I seem to get asked this a lot, but here is my list, posted here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1uq58s/good_graphic_design_books_for_a_beginner/ceklj3y



> These are all books that I absolutly love, and bought for either personal use or to accompany different courses while I was getting my BFA in GD. I have seen some of them both are brick and mortar book stores, and college book stores. If you get a chance to see them in person before buying, leaf through them to get a feel.
>
> Megg's History of Graphic Design, absolutely essential to understanding where graphic design comes from historically. IMO the best GD history book on the market, at least the most encompassing. One of my favorites, was very helpful writing different papers and researching historical styles.
>
> Graphic Design School. Another great book, focuses more on design process and stuff like that. This one more walks you though being a designer. Gives tutorials on different things too, which is useful.
>
> Graphic Design Referenced is a really great book that is a bit of a hybrid. This book describes a lot of design terms, styles, and general knowledge while referring to historical and modern examples.
>
> Those three for me are really essential books for new graphic designers, I learned more from those three than I can express. Below are a few more books I really like, but might be a bit more advanced than someone just getting started might want.
>
> Another book I have used a lot, and almost included with those three is above. Thinking with Type. Really great intro into typography.
>
> More advanced even.
>
> How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
>
> A Graphic Design Student's Guide to Freelance
>
> Hope this helps!
>

Keep in mind this is just a starting point. There are tons upon tons of inspiration books out there for graphic design stuff, not to mention educational books on all sorts of specialties. I love graphic design books, the hard physical copy of them. When I'm stuck on a project I like to flip through them, read a bit, and then revisit my work again.

Here are the books currently in my amazon wishlist, so I can't vouch for them, but I