Reddit mentions: The best book design

I know this is not the most popular answer, but if you have a complex book with graphics, the very best way to ensure that it will be compatible for all readers is to convert it manually. It's work. It's computer geek work, but it's really the best way to ensure quality.

It takes some HTML knowledge that is relatively easy to learn and free software (I use notepad++, zip.exe, and kindlegen). There are several books out there that can give you step by step instructions, and the process gets easier every time you do it.

Try Formatting you Ebook which is the top book when searching on Amazon. I can't vouch for it, but it's got a few good reviews, and it's super cheap.

I used The eBook Design and Development Guide which is more expensive, but is very in depth and helps you set up a workflow that will make the work go smoothly. I learned a lot with this book, and it links to online tools you can use for metadata and such.

There is more to formatting an ebook than making the pages come out looking good. Metadata is super important, and not all of it is applied through the publishing process on Amazon/Nook/Kobo/iBooks. A lot of it is in the epub file itself.

With the investment of 7 bucks for the good book and a few hours of your time, you can create high quality ebooks that will look great on every platform.

Trade half of your brain for half of mine? I'm on the other side of the creek from you. Trying to get into development but already established into design. I feel like the main things that would come in handy are

• Color Theory
  
• Typographic Hierarchy / Typography knowledge
  
• Maybe user interface but I know development plays a role in that as well.
  
  Some great sites to check out:
  
  
• Styleboost Great site that shows uniquely designed websites, helpful for inspiration.
  
  
• PSDTUT articles regarding typography/design
  
  
• Smashing Magazine has a lot of great articles regarding design and user interface. I generally read it everyday.
  
  And if you're really getting into graphic design and enjoying it, I suggest some of these books to dive deeper.
  
  
• Graphic Design Referenced
  
  
• An Eye For Color
  
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style
  
  
• For a quick reference regarding different styles or inspirations - Stylepedia
  
  There's a ton more so feel free to ask any questions or if you want any critiques I'd be glad to help. Good Luck!

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!)

First I think you need to learn how to set type. This is a personal favourite book of mine that helped reinforce some of the basics I learned. It's laid out in a very simple and easy to digest manner. https://www.amazon.ca/Type-Matters-Jim-Williams/dp/1858945674

Here is a great tool for learning kerning and tracking. http://type.method.ac/

Below are a couple sites I found that have some decent tips for beginner designers. I think you could learn a fair bit from them, and after doing so go back to your work and really compare what they're saying to what you've done.

https://speckyboy.com/the-10-golden-rules-of-simple-clean-design/

https://designschool.canva.com/blog/graphic-design-tips-non-designers/

As for the work itself I'd say you need to really grasp the fundamentals before you can make anything that's going to look good, and it really shows here. Simplify your logo, and you might think it's simple enough as it is but it isn't. Remember that every single aspect of design must be thought through. Is there a reason you use such harsh sharp lines? Why the thin outline to suggest where the Huskies face is? Can you do without it? Should it be thicker? Also, especially when thinking about a logo, always make sure it is scalable. How would it look on a billboard, how would it look on a button? A good logo works in both, and yours right now does not. The colours you have chosen do not speak to a football team. Pink? Cyan? Why? To me pink, especially the one you've chosen, is wishy washy. It's feminine and soft, not something I want to think of when I think of a bunch of hardened warriors smashing into each other with intent to hurt. Not something I want other people to think of my team. I know why you did it, because they're ears, but you don't need to have that pink there to show they are ears. Just the shape alone can accomplish that.

Most of your images really clutter the design and don't seem to serve a clear concise message. Your choice of typefaces are really poor for what you're trying to achieve. Both of these things can be fixed but have to do more with a personal sense of design, and that is something you develop over time.

For instance the "Synergy driven ad". The typeface does not emit strength. It's a very poorly designed typeface that has weak attributes about it. It's thin, curvy, and round but not robust. Take a look at this Houston Texans logo you'll see something that exemplifies great design choices for both the logo and a great typeface that has the attributes you're talking about.

http://www.sports-logos-screensavers.com/user/Houston_Texans.jpg

As far as the text goes, it is laid right overtop the image in black. This makes it extremely hard to read. Remember that the function of type is to transfer information in an easy to digest manner. Your type should always be legible. In this particular case you could have made the typeface white, larger, and picked a more robust typeface, so perhaps a bold sans serif or perhaps a slab serif.

Here is a wonderful little website that has a bunch of unique typefaces that are all free. Start there and look all around the web and you'll find out just how many better typefaces there are.

http://www.losttype.com/browse/

As far as the wolves go, really ask yourself if they fit. Why that picture? Why not huskies since we're the huskies? Why not wolves hunting in a pack? How about no wolves and just the type speaking for itself? etc. I'm sure you asked yourself some of these, maybe even all of them, but the questioning shouldn't stop anywhere close to there. I think you could've accomplished just as much and then some by instead having the logo with those words. If this is about the huskies then let people associate it with the huskies and not a pack of wolves. In fact, there is no logo on the page to begin with.

This is a documentary every graphic designer should watch and you're no exception to the rule!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feZ3Mr42Ki4

I hope you don't get offended by anything I've said. I hope all of this stuff is helpful. Good luck!

Timothy Samara books are good for beginners - Making and Breaking the Grid was the book that finally helped me understand grid systems, while Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual was my Freshman year design textbook. The Story of Graphic Design by Patrick Cramsie is also a great GD History book.

In terms of things that are less textbook and more actual books about graphic design, I enjoyed Just My Type a lot. Design Is A Job gives some great advice on the business side of being a designer - pitching to clients, dealing with contracts, etc. How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer has some really interesting interviews with some of the best designers in our field.

And I would be terribly remiss if I didn't mention two of my absolute favorite novels, which happen to be about graphic design. The Cheese Monkeys and its sequel The Learners are fantastic stories about a design student and his experiences both in school and in his first job. Plus, they're written by Chip Kidd, who is an absolutely amazing designer (imho).

But, in case that wasn't enough, I'll also leave you with this link to a previous thread on this subreddit about great GD books.

Good luck and happy reading!

In addition to the questions I just want to point out that 2500 words is too short for Amazon. I'd recommend going back and boosting it to over 3000 words at the very least (likely up over 5000 words would be better) before posting it to Amazon. Amazon doesn't like content that is too short and you could get in trouble for 'poor user experience.'

1. Grab GIMP (it's free) and look on free stock photo sites for available photos or sign up to a trial with a paying stock photo site. Look up tutorials on YouTube and build your own cover. You don't need to buy a professional cover from a designer (and could work against you because of both reader expectations and the cost of working with a professional designer) and as a bonus you'll learn a lot of new skills along the way. It's really not hard to put together a quick cover that is too market, just be sure to research what others are doing in your genre and play to the market expectations. Also research what is not allowed on Amazon (not too much butt, no undressing, etc.) and make sure you don't cross any lines.
   
2. It's important to remember there are two types of anonymity, anonymity in your personal life and anonymity from Amazon. It is impossible to remain anonymous from Amazon, they need to know your real ID and any pertinent tax information (variable depending on your geographic location) in order to pay out. With your personal life anonymity will come from using a pen name which is only linked to your Amazon publishing account by virtue of the name that you put into the book you're trying to publish. So you can use your personal account if you'd like, or you can set up a new one just for publishing, just bear in mind that you can ONLY have 1 Amazon publishing account. This account will house ALL of the books you publish through Amazon regardless of content or pen name. Everything you're going to put up on Amazon goes up through that account.
   
