Top Graphic Design books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Graphic Design books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Graphic Design

Understanding the concepts of Graphic Design starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Logo Modernism

Logo Modernism

Examine the distillation of modernism in graphic design with this vast collection of approximately 6,000 logos from 1940–1980. Ranging from media outfits to retail giants, airlines to art galleries, these clean, clear visual concepts may be seen as the visual birth of corporate identity.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Why Fonts Matter

Why Fonts Matter

This book opens up the science and the art behind how fonts influence you. It explains why certain fonts or styles evoke particular experiences and associations. Fonts have different personalities that can create trust, mistrust, give you confidence, make things seem easier to do or make a product taste better.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Know Your Onions: Graphic Design

Know Your Onions: Graphic Design

It is like having a graphic design mentor who will help you come up with ideas, develop your concepts, and implement them in a way that is engaging and humorous. It gives readers the experience and ability that normally comes from years of on-the-job training.

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Grid Systems in Graphic Design

Grid Systems in Graphic Design

In visual design, a grid system helps you align screen elements based on sequenced columns and rows. Like making a map, you apply the column-based structure of a grid system to guide your design, structuring your text, images and functions consistently throughout it so they can appear instantly recognizable elsewhere.

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Interaction of color

Interaction of color

Interaction of Color is a handbook and teaching resource for artists and designers that shares Albers' theory of color. Originally printed in 1963, the text outlines a set of principles and teaching methods for understanding and perceiving color in different ways.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

How to Be a Graphic Designer offers clear, concise guidance along with focused, no-nonsense strategies for setting up, running, and promoting a studio; finding work; and collaborating with clients.

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Additional Graphic Design Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Graphic Design, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (every Once in a While) Change the World

How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (every Once in a While) Change the World

The first monograph, design manual, and manifesto by Michael Bierut, one of the world's most renowned graphic designers—a career retrospective that showcases more than thirty-five of his most notable projects for clients such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Yale School of Architecture, the New York Times , Saks Fifth Avenue, and the New York Jets, and reflects eclectic enthusiasm and acc…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts

Graphic Design Rules: 365 Essential Design Dos and Don'ts

Packed with practical advice, this spirited collection of design dos and don'ts takes readers through 365 rules like knowing when to use a modular grid-and when to throw the grid out the window.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Caps Lock: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and how to Escape it

Caps Lock: How Capitalism Took Hold of Graphic Design, and how to Escape it

CAPS LOCK uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. The book features designed objects, and also examines how the study, work, and professional practice of designers supports the market economy.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design is an accessible and compact book which demonstrates how ideas influenced and defined graphic design, with stunning visual examples. It is both a great source of inspiration and a provocative record of some of the best examples of graphic design from the last hundred years.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Branding

Branding

What is branding? Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business in the minds of your target audience and the general population. At its core, branding consists of a company's name and logo, visual identity design, mission, values, and tone of voice.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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