann a few years back, his book is a worthwhile read.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Find-Works/dp/0201703394

Highsmith's Inside Paragraphs is a great introduction. It's 100 pages and it reads like a comic book. It is very short and incredibly specific: it is only about paragraphs. I make all my typography students read it, working from the idea that good typography starts with good text typography. In other words, if you can master text type, display type is easy.

Lupton's Thinking with Type is a good general beginning text. She has a lot of the info on her website.

I also find Speikermann's Stop Stealing Sheep quite good for an intro text.

Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style is the classic text that is worth having in your library. Mine is fairly well-thumbed with plenty of post-it flags and lots of favorite passages underlined. It is a bit much for the beginner, but definitely worth having as a reference. You'll grow into this one, and likely never outgrow it. It is a reference book that reads like poetry.

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works

is an entertaining light read. I would recommend it as a starter before going to Bringhurst

Your best bet is to learn about the fundamental, and most basic rules of graphic design. Until you know the rules you can't break them, and anyone who is design literate will spot this immediately.

You need to learn about typography (grid systems, type hierarchy and a bit about what makes a typeface), this is a very good starter for ten Stop Stealing Sheep, and Learn How Type Works, then as your knowledge becomes more in-depth check out someone like Joseph Muller-Brockman, who is pretty much the inventor of modern typography. For me solid typography is the corner stone of good design, and luckily is more of a set of rules and guidelines, rather than the ability to 'express oneself' visually (something I feel is well suited to a dev).

In order to understand the 'flair' of design I think the best thing you can do is to immerse yourself in the work of amazing designers, think Herb Lubalin, Paul Rand, Jan Tschichold (the list goes on and on). It is only through a cultural awareness that you will be able to make subjective decisions about your own design work.

A good design forum, or friends who are designers, will be critical in the early stages because it is essential that you review your work with other designers or creatives - it's one of the first things they teach you at college - and it really helps you talk about your work, something most people (even the extraordinarily talented) find extremely difficult.

For me though, good design is a process of reduction, always remove the unnecessary. Keep it simple...

edit: Sorry, I realise I haven't answered your question with regards to links and resources, hopefully you will discover these through your exploration of design... :)

I've been on a total typography book binge recently!

• Letter Fountain - This book is AMAZING! It's comprehensive, gorgeous and heavy. Note: There's a lot of overlapping information in all these recommendations, so if you buy just one book on typography from my list, make it this one.
  
• Designing Type by Karen Cheng - This book is a great one to get if you are designing a typeface yourself. It takes a close look at all of the letters and characters (serif and sans-serif) describing their key features, comparing and contrasting notable variations of significant typefaces and basically serving as an excellent reference.
  
• Logo Font & Lettering Bible by Leslie Cabarga - This one is a lot of fun, with a focus on practical tips, ie: software tips and tricks. If you're interested in illustration or decorative typefaces, this is the one to get. (I know if you judge this one by its cover and Amazon's 'look inside' preview it may not look the best, but the actual printed volume is attractive, dense and a joy to browse.) [EDIT: The paperback has a much nicer cover! This is the one I have.]
  
• Book Design by Andrew Haslam - Everything you might want to know about book design, naturally! I haven't read much else on this subject, but this seemed excellent to me. A great mix of history and practical advice for designing all kinds of book.
  
• Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works by by Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger - Smaller, but full of good information. This was one of the first 'proper' books on typography I read and I think it serves as a great introduction to the subject. If you only have a passing interest in the type, try this book. It reads like an opinionated personal essay. Perhaps skip it if you are looking to get hands-on quickly.
  
  Finally, I strongly don't recommend Type Matters! If you see it in the store you may be tempted - it's a very attractive leather-bound book with sexy black and red illustrations - but I found it to be overly simplistic. It also looks like there's quite a lot of reading to be had, but the vast majority of the text in there is all repeated sample copypasta. (And if I wasn't disappointed enough in the book, the elastic came loose on my copy!)

"Don't Make Me Think" is probably outdated but it used to be the best book on the subject. http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0321344758

The Smashing Books (there are four now) are fantastic. Worth the money every year. You can also subscribe to the entire Smashing Library. https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/smashing-book-4-ebooks.html

"Stop Stealing Sheep" is an excellent typography book: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0201703394

That book has to be good. I'm no big ellen lupton fan but she knows her stuff. Other books that would be good are ones by Erik Spiekermann such as this Erik's stuff is a must read for beginners or professionals, the guy gets all crazy technical about it which is awesome I thought. Another guy that comes to mind is Matthew Carter, if he;s got a book you want that. As for calligraphy I just got started with calligraphy myself and hate to say this but I hate it maybe because I'm using dipnibs and the wrong nibs. However it's a lot of fun, but I'd rather stick to lettering, has more control atleast for me personally.

this book is a good start.

Nope. Not typography. The organization of information. Everything is dependent on this. Learn to organize and then compose. Think of design like music. You have to be able to put together a series of things to communicate one thing. That's my advice.

If you want a book try this.

I don't think there's a big difference, but just to see I did a little experiment. Here are major websites who publish lots of articles.

Serif train:
New York Times, The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Reuters, NPR, New York Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, TIME, Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, Forbes, Washington Post, Politico, LA Times, The Boston Globe, Wired

Sans serif boat:
BBC, NBC, Vox, Medium, Buzzfeed, Fox, ABC, CNN, Mashable, Us Weekly, The Onion, People, USA Today, Telegraph, NY Daily News, Fast Company

I think both serif and sans serif fonts can be readable if you pick a nice one. Leading, tracking, kerning, font weight, contrast, hierarchy, and minding characters per line are also important factors in readability.
If you're still font curious and want help making better font choices read Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works.

The Elements of Typographic Style is always my go-to recommendation. Some would claim it's "not for beginners" but it was considered mandatory reading in the design program I attended and is a fantastic reference/resource.

However, if flipping through that you find it to be too much, there's also How to Stop Stealing Sheep.

Agreed, you have center alignment and left align used throughout, then the "s" and "t" aren't aligned to the baseline which is a huge no no in Swiss (International) Style.

Edit: Here are some books I highly suggest you read. Study them, learn from them and then practice it. Typography is a very intricate practice, trust me I know, but you'll get there if you're persistent enough. :)

https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Find-Works/dp/0201703394

https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881791326

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1592531253

super relevant

Herding, Stealing, Shagging, whatever....

>"Any man who would letterspace blackletter would shag sheep."

http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Works-Edition/dp/0201703394

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Goudy

Try this book by Erik Spiekermann.

Stop Stealing Sheep

A Type Primer

Another good book to look for Type "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" (http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Works-Edition/dp/0201703394). Its been sitting on my shelf for a while now and I always dip back to it when I need it.