3. Amazon allows you to set up Print-On-Demand, so you can get a physical copy of your book (though to be honest with a 2500 word story it's going to be a leaflet and you're probably not going to want to get a physical copy because it would be cost prohibitive - hell I'm not even sure if Amazon allows paperbacks that small - to put it into some perspective a short novel is 50000 words, so like 20 times longer than your story). As for getting it into sex shops there is no built mechanism for doing that. You'd have to order a bunch of copies and try to negotiate with the stores yourself for getting it into there.
   
4. Download this book: https://www.amazon.ca/Building-Your-Kindle-Direct-Publishing-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6 and use the instructions to build your book for kindle. This is the easiest way I've found that makes a good looking book without going through specialized software. Otherwise you can use Kindle Create or Canva or Vellum or some other book creation software to take care of the grunt work for you.
   
   As a final note I'd really recommend reading the FAQ and sidebar on this subreddit and then doing searches to get a lay of the land. This subreddit has a wealth of information on it and spending a couple hours here getting yourself familiar with everything before publishing is really going to help you out a lot.
   
   Oh and congratulations on your first story!

1. Illustrator is a very useful tool, it would serve you well to know how to use it. Illustrator also uses a very similar skill set to other applications you will end up using like indesign for example.
   
   
2. No not at all, I think people love to complain no matter what industry they are in. However it is very competitive, there are plenty of very very successful designers out there and lots of really unsuccessful ones. No where is it more immediately obvious how "good" or "bad" you are at something than with a visual portfolio, people can see at a glance exactly how competent you are, that's pretty intimidating. For instance you might be able to escape notice as a mediocre insurance claims adjuster for much longer than a mediocre designer. If you can find a handful of solid clients and build good relationships with them it can go a very long way to having a long and comfortable career.
   
   
3. Pay varies dramatically and theres a reason that very few people can give you a straight answer, your dealing with at least 3 variables at any given time if not more. What you are worth, what your client is worth and what the client is asking you to do. So for instance if your doing a multi million dollar marketing campaign and rebranding of a huge corporation while sitting in your manhattan office expect to be paid a little differently than if you are doing the CD cover for your friends band (that they recorded in garageband), the skill set, stakes and experience are dramatically different in those scenarios.
   
   Graphic design is everywhere and at all levels, expect to be paid accordingly. Understand too that $1000 for a logo is completely relative and doesn't by any means reflect the work that goes into it. You may have a someone who whips something together in a few minutes or have a team of designers slaving away iterating on an identity for weeks to make sure it's perfect, to make sure it becomes a household/highly recognizable piece of branding.
   
   
4. One of the toughest and most technically challenging things I feel like you will have to deal with is typography. Having a good understanding of how to wield it's awesome power can go a very very long way. I think as far as learning your tools goes, for me at least the internet has been a far more valuable resource than any book, if you need a problem solved google can do that pretty quickly, theres also a ton of good tutorials or articles on design process out there, I have yet to see any books that come close.
   Now on the typography I can make a few suggestions, some of these are pretty dry and not so flashy but have very solid fundamentals in them. If you go to art school (and I highly suggest you do if you can afford it, it can be a phenomenal experience) then these are the kind of books you will be reading in the first year or two.
   
   Typographic Systems of Design ~Kim Elam
   
   Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type ~Kim Elam
   
   Thinking with Type ~Ellen Lupton
   
   Elements of Typography ~Robert Bringhurst
   
   
5. I started doing some design work and drawing in high school. Both my parents are designers so I'm sure that helped, from there I went and got a BFA in illustration. While my first love is drawing and most of my work is illustration I still end up doing lot's of design work because it is (in my experience at least) very frequently in demand.
   
   Hope that was helpful and I'm sure lots of other people have had very different experiences and will share their stories and opinions. It's a very diverse field.
   

I'm going to go ahead and put this out there: you have no idea what you're talking about. I design for a living, I've studied design as a profession and hobby for nearly a decade - so why would you feel like it's perfectly acceptable to completely discredit that?

Much of design is subjective, so you're not wrong - but Reddit has some major flaws as far as readability and usability go. You're talking like an engineer with the content density bit, and honestly engineers know very little about visual design - some presentations and marketing from NASA (aside from the often hilarious mission posters) are the worst I've ever seen because it comes from engineers. Readability does not just mean something is easier for old people to read - there are certain elements that make text exponentially easier for everyone to read.

Honestly, I think If people like you who discredit design at any given turn designed websites we'd all still be using Geocities because the way it presented plain-text was perfectly acceptable.

I suggest you read this book if you want any idea of what readability really means and why it's important. It was written with print in mind, but it applies to typography as a whole, in any form, quite well. It's very technical and I think many redditors (and people as a whole) would have a lot to gain from reading it.

1: Without knowing what your "45-page nonfiction book" is about, I'm just going to give you the general advice that a good cover moves units. Unless someone is specifically searching for your book, the cover is going to be the first thing he sees and what catches his interest. This may be considerably less true in the non-fiction section.

How you go about getting one is up to you, but I'd personally recommend not skimping on your cover.

2: In regards to turning documents into e-books, this is actually a fairly simple process. Amazon released an e-book of instructions, and there's also a printable PDF you can look at without having to have a kindle handy. The main parts are mostly about letting your word processor handle white space instead of manually inserting spaces, tabs, and extra carriage returns (do so with indented paragraphs, page breaks, and double spaced lines). If your work has tables, charts, or pictures in it, then that might be something else to worry about.

3: Amazon's program is called KDP Select. The biggest drawback is that you can't sell your digital book through anyone else, but you can still sell physical copies elsewhere (unless it's changed since the last time I looked into it). Their website will answer your questions better than I can, but I would say that in general, no, I didn't find that Amazon did much of anything to make it worth it. You're still on your own for marketing and such, they just allow you to do some promotional work like offering your book for free for several days to hopefully snag some reviews.

>I know they will not allow me to price it $0.00 and have a minimum price of $0.99, so that is what I will charge on Amazon.

The common method to get around this is to put your work on other sites like Smashwords that DO allow you to set the price to free, and then report the book to Amazon as cheaper elsewhere. Eventually, they'll either automatically price match it or, in some occasions, pull your book down off their site. I've never heard of this second one actually happening to anyone, but I'm sure it could.

That canvas! If I had access to the rest of the needed supplies, that would definitely be something I'd want. Though I don't...

I have so many lists.. But here goes:

Super Sculpey is on my artsy list because I found you can alter vinyl figures with it and boil or lightly bake it! Further customizing, which I find neat.

Bravely Default is on my list because the demo got me hooked. I use to hate JRPG type games and turn-based games, but this one seems fun with a lot of extra's. (Like extra things to do.)

Purple bed set.. SO DARN ELEGANT.. I mean shhh. Basically purple and black go together so wonderfully and my bed is a mess of colors right now. xD Tiger stripes with green bedding and flowery and black pillow cases. Also a big purple pillow and a leopard print.

African Violet perfume oil is on my list because back when I would go to the flea market there was a man and lady who sold essential oils. African violet was such a mesmerizing scent. I had it all over my room, the house.. Basically anywhere it would smell divine at.

Hard choice between House Of Leaves and I Am Legend. Both are books I want to read because I love the reviews. I generally go for non-fiction, horror books. Both seem to be right for the reading. I want to be scared or intrigued! Hooked into a story.

Coloring book... because I am a kid at heart!

Magnetic cubes! I want these because the original circular buckyballs/neocubes are always WAY to high priced. It's an alternative, and I love magnetic things.

Nubian goat light switch cover because.. goats! I love nubian goats and that's, that! (Also love just about any type of goats..)

Daemon tarot cards because I am fascinated with anything to do with demons, or entities. Generally anything tarot card or fortune related also. More so things that are evil, because people tend to shy away.. While I go towards them.

Last but not least...

