Top Design books curated by experts

As the design industry reexamines its emphasis on Eurocentric ideologies and wrestles with its conventional practices, Centered advocates for highlighting and giving a voice to the people, places, methods, ideas, and beliefs that have been eclipsed or excluded by dominant design movements.

The Design of Everyday Things is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman about how design serves as the communication between object and user, and how to optimize that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable…

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst (Book Summary) This book contains more than I've ever wanted to know about typography. It describes not only how to use fonts, but also how to create them, explaining the math and science involved in font design.

Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary encyclopedia covering 125 laws, guidelines, human biases, and general considerations important to successful design. Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, it pairs clear explanations of every design con…

A coloring book that blends elegance and charm with a touch of spookiness. Featuring cute and easy designs, this collection of illustrations offers a unique mix of cozy and weird with mystical yet adorable creatures.

Decolonizing Design first asks how modernist design has encompassed and advanced the harmful project of colonization—then shows how design might address these harms by recentering its theory and practice in global Indigenous cultures and histories.

A grid system is a rigid framework that is supposed to help graphic designers in the meaningful, logical and consistent organization of information on a page. It is an established tool that is used by print and web designers to create well-structured, balanced designs. Rudimentary versions of gr…

The Laws of Simplicity (2006) by John Maeda is a guide that explores the power of simplicity in our complex world. Here's why this book is worth reading: Provides practical strategies to simplify our lives, allowing us to focus on what truly matters.

In Logo Design Love, David shows you how to develop an iconic brand identity from start to finish, using client case studies from renowned designers. In the process, he reveals how designers create effective briefs, generate ideas, charge for their work, and collaborate with clients.

This unprecedented TASCHEN publication, authored by Jens Müller, brings together approximately 6,000 trademarks, focused on the period 1940–1980, to examine how modernist attitudes and imperatives gave birth to corporate identity. Ranging from media outfits to retail giants, airlines to art gall…

Designing Type is a comprehensive guide to type design is hailed as a 'must-have' for typographers, graphic designers and students. Now fully refreshed and updated with the introduction of more contemporary typefaces and diagrams!

One of the last surviving members of the futurist generation, Bruno Munari's Design as Art is an illustrated journey into the artistic possibilities of modern design translated by Patrick Creagh published as part of the 'Penguin on Design' series in Penguin Modern Classics.