Useful books for graphic designers: what to read for beginners and practitioners

Design evolves so quickly that you blink and you're no longer on trend. It’s almost impossible to study online, zoomers force the rules “how to assemble a layout in 2 minutes,” and long manuals are made up of neurons, it looks beautiful, but in fact there is zero real experience. A book is a reliable source of knowledge. It will give you a foundation from which you can develop both in the direction of manual creativity and with the help of AI drawing tools. Here we have collected a library of a good designer, we ourselves learned from these books. 

Top 15 books that are the best of the best

1. Victor Papanek "Design for the Real World." A book about the meaning of the profession, responsibility and the place of design in people's lives. Helps to formulate what exactly a designer does and what problems good design solves.

2. Alexandra Korolkova “Living Typography”. Provides a base on typefaces, spacing and text formatting rules, which is convenient to immediately apply in layouts.

3. Robert Bringhurst "Fundamentals of Style in Typography." A fundamental work on typography and typesetting culture.

4. Johannes Itten "The Art of Color". A classic book about color, harmonies and contrasts. Helps to consciously choose palettes for the task and control the mood of the visual.

5. Alexander Lapin “Photography as...”. Talking about composition through photography. Teaches you to work with frame, rhythm and space and trains observation, which can then be easily transferred to graphic design.

6. Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception. An in-depth study of how a person perceives an image. Useful for those who want to understand why some visuals repost and others scroll.

7. Josef Müller Brockmann "Modular systems in graphic design." A classic about grids and working with page structure. Helps to assemble layouts so that the elements are kept logically and do not move apart when the content changes.

8. Jan Tschichold "The appearance of a book." A book about typographic accuracy and proper page organization. 

9. Eric Spiekermann "About font". A lively story about fonts, their history and character. Gives an understanding of how to select and combine typefaces so that the text can be read effortlessly on any medium.

10. Timothy Samara "Making and Breaking the Grid". A practical book about working with meshes. Shows how to build strict structures and how to consciously move away from them when a project requires a freer solution.

11. David Airey "Logo and Corporate Identity." Step-by-step analysis of the process of creating an identity. From the brief and research to the final logo, media system and presentation to the client.

12. Ivan Vasiliev “The practice of creating trademarks.” A detailed analysis of the development of trademarks in Russian realities. 

13. Don Norman "The Design of Common Things" A book about human interaction with objects and interfaces. Helps you look at the design through the eyes of the user and make clearer and more logical decisions.

14. Artyom Gorbunov “Typography and layout”. Applied guide to layout in the digital environment. 

15. Artemy Lebedev "Guardsmanship". A collection of texts about design principles, observation and professional approach. 

Books that explain what design is

Good design should not only be beautiful, but convenient. Ideally, of course, both, but it is important not to forget about the user’s tasks. Victor Papanek, in Design for the Real World, starts with exactly this: design either improves people's lives or creates problems. The book can be called a manifesto, it is both praised and criticized for its radicalism, but most practicing designers agree on one thing: it perfectly sets the sights before entering the profession. 

Basics of Graphic Design and Composition 

The main thing here is the ability to see the frame. We recommend two books: 

1. Alexander Lapin “Photography as...”. Formally, the book is about photography, but essentially about composition and framing in general. Key benefits for a designer: you learn to remove unnecessary things, you stop being afraid of emptiness, you collect frames that tell a story. 

2. Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception. Lapin shows with examples, Arnheim gives the foundation. He examines shape, dynamics, symmetry/asymmetry, others terms in design, tells how the brain completes a picture based on its ideas and the author’s message.

Typography, layout and grid work

Alexandra Korolkova in “Living Typography” tells how to generally handle fonts and text in the Russian-speaking environment. The blurbs describe the book as a systematic introduction to typography and typeface for students and practicing designers.

Robert Bringhurst's book "Fundamentals of Style in Typography" is considered one of the most complete works on working with text. After it, it is impossible to skip the wrong intervals or the wrong quotes, you will see every jamb of the layout. To improve your skills even further, read “The Form of a Book” by Jan Tschichold and “On Type” by Eric Spiekermann, both of which teach you how to work with typography and letters. 

Josef Müller-Brockmann in “Modular Systems in Graphic Design” uses real posters, magazines and corporate identity to show how a modular grid helps to maintain the design of a layout without killing expressiveness. An excellent practical guide for observation, almost everything is here, what a designer should be able to do. 

Timothy Samara, in Making and Breaking the Grid, continues the theme by first carefully explaining the basic types of grids, and then showing how to consciously deviate from them to achieve a vibrant layout. 

If you want to immediately try it in practice, Gorbunov’s electronic textbook “Typography and Layout” will become a practical guide. This is a step-by-step instruction on the basics of website layout, services and media with a detailed analysis of the principles of modularity, anchor objects, and so on. 

Color and visual perception

Everyone has their own vision of colors, so it’s better to have a point of reference. It could be Johannes Itten’s book “The Art of Color”. Itten is an artist and Bauhaus teacher whose color theory is still cited in courses ranging from painting to web design. The color wheel, harmonious schemes (triads, tetrads), types of color contrasts, and so on are discussed here. They are still making it based on it. printing design and promotional materials. 

Identity, logos and corporate style

David Airey's Logo and Brand Identity is literally a step-by-step guide to creating an identity, from brief and research to presentation to the client. The author cites real cases and analyzes client situations, teaches how to get a clear brief, where to get ideas and how to present arguments to the customer. 

Ivan Vasiliev in “The Practice of Creating Trademarks” transfers the process to Russian realities, talks about technical specifications, domain registration and working with lawyers. 

Psychology, principles and user experience

Don Norman's The Design of Common Things is a cult book for UX designers, cited in usability articles and recommended in paid courses. The author says that if a person does not understand, relatively speaking, how to open the door, turn on the stove or order a product, the problem is not with him. Norman popularized the term “user-centered design”: we do not retrain people, but adapt to their behavior. 

Rudolf Arnheim, in Art and Visual Perception, talks about psychology. The book is based on real research and experiments and shows how the human brain works and why a layout, formally built according to the rules, does not suit the audience. 

Russian-speaking authors

Their books are adapted to local realities and take into account the mentality and characteristics of the audience. In addition to those already mentioned, we recommend “Kovodstvo” by Artemy Lebedev: a long, multi-year project about graphic and industrial design, interfaces, typography, visualization and everything around. It was no longer updated in 2019, but there is still a lot of information here for beginners. 

Yuri Gordon “The Book about Letters from Aa to Z” can become your desktop bible. This is a fundamental work on the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet, font anatomy and letter design. The author is a practicing type designer who shares his own experiences. 

Vladimir Krichevsky “Typography in Terms and Images”: a two-volume work that explains typographic concepts through visual examples and historical context. The first volume is devoted to the typeface and its elements, the second to the layout and composition of the page. A good reference for designers of any level.

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