I'm such a sucker for Norman Reedus... I want it to hang on my wall. I even have a frame waiting for it. (Thank's WalMart.) Got 2 frames for the price of one!

Zero experience?

If you have no experience in typography or design, I recommend learning typography as a starting point. Letterpress printing is a fascinating pursuit on its own, but you'll get much more out of it if you prepare yourself with a strong foundation in typography.

The cool thing about learning typography as it's more often practiced today is there's plenty of carryover from the metal type of a letterpress. Terms like leading and uppercase have meanings that transcend the physical medium, but relate to the history of applying typography with metal type. That's the best way to look at letterpress printing — it's a specific form of applied typography.

To learn how to use a letterpress without learning general typography is to learn penmanship without knowing a written language.

To get started, I recommend reading an introductory typography book:

http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Type-5th-Edition-Typography/dp/0823014134/

Practice a bit, then make your way through Bringhurst:


http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Typographic-Style-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/

Much of Bringhurst will be review, but you won't fully appreciate it without already having a basic comprehensive understanding.

Any learning you can do before touching a machine should be done. I recommend this path because working with a letterpress is time consuming and potentially expensive. If you jump straight into producing letterpress work without a typographic background, it will be of poor quality. You can learn the basics much faster digitally, while also gaining the eye that will help you when you move into letterpress printing.

The Bringhurst Bible

James Victore's book is amazing. It's a quick read but is packed with inspiration.

Envisioning Information is great for info design.

Megg's History of Graphic Design


The rest of these I haven't read yet, but here is a list of things I currently have on my amazon wish list:

Some People Can't Surf by Art Chantry

Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design by Jennifer Bass

Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut

Damn Good Advice by George Lois

How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman

The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic

Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller

I'm a type designer, so feel to ask me questions.

To keep the look and feel consistent across the entire font largely depends on understanding the fundamentals of visual communication design, typography, and the relationship between characters.

The process starts with a design with specific parameters, a "skeleton" of a typeface. You need to decide if it's going to be a serif, sans serif, slab serif, display, etc., then move on to the qualities of the typeface. What characters would it have (cold, friendly, fat, loud, etc.)? What purpose would it serve?

Once the design is settled, the work in creating a typeface from scratch involves lots and lots of tweaking to maintain a relationship with each glyph. Drawing glyphs is a lot of work, and yes, a lot of the work is done by eye. Each character could be "generated" and be mathematically accurate as a foundation, but it will be largely optically incorrect and loses an important quality, a human touch.

Extrapolation with fonts can be done with Superpolator and interpolation with RoboFab, but it doesn't make the typeface design better if it is not drawn correctly in the first place.

The best fonts out there, upon close inspection of their glyphs, show that their forms are derived from the written hand. See Gerrit Noordzij's The Stroke for more.

Karen Cheng's Designing Type is another good read. Another book that's coming soon is Fred Smeijers' Counterpunch 2nd Ed..

As glasspenguin mentioned, Typophile.com is a great message forum on type design. You will find a lot of information there.

Books books books!

Some essential reading:

• Thinking with Type - very basic, and a good place to start; designed like a workbook
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style - pure reference
  
• The Vignelli Canon (PDF, also available as paperback)
  
  You have probably heard of the documentary Helvetica. This movie inspired me to become a type nerd. The follow-up movie, Objectified, is also very good and focuses on consumer design.
  
  Web sites / blogs:
  
  
• Typophile - active forum and community
  
• I Love Typography - great blog
  
• The Ampersand - pictures of ampersands; more interesting than it sounds
  
• Brand New - logo design, not typography specifically
  
  If you are at college or have a college campus nearby, check our their art library. There are bound to be awesome resources there. Explore graphic design periodicals and get lost in giant bound books of type samples.
  
  Edit: Disclaimer: I'm merely a design hobbyist.

• The Form of the Book by Jan Tschichold
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
  These are mostly directed at classical book design, so they probably tend more conservative than you should do for a magazine, but these books actual spell out rules for what you should do (I'm a big believer in handcuffing yourself to rules for the purpose of understanding them, and then breaking them later), which is I think what you're asking for.
  
  My sorta summary/advice based heavily on what I read in the above books:
  
  Don't decorate; be confident. There's definitely an urge to add little horizontal rules above things or boxes around page elements. Tischichold especially points out how young designers can't help but put a thin box around the inside title page of books. He says it shows a lack of confidence. The solution is to have a justification for where you put things.
  
  Basically, if you have a baseline grid for the page, then you can place page elements on it and know that they will be harmonic with the overall page.
  
  Page numbers can honestly go anywhere as long as it's not the inside edge. Putting them there means the publication has to be completely open in order to use the page numbers, which is annoying.
  
  Don't put repeating information on pages. It's annoying to have the author's name or the book title at the top of every single page. Again, this is a demonstration of a lack of confidence. I believe the thinking is that if the pages are photocopied and distributed, then people will know where it came from. DRM annoys.
  
  Usually the font size for notes will be smaller than the main text, so keep aware of the leading difference between the two, especially if you put notes along the side. The leading shouldn't necessarily be equal, but it should be a multiple of the main content, so that every three or four lines the text aligns again.
  
  I hope none of that was totally irrelevant to your project :) Good luck!

Scott McCloud is one of the standards, definitely start there! Here's a list of some of the more granular/weird ones that are on my shelves:

• Panel Discussions (lots of great topics like page breakdown, pacing, using your gutters, etc)
  
• The Will Eisner Books (Comics & Sequential Art, Graphic Narrative and Storytelling, Expressive Anatomy. I've only read the 1st two, but they're fascinating looks at the older-style black and white layouts, with lots of good tips)
  
  • ***these use examples from Eisner's life, so 1930s-2005. The older ones are less-than-politically-correct, and the publisher addresses it in the forward, but still, CW.
    
• Wonderbook (this is just FUN fiction writing theory, written by the guy who did Annihilation)
  
• The Comics Journal (you can subscribe to this at your local comic book store through Diamond. Full of industry talk!)

thanks for posting. I think you have a great attitude, and honestly, attitude counts for more than you think.

I'll not critique the website, but, knowing you're new to the fundamentals, try to share some more general thoughts.

1. do more. I think you're starting this already with some of your sketches for mini cooper. but always, always, do more. 50 iterations, 100 iterations. Keep pushing beyond the obvious, and use sketching as the tool to do that. I read an old design book, from the 70s, that said "only one solution is the symptom of an inflexible and untrained mind." /r/52weeksofdesign
   
   
2. Time to get up on the basics. That means the basics of drawing (if you so please). It's not a requirement as a designer (I'm a piss poor artist), but it definitely helps sometimes. http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898682&sr=8-1&keywords=right+hand+drawing
   
   What sketching is important for is flexing ideas and testing compositions before going to the computer.
   
   
3. Learn the basics of typography:
   http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Graphic-Design-Communication-Courses/dp/0321934288/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898490&sr=1-1&keywords=stop+stealing+sheep
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898879&sr=1-1&keywords=robert+bringhurst
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898800&sr=1-2&keywords=typography
   
   
4. Grids
   http://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Principles-Organizing-Design/dp/1568984650/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419898762&sr=1-1&keywords=kimberly+elan
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Systems-Graphic-Systeme-Visuele-Gestaltung/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898837&sr=8-1&keywords=grid+systems
   
   
5. Photography (if you like)
   http://www.amazon.com/Black-White-Photography-Manual-Revised/dp/0316373052/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419898921&sr=8-2&keywords=black+and+white+photography
   
   and
   
   
6. remember that this is detail work. So things like spelling errors in this post, and on your website, should be resolved.
   
   Above and beyond the basics, I see your passion is impacting the world through design. So the question becomes HOW can graphic design impact the world, and does it at all? and what can you make or do directly? I think above all, a designer is an entrepreneur these days. Especially with that main driving passion.
   

Here's some links of books I put on my wish list. Its a lot of stuff about grids, which is something you should learn.

Grid Systems in Graphic Design

Universal Principles of Design

The Grid: A Modular System for the Design and Production of Newpapers, Magazines, and Books

The Elements of Typographic Style (A dry read, but very valuable knowledge)

Thinking with Type

I learned most of my composition skills from Drawing and Painting classes. I've heard photography is a great way to learn composition too.

Aside from that use Lynda.com and learn your color theory. You should also learn stuff like using CMYK vs RGB. Common sizes for print material in your country.

If you go Freelance, use this book: Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

If you haven't discovered this site and you're feeling frustrated, just remember it could be worse: Clients From Hell

And just for fun: How a Web Design Goes Straight To Hell, Why You Don't Like Changes to Your Design

Went to university. Got into it because my high school had a bunch of design-related classes, and I liked them, was good at them, found it relatively easy (as in it felt more fun than work). As a result of school, I don't have many resources to recommend, because I didn't need to rely on them to learn. We learned more by doing and getting feedback from instructors and such.

That aside, there are two type books I could suggest. The first is sometimes considered a "bible" and was probably the most recommended book in my program, but is more of a resource book, and that'd be The Elements of Typographic Style. Another is Stop Stealing Sheep and Find How Type Works which is much more accessible and probably a better starting point.

Overall, probably the biggest thing to start with is to understand that design is in the function, in the purpose and whether it communicates that effectively, and that the form follows. It doesn't really matter how nice a poster looks if it doesn't do what it was meant to accomplish. If you're wanting to make art, that's one thing, but design is different.

You want to learn not just how to physically create something, but understand why you make each choice, and understand why it works or not.

On typography:

• The Elements of Typographic Style, the Bible of Typography.
  
• Thinking with Type, a nice overview of how type works.
  
• Detail in Typography, on the finer points of type.
  
  On grids:
  
  
• Raster Systeme, by the eminent expert of the Swiss School.
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid, a modern update on the timeless grid.
  
  On colour:
  
  
• The Art of Color, a classic on color.
  
• Interaction of Color, another classic text on color (theory).
  
  On usability:
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think, a classic on web usability.
  
• The Design of Everyday Things, a general usability Urtext.
  
• Understanding Comics, a great primer from an unlikely field.
  
  On information design:
  
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, the master at work.
  
  On inspiration:
  
  
• How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer, inspiration from the field.
  
• How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
  
  On theory:
  
  
• What is a designer, philosophical musings, existential questions.
  
• Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field, theoretical backgrounds on the craft.
  
  On history:
  
  
• Meggs' History of Graphic Design, a canonical classic.
  
• Graphic Design: A New History, an alternative narrative.
  
  Monographs:
  
  
• From Lascaux to Brooklyn, the inimitable Paul Rand.
  
• Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design, the art of Saul Bass.
  
• Tibor Kalman, Perverse Optimist, the exceptional work of Mr Kalman.

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.

• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
  
• Stop Stealing Sheep & find our how type works 3rd Edition by Erik Spiekermann, this one is a super easy read but a great book.
  
  
• Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, I have the 2nd Edition
  
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid by Timothy Samara
  
  
• Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip Meggs. I have the 4th edition but I think most are okay. This is a good general typography textbook.
  
  
• Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks by Keith Houston
  
  I can't give suggestions on hand-lettering books yet as the few I have read weren't good...so I'm trying to find better ones. But check out Louise Fili and Jessica Hische for inspiration and of course Paula Scher and Sagmeister.
  
  There are many other books so I welcome others to chime in and add their suggestions.

If you're looking for something he will learn from, not just a gimmicky "lolol I hate papyrus" gift, I'd strongly recommend The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

This book was recommended to me by one of my lecturers while I was in university. I didn't purchase it until I had graduated (mainly because I was broke at the time), but I really wish I had purchased it earlier. It is the pinnacle book for learning about typographic history and best practices. I cannot stress enough how much of an amazing resource this is for a young typographer. Even if you don't end up getting it for him, just let him know that it exists so he can pick it up at some point.

As a person with no education beyond high school, take all that I say with a grain of salt. I'm a pretty successful web designer and front-end developer, having working with four startups and done a year of freelancing.

It is not uncommon to hear industry peers criticize the education system as it pertains to web design because often the practices you learn are no longer the standard or relevant. I've heard of many stories where designers exit college (with no working experience, obviously) and have an incredibly difficult time finding work for the reasons I listed above.

Education has never been brought up at any of the companies I've worked or those that I've consulted with. I believe the reason for this is that I have a body of work to show along with whatever reputation I've garnered on Dribbble, say.

All this being said, it is entirely possible for you to develop your skills on your own, such as I did, and find work. I'm happy to list all the reading materials that I own that helped me get where I am now. I'll list what I remember but I'll have to go check when I can get a second:

Hardboiled Web Design
HTML5 for Web Designers
CSS3 for Web Designers
The Elements of Content Strategy
Responsive Web Design
Designing for Emotion
Design is a Job
Mobile First
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type
The Icon Handbook
Don't Make Me Think

If you invest your money in those and actually read them, you will be well on your way. Feel free to ping me. Good luck!

I have compiled a reading list to be read in order just for this question.

I strongly believe that these books will make you better than 90% of designers out there.

Level One

Start with Thinking with Type it is a really good introduction to all things graphic design. It focuses a lot on typography and it is really basic. I

Next is Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type This book takes what you learned in Thinking with Type and allows you to develope it further in a grid based system. Its good, basic, and has exercises for you to do to play with composition.

Third on the list is Graphic Design: The New Basics It will take what you learned in Thinking with Type and Grid Systems and open them up a little. You learn about design elements other than just type like scale, rhythm and contrast. It really good, and has some projects to do.

Level 2

Now You can get into more "advanced" stuff. There are a lot of books that can go here, but Ill recommend some of my favorites. Its not as important to do this section in order.

Grid Systems in Graphic Design is the bible when it comes to grids. Its german and dry as fuck, but it is basically awesome. Its expensive, but worth every single penny.

Elements of Typographic Style Not alot about grids in here, but it tells you every insane crazy thing that typographers do when they massage text.

You can look at other designers work too. Heres a list of designers I like a lot:

Stefan Sagmeister

Paul Rand

Massimo Vignelli

James Victore

Paul Sahre

Wolfgang Weinhart

Paula Scher

Tibor Kalman

Most of these designers also have books out about their life and work.

Get a sketchbook and play around in it. Draw, collage, glue bubblegum wrappers in there. Just make it a diary of your visual life.

You could also get into Visual Theory here:
Norman Bryson has a book on still lifes that awesome
JWT Mitchell's What do pictures want is great

After this, its just a matter of making a lot of really bad shit and eventually its just a little less worse and maybe one day it might be good.

Ive got more, but that should keep you busy for a year or two.

"Just doing it" is fair enough and is valuable, but also can only take one so far without understanding fundamentals as well.

What you don't want to be is someone with just a high software proficiency but relatively little understanding of what they're doing, or why. They essentially end up becoming an expert at mimicry. They can build whatever you want, but don't understand why what they're building works.

I've seen enough examples where it can simply delay advancement, such that someone self-taught with 5-10 years experience ends up with skills comparable to a graduate with 0-3 years of experience.

If the goal is to circumvent school, especially if the motivation is to save money, then the goal should also be to replicate the benefits of design education as much as possible without the expense.

> Books are nice but they aren't nearly the invaluable tool that "Just Doing It" is.

I assume you're just talking about instructional books, which relates to what I was saying above. To discredit the reading of a book such as The Elements of Typographic Style would be a shame. I imagine a book like that is required reading in any graphic design program.

Some of my favorites. Some are good to skim through for ideas, some of them are more "sit down and read" books. Definitely not a comprehensive list, but all books that I enjoyed reading.

Graphic Style by Seymour Chwast and Steven Heller

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

100 ideas that Changed Graphic Design by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

A Short History of the Printed Word by Warren Chappell and Robert Bringhurst

The Posters: 1,000 Posters from Toulouse-Lautrec to Sagmeister

Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop by Jim Sherraden

I don't actually know why sorry. If I could find my copy of this I could maybe say:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881792128

Best guess it has something to do with the arrangement of our eyes, but that's entirely my guess, and not a very educated one.

Good/quality design is making sure that as many aspects of a design as possible at least look intentional. In Modern/Swiss design (what most design today is based off of) this means keeping spacing/line-weights consistent, either the same, or from some sort of set/sequence. Keeping all of your horizontal lines, in the figure and the implied lines between, the same is very pleasing to the eye, and generally "looks better".

At the moment the thin slash through the middle is different enough from all the other white-spaces that it should maybe be a bit wider, though the designer should take care of that after dealing the the cross-bar on the A, just in case it's just that comparison that looks off.

Does that help?

Yeah man. It sounds like you're well on your way to getting to learn the ropes.

A great book is http://www.amazon.com/Smashing-Design-Foundations-Designing-Experiences/dp/0470666854 (found on google play for less than half the price).

It's from the makers of http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/ which is also a great site to keep up to date with things.

a few things:


-read about design history. It's probably the most important and commonly overlooked aspect of learning design. Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide was a good one.


-subscribe to Design magazines. The quality of articles in print magazines is always way better than most blogs you'll find. Also, it just feels good to flip through a magazine once in awhile. Communication Arts. Applied Arts. Computer Arts. They're all worth looking at.


-color theory books are pretty easy to come by and most of them seem to be the same. So any color theory book is good.


-for type I really liked thinking with type. And the elements of typographic style is amazing but a lot harder of a read.


-also, process is everything. If you can think of design as more than 'making things look good', that helps. Ultimately design is making this work better. Every choice affects how a person will feel/react when they see your design. Color, type, layout, everything, will have a psychological affect on people, even if they don't realize it.

Well, as an ex-designer that now pretty much exclusively codes, I'd say your time would be best spent around typography. Here's a book that I would highly recommend. :)

Yep, the 555 timer is only producing a square wave input, the transistors are handling all of the logic!

The internet is a great resource for learning this, but unfortunately there's not too much available for beginners. Ben Eater is a great start, here's a video he did showing you RTL here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTu3LwpF6XI

There are also lectures on youtube, and tons of textbooks. I use 'Digital Design Principles and Practices' by John Wakerly, here:

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-Principles-Practices-Book/dp/0131863894

You can pick that up used for under $20, and it will explain pretty much anything you need to know about digital design.

A list of some of my favorites so far..

Interactions of Color by Josef Albers

[The Elements of Typographic Style] (https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485894924&sr=1-3&keywords=typography+book) by Robert Bringhurst

[Don't Make Me Think] (https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability-ebook/dp/B00HJUBRPG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485895055&sr=1-1&keywords=dont+make+me+think) by Steve Krug (More of web design, but I loved the book. It can apply to all design.)

Logo Design Love by David Airey

Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

These are just a few that I have really enjoyed.

If you're having trouble with text and typography, I recommend Elements of Typographic Style. From letters and glyphs to pages and columns, it's a great read (actually funny in places) and will help you know what you want to do with your type. Then it's usually a pretty simple matter of googling how to do that in InDesign.

This isn't directly skills-related, but if you're going to be working as a designer you should read Design is a Job. A lot of really great practical info on working as a designer and the industry you don't usually hear people talk about.

Thanks! One of my friends told me I need to read up on typography as well. He recommended me reading THIS and also THIS before I even start college to get a better understanding of it all. Regarding HTML and CSS, hopefully we'll learn that during the Web design I, II and III during the course. Otherwise I know a college in town where you can get a Web Design diploma (2 evening classes per week) in just two months and that is basically ONLY html, css and dreamweaver. It's dirt cheap to do as well so I might do that if I dont get enough html/css experience from college.

Oh cool! this book is great, as well as this one! Typography is really important :)

That one is OK but I definitely prefer this one as it has all the little things for all sites and readers. It teaches you how to develop to the open standard ePub. It costs $6.99 but it saved me days of aggravation. The author has many free templates inside and is more than willing to answer your emails.

Others have covered the serious books but for a bit of entertainment and the look at the somewhat eccentric side, I recommend The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd.

Chip has been a long time book cover designer and this story covers his experience in design school and some of the lessons he learned along the way. It's one of my favorite reads and I recommend it to any designer that has been through or will be going through college soon.

Differences between apps:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/how-to/photoshop-illustrator-indesign-overview.html

https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/creative-professional/whats-difference-photoshop-illustrator

These are pretty good books if you're getting into graphic design.

https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Creative-Design-Gavin-Ambrose-ebook/dp/B0747LQ6D4/

https://www.amazon.com/Production-Manual-Required-Reading-Range/dp/1472591313/

If you're starting out with Photoshop here's some resources:

http://www.reddit.com/r/photoshop/comments/1d0dgm/need_a_little_help_here_with_photoshop/c9m2cli

https://www.reddit.com/r/postprocessing/comments/4x91ex/post_processing_megathread/

Lynda.com is pretty good as well for getting you started with either Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc. They have courses for a variety of apps.

I can only choose one?!

User-experience design. I'm a web developer/designer, so much my work is to make websites intuitive and easy to use. As it turns out, doing this is quite difficult; UX design is almost a science in itself.

If you'd like to read a superb book on the subject, check out a book titled The Design of Everyday Things.

If you're still thinking "how complicated could it be?", check out this new edition to my bookshelf: The Elements of Typographic Style: a ~400 page treatment on typography alone. Very few notice the good/bad about the typography of a website or publication, if it looks nice, and less do anything more than just notice. Yet if it doesn't look so great, everyone will notice.

The mark of a good UX designer is that the user barely notices his design at all.

Or maybe number theory. If you let me, I'll lecture you about things like information theory, Euler's works, or my favorite math problems all day. :)

A few of my favorites in no particular order

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
The definitive source for classic typography, a must read for anyone seriously interested in type.

[Reading Letters by Sofie Beier] (https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Letters-Legibility-Sofie-Beier/dp/9063692714)
A great intro to text legibility with lots of imagery.

Shaping Text by Jan Middendorp
Nice intro to typography and the importance of context.

Shady Characters by Keith Houston
Part novel, part history, part art. All about the origins of typographic symbols, characters, and alphabets. If that sort of thing interests you check this book out.

Basics Design: Layout


Basics Design: Typography


Basics Design: Design Thinking


Basics Design: Image


Basics Design: Colour


Basics Design: Grids


Thinking With Type


Making and Breaking the Grid


Grid Systems Principles


The next few aren't so much technique books but are good reads.

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Damn Good Advice: For People With Talent

The Vignelli Canon

It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be

Just because something is regularly used does not mean that it is good or appropriate. Besides, free fonts are seldom used in newspapers, television, movies, and music videos (and almost never used by reputable organizations). Free fonts are almost always terrible because of: kerning, x-height, letterforms, glyphs, ligatures, leading, etc. A good typeface has a family, not just a single font. Here's a primer, but I would recommend this book and this one.

My critique remains the same as my initial comments: far too many typefaces, and avoid using free fonts. Buy them if you can, steal them if you have to, or be much more diligent in finding well designed free typefaces. Start here.

I really like "Shaping text" by Jan Middendorp which gives a good and entertaining overview of typography with many beautiful examples.

Kerning is the individual spacing between letter pairs.

Tracking is the spacing between a range of characters.

So finding a medium between not squashing the letters is Tracking. Slightly different, definitely worth knowing the difference asap (I learnt this way too late on!)

Type Matters is a great little book on typography that is definitely worth a read

You should definitely read up on typography.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128

Here are some general rules:

• Most type is suited for body copy (unless it's a display face), so when you scale it up, the letters are further apart than they should be (because that space gets scaled up too). A good general rule to have is to tighten up the tracking slightly on larger type (if needed).
  
• Just like design elements need to breathe, so does type. The default leading (spacing between lines of text) is a bit tight on most faces. The best way is to adjust via your eye, but you can generally do around 1.5x and be ok.
  
  Note: These are not absolute rules to live by. While they will generally work for many scenarios, it's better to understand the "rules" of typography and adjust based on your design's specific needs.
  
  Overall, think more about your spacing. Give things room to breathe, as right now some pieces feel a little tight. I'm not going to tell you specifics on what to fix (I think that's a bad brand of critique that happens here), because we should all be able to look and think critically about our own work. Look over your design, see where you can help something breathe, and adjust to your own discretion.

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

Required reading for designers, typographers and anyone in the industry. It's slightly lost its status in the internet age with a lot of designers doing web work now, but it still remains one of the most influential and important texts on the subject. Herman Zapf was quoted as saying "I wish to see this book become the Typographer's Bible". Doesn't come much better endorsed than that.

Even though it's somewhat hard to get hold of, it's still a course text for a lot of design schools.

holy shit is that comic sans in publishing i think i just shat myself

...

Well, it's pretty creative though. Not a bad job in that sense. Here's a free tip if you're actually interested in publishing.

Alors, j’ai fouillé dans ma bibliothèque et un peu sur internet, voilà quelques idées. Je mets ça ici parce que ça peux intéresser d’autres personnes. C’est en vrac, thématique, et a pondérer en fonction de ses goûts, je ne la connais pas.

Du concret avec : « Design Secrets : Product »
http://www.amazon.fr/Design-Secrets-Products-Real-Life-Uncovered/dp/1564964760
Le bouquin est pas mal parce qu’il présente des vrais cas de création d’agence (1 ou 2 double-page(s) par objet). Du coup les dessins et photos ne sont pas forcément ultra sexy, mais c’est la vraie vie « en coulisse » (vrais roughs pas refaits pour l’occasion, photos, 3D de recherche, etc). Après, gros défaut, il date un peu donc les projets aussi et c’est dommage, mais ils ont sorti un n°2 http://www.amazon.fr/Design-Secrets-Products-Real-life-Uncovered/dp/1592532926 que je ne connais pas mais qui est peut-être plus contemporain. (c’est en anglais mais c’est encore mieux comme ça elle va apprendre du vocabulaire technique)

De la bonne grosse théorie avec : « La mécanisation au pouvoir » de Siegfried Giedion.
Il va être super dur à trouver s’il n’y a pas eu de réédition, mais c’est un livre très important sur les origines de l’industrialisation et du design. Le genre de livre que tu abordes avec méfiance et qui est en fait tout simplement passionnant, et fondateur dans la discipline. Donc si elle a la fibre pour tout ce qui est conceptuel, histoire, histoire des arts, philo, ça peut valoir le coup de le chercher (mais ça va être dur donc…).

Du pratique avec « Structural packaging » :
La version que j’ai retrouvée n’est pas la même que la mienne, mais elle a l’air encore mieux ! http://www.amazon.com/Structural-Packaging-Design-Boxes-Forms/dp/1856697533 Le bouquin est assez cool parce qu’il a des applications dans plein de domaines : packaging donc, mais aussi mobilier, pré-maquettes, maquettes, recherche de forme… et peu aussi se transposer dans d’autres matériaux (avec le plastique ça marche très bien par exemple, un de mes potes a fait son diplôme de DSAA sur ce sujet dans le domaine du mobilier). Un bouquin utile, que tu consulte régulièrement et qui ouvre des possibilités de créas.

Sinon il y a le classique abonnement à « Intramuros » :
C’est LA revue de design, avec tout ce qui sort et se fait en ce moment, mais après c’est cher quand même (peut-être la version digitale ?) et personnellement je n’aime pas trop ce genre de format avec masse de pub et beaucoup de produit « design-d’art » ou « déco » ou « archi » plus que design produit ou industriel. Et puis ça prend de la place et c’est pénible à reconsulter (mais la encore la version digitale peut-être ?). Ceci dit à son stade d’étude elle en profitera pas mal je pense, au niveau culture et designers ou éditeurs contemporains. On est plus dans le côté fashion du design mais il y a de très belles choses et ça peut être une (très) bonne idée. http://www.intramuros.fr/accueil_intramuros_magazine.php

Sinon il y a tout ce qui est relatif aux logiciels 3D : Rhino 3D donc (le plus utile et utilisé, au moins dans les petites agences), et Blender je dirais, parce qu’il est libre, puissant et donnera de bonnes bases. C’est plus délicat parce que ça dépend de ce qu’ils voient à l’école, mais s’ils n’en font pas trop c’est indispensable ; et ce sera de toutes façon une grosse plus value pour son book et ses projets, tout en apportant des bases qui seront transposables sur d’autre logiciels s’ils ne sont pas utilisés dans les agences où elle fera stages / boulot. Après je n’en ai pas vraiment à recommander parce que j’apprends plus avec des tutos sur des sujets précis, et il faut encore qu’elle ai la fibre… et puis, enfin, si Blender est gratuit Rhino3D ne l’est pas, et je ne sais pas si ils ont une version éducation (sinon il va falloir le « trouver »…)

Et pour finir les livres plus de fanboy : sur Jonathan Ives et son travail chez Apple par exemple (extraordinaire au niveau esthétique ET suivi de production), Philippe Starck (le mec est narcissique à l’extrême et pénible mais aussi brillant : http://www.amazon.fr/Starck-explications-Philippe/dp/2844262104/ref=la_B001JXXLIK_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1451732861&sr=1-3), ou alors mes dieux personnel : Alberto Meda (rien trouvé qu’en Italien hélas) et Dieter Rams (le mec qui a inventé le design d’apple pour Braun dans les années 60, rien que ça…).

Way too many typefaces, lack of hierarchy, and no attention to typographic style. Try to keep to no more than 2 different typefaces per design, but create hierarchy and variation through size, color, and occasionally by including variations of weight or font style in the same font family.

There are many things I could list that are incorrect or need improvement about the brochure, but until you get the basics of typography down, none of them will really matter. Type treatment is arguably the single most important part of a good design. It defines the design. Good type treatment applied to the ugliest images can be completely transformational - however, no mater how beautiful the images are, bad type will destroy the design.

Read some books on typography to get an understanding of the basics, and then start to apply the new knowledge.

This book is single-handedly the best book you can read to get you headed in the right direction. I would highly recommend starting there.

Then, apply what you have learned to a new design of this brochure and come back for a second round of critique.

Novels with a strong male protagonist? I don't mean to be rude, but nearly every novel written, ever.

That said, if you like Palahniuk, you'll probably like The Contortionist's Handbook. I also like the relatively weak male leads from The Cheese Monekys and The Learners

Honestly I didn't crack open any books for HTML or CSS. I just searched the web for guides and starting points and tried things, broke things and fixed things. But I personally like to learn that way so if I am presented with an issue that the book doesn't cover I can think about a solution rather than being stuck.

A quick search found this.

I don't know if they are good books, but it's a start.

And since design is subjective, all I can suggest is looking for art books and / or something like this.

It's nice to see snapshots of what people have come up with. Just keep in mind, that art usually works in trends. So one year, grunge is in, but then hand-drawn will be in next year.

The Elements of Typographic Style, By Robert Bringhurst is an excellent resource for setting type.

EDIT: Of course, I would recommend purchasing a copy if this sort of thing interests you. It's a great book to keep near your desk for quick reference.

I wish there were a best practices, as with web design, for book design. Especially for when I'm trying to get text or an image to fit all on one page!

I just look at examples and try to use them as case studies.

I've found lots of examples, and some guidelines, in this book: http://www.amazon.ca/Aspects-Contemporary-Design-Richard-Hendel/dp/1609381750

Since you're even tagging Aidan_King:
I'm really extremely surprised by all the positive comments you get for your posters in the different threads. I guess that's the Bernie hype. Sure, it's nice that you do them and it's better than not doing it at all, but they are anything but well designed and would never be officially used.

If you are serious and think about doing more design work I recommend getting a book about typography (for example this one) and start from there.

Edit: Okay, that "would never be used" was wrong. One was already posted on Instagram.

Actually, I do have one for you. One of my favorites, The Cheese Monkeys, by Chip Kidd. If you're not familiar with Chip Kidd, he's known for designing book covers. This was his first novel (there's a sequel that came out a few years later), and I love it. There's a character in this book, Himillsy Dodd, who very much reminds me of you.

Chip Kidd is a god. I highly recommend his Book One, which displays his work from 1986-2006. So many great designs.

I think it might be helpful to start from the beginning and learn the principles and hierarchies behind the bells and whistles of Adobe CC.

• The Interaction of Color
  
  
• Grid Systems In Graphic Design
  
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style
  
  
• Trademarks and Symbols
  
  
• The Design Of Everyday Things
  
  Each of these I was instructed to read cover to cover when I first began designing and here I am three years later with an extremely successful design career, large in part due to these readings.
  
  Take the time to do it the right way, and the rest will follow naturally.
  
  

If you want to be a web designer and not just a code monkey, there's no way of getting around learning (at least the basics) of graphic design. Composition, grid systems, colour theory, typography. Did I mention typography? Really, visual trends come and go, but good typography is timeless and arguably the #1 factor that decides whether a site's content (the most important part of a site) is consumable.

Then, learn HTML and CSS. Write code by hand, i.e. no WYSIWYG editors. Also, ignore server-side languages (PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, C#, etc.) and even JavaScript at this point. Once you're familiar with the elements of HTML and how to style them via CSS, learn JavaScript, because now you'll have a good mental model of what you're manipulating with JS.

This alone will keep you busy for a substantial period of time, but it's the meat of front-end engineering. Simultaneously, keep refining your design knowledge and skills. Practice on personal projects. Get feedback from peers, it's a very generous community.

If you're interested in logos and marks, I thought "Marks of Excellence" was a fantastic book. It's one that you need to read, though, not just flip through. For typography, I think "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" is a good read for an easy introduction to typography. For a little more serious dig, hit up "The Elements of Typographic Style".

This is my favorite, mostly because it brings in concepts that surround design, and explains things like gestalt. Pardon the Amazon link, but it's not an affiliate link.

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lidwell/dp/1592530079/ref=sr_1_56?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418235901&sr=1-56&keywords=graphic+design+concepts

Edit: forgot my favorite type book, which is dry as hell, but full of great info: http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792063/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&refRID=1RD40NPJ75KD5V99KXAB

And the version for online type: http://webtypography.net/

La design nu pot sa zic ca ma pricep prea tare, dar domeniul ma preocupa din ce in ce mai mult. Thinking with type si The Elements of Typographic Style, The Design of Everyday Things, Grid Systems in Graphic Design, Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop si Don't Make Me Think sunt cartile care mi-au placut/din care am invatat cel mai mult, dar sunt clasice asa ca banuiesc ca stii de ele.

Awesome, I just both this two:
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292256276&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-Designers-Critical-Students/dp/1568984480

cant wait until they here! Thanx a lot for the nice suggestions.

The best thing to do is get a copy of Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographical Style and read it. Then read it again. Then reference it regularly.

There is no better resource for learning to set type well.

Thanks. If you're curious how to format a Kindle book, you can read up on it here: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Book-Kindle-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377352299&sr=8-1&keywords=building+your+book+for+kindle

It would actually be helpful to browse through it before you start writing. That way, you know how to format your text and chapters ahead of time.

the first decent book i got a long time ago was Type and Image. A very good book on typography is The Elements of Typographic Style, for a wider perspective go for Typographic Design: Form and Communication. To get a perspective on the 'communication' part of graphical communication i'd got for Information Architects

I guess this list dates me a bit :)

Lovely book marks for all my reading!

Books, more often than not when it comes to holidays I ask for books. I'm not particularly picky either. Usually I'll suggest something from my favorite author or the newest best seller. I'm rarely disappointed :P. Other than that I ask for gift cards and cash.

My aunt always asks for a Christmas list (a LIST, can you imagine?) I usually just jot down a few suggestions because I cannot fathom coming up with a list. Regardless of my suggestions she almost always gets me some sort of butt ugly boutique jewelry that's in line with the latest fad. I don't know who told her that I liked zebra print and funky colored peace signs but they lied.

> What are some good fonts?

Very hard to answer unless some context ist given.
If you wish to make a qualified decision yourself,
I recommend the Bringhurst for an introduction:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881792128

Well, the most important books that I read when learning design were:

• Grid Systems
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid
  
  All of those would be a good start.

An Essential Reading List For Designers

Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk

All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.

Architecture

• The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture by Phaidon
  
• The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi
  
• Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown & Steven Izenour
  
• Modern Architecture since 1900 by William J R Curtis
  
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Phaidon
  
  Communication Design
  
  
• Essentials of Visual Communication by Bo Bergström
  
• Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed
  
• Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice by Jonathan Baldwin & Lucienne Roberts
  
• This Means This, That Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall
  
• Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture by Marita Struken & Lisa Cartwright
  
  Fashion Design
  
  
• Fashion Design Course by Steven Faerm
  
• Fashion Today by Colin McDowell
  
• The Fashion Designer Survival Guide by Mary Gehlhar
  
• Deluxe: How Luxury Lost it Lustre by Dana Thomas
  
• The Fashion Book by Angela Buttolph Editors of Phaidon ?
  
  Furniture Design
  
  
• Furniture Design by Stuart Lawson
  
• Eames by Gloria Koenig
  
• Design of the 20th Century by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• 1000 Chairs by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• The Encyclopedia of Furniture by Joseph Aronson
  
  Game Design
  
  
• The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jess Schell
  
• Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
  
• [Challenges for Game Designers](Challenges for Game Designers) by Brenda Brathwaite
  
• Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers
  
• Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting by Syd Field
  
  Graphic Design
  
  
• Grid System in Graphic Design by Josef-Muller Brockmann
  
• The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
  
• A Type Primer by John Kane
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
• The New Typography by Jan Tschichold
  
  Information Design
  
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Show Me The Numbers:Desiginingg Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few
  
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Information is Beautiful by David McCandless
  
• Information Graphic by Sandra Rendgen
  
  
  Industrial Design
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
  
• The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
  
• Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Rob Thompson
  
• Process: 50 Product Design from Concept to Manufacture by Jennifer Hudson
  
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell
  
  (cont'd)
  
  

For quick reading, I suggest Sitepoint's
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Fairly adequate for beginners and specifically for web design.

If you want a more generalized book about the fundamentals of design The Non-Designer's Design Book

Thinking with Type is a great book, but I'm more of a Bringhurst fan - The Elements of Typographic Style is my recommendation.

Even if it's just a passing interest, I highly recommend 'The Elements of Typographic Style 4.0' by Robert Bringhurst: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881792128/ref=aw_2nd_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115

Download the free guide from Amazon on how to format your Word document for Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Kindle-Direct-Publishing-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483308983&sr=8-1&keywords=kindle+formatting

BTW if you're serious about this business get Scrivener as an investment. It'll make life so much easier for you. Vellum is for advanced publishers. You don't need it yet.

Do you have a good understanding of typography in general? If you have that, you could try searching for specific things you want to learn like adjusting kerning or using ligatures.

If you need to familiarize yourself more with the elements of typography, this book is commonly considered THE go-to book for typography: http://amzn.com/0881792128

If she doesn't have it already, The Elements of Typographic Style is probably a must-have.

I agree with Mr. Hamburger that the documentary Helvetica is a good choice, too. They have some other assorted Helvetica merch in their store.

If she's got a bit of a sense of humor, I think a keming shirt would work as a less-scholarly gift.

Perhaps a bit frivolous, but this is a neat little pop-up book called ABC3D.

Layout + Color

Picture This by Molly Bang

Typography


Second vote for Elements of Typographic Style, excellent book.


Drawing, honestly at the start the biggest key to growth is going to be drawing as much as you can. You're going to suck for a while so start getting those bad drawings out of you. There's a ton of great people to watch on YouTube (Sycra Yasin, Glenn Vilppu, Stan Prokopenko, Steve Huston). I've seen Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain recommended by many. I'm not crazy about it myself but I didn't read as a beginner artist so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have.

First start with a very basic digital logic design course or book.

This is the one I used. Its ok but there are better books out there.

The Elements of Typographic Style is a classic, one of the best typography books around.

"Type Matters"

Great book for it, made by a former student of my university & now is used as a teaching aid.

In almost every GD class I took at the California College of the Arts this book was required reading. its a great reference for beginners and really reasonable in price compared to my tuition.

The elements of typographic style

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250821514&sr=8-1

learned more about fonts and font design than i ever wanted to. great book. lots of why, lots of theory, not as many examples.

the Cheese monkeys by Chip kidd. Its fiction but some of the lessons and stories are very true to how art school is.

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792055/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292256276&sr=8-1

Easily one of the most engaging and educating books about type.

you'd both know this if you read the kindle publishing ebook free from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007URVZJ6

The Cheese Monkeys by Chipp Kidd. A weird one but very good - our typography teacher had us read it and write a short opinion piece. http://www.amazon.com/The-Cheese-Monkeys-Novel-Semesters/dp/0061452483

Personally this book was a god send -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basics-Design-07-Gavin-Ambrose/dp/2940373779

(I think you can find pdfs online)

I also found these interesting when learning
http://retinart.net/typography/typographicscale/
http://alistapart.com/article/settingtypeontheweb

There are these really really basic resources too -
http://typophile.com/node/47265
http://www.creativebloq.com/typography/what-is-typography-123652?page=1

Ahhh these type exercises bring back fond memories! Typography can be a difficult thing to learn and teach because there is never one answer to a problem. Just learn the few things you shouldn't do and rock out with the rest. It is a skill that has a feel to it and the only way to develop an eye for it is to just practice and observe. I will dig out some of my work of similar projects and share.

Here are some of my favorite reads from back in day.

The Elements of Typographic Style

The Fundamentals of Typography

U&lc : Influencing Design & Typography

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel In Two Semesters by Chip Kidd

More on the book and what's printed on its fore-edge here :-)

Get The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. After you've read it you can check out webtypography.net a site which is going through chapter by chapter and adapting the lessons of The Elements of Typographic Style to the web providing helpful css snippets and explanations of how print and web typography differ by convention and necessity. In my opinion design without typography is nothing. A thoughtfully typeset page with no adornment caries far more weight than a poorly typeset page filled with the fluff techniques demonstrated on the multitude of tutorial websites out there. Understand typography and you are well on your way to understanding design.

I like these books as a starting off point.

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

The Language of Graphic Design by Richard Poulin

Megg's History of Graphic Design

Try your hand making layouts using box model.

Learn how to import fonts from Google fonts or Typekit if you can afford $50/yr

Read The Non-Designers Design Book

The Elements of Typographic Style, very good book about the fundamentals.

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

typography has some good rules for this.

see the book The Elements of Typographic Style

or http://webtypography.net/intro/ which is based on the instructions of this book.

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Brinhurst is what you're looking for.

Hermann Zapf said “I wish to see this book become the Typographers’ Bible,” and Hoefler & Frere-Jones consider it "the finest book ever written about typography".

But the bible of typography is definitely this.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063?ie=UTF8&tag=desi05d-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0881792063

Read this book. It will explain typography and basic design principles like contrast, repetition, symmetry, etc. etc.

@OP I second the typography being…default as sitniz said. I would suggest checking out resources like ilovetypography, thinkingwithtype, and the fundamental "Elements of Typographic Style" by Binghurst

I would also recommend this book , Elements of Typographic Style

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881792128/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1494081534&sr=8-9&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=typography

Bookmarks (there are several styles to choose from)

A very bright flashlight. I use this thing all the time.

Microfiber cloth. These are low quality, but they've come in handy for various cleaning jobs.

Color changing lightbulb.

Keychain flashlight

Realistically, I think this would be a total waste of money. Amazon have an entire free ebook devoted to this, and you can find it here. There are a few simple rules, but the biggest one is don't use the tab button. There you have it.

If you're looking for fiction, even though you didn't mention it, i'd suggest Chip Kidd's "The Cheese Monkeys" it has a lot of good insight wrapped in a strange little story.

I recommend reading this book like it's the Bible. It has everything you need, and it's very up to date. It's not the usual fluff/philosophy, but real, step by step practical advice and real world examples. I found it invaluable.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smashing-Design-Foundations-Designing-Experiences/dp/0470666854

Every designer should read Robert Bringhurst’s The elements of typographic style at least once a year.

Start with Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

Then read GUI Bloopers 2.0, Second Edition: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos

Then possibly The Design of Everyday Things

And follow up with The Non-Designer's Design Book

or here if you are in the US.

If you have it in Word, I use this book. It's a little out of date but I used it for making a Kindle book last week. Building Your Book For Kindle (PS it's free)

Amazon has an ebook that walks you through formatting for Kindle. I used this when putting my boyfriend's book up as a Kindle ebook, and it helped tremendously.

Digital Design and Computer Architecture
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-Computer-Architecture-Harris/dp/0123704979

Digital Design Principles and Practices Wakerly
http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Design-Principles-Practices-Edition/dp/0131863894/ <==You can get the 2nd/3rd editions on the cheap

Schaum's Outline
www.amazon.com/dp/0070650500/
http://www.amazon.com/Schaums-Outline-Introduction-Digital-Systems/dp/0070484392/

(I'd also suggest getting a discrete math book.)

Elements of Typographic Style

ti consiglio The Elements of Typographic Style, di Robert Bringhurst. Libro leggero e chiarissimo che copre molte basi di tipografia.

The Elements of Typographic Style

It may be a bit dense for a beginner, however it's been referenced as the bible of typography multiple times to me, by unrelated sources! (And it's cheap!)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0881791326&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=191BS5CQJSX6RBDKACAE

This book will take years off your learning curve.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063?ie=UTF8&tag=alldietslowca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0881792063

Use this book (it's free). It helped me out a lot.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007URVZJ6

If you're serious about typography.

The Elements of Typographic Style

Not sure about websites, but these books are absolute must-reads for learning typography.

Thinking With Type

Designing With Type

The Elements of Typographic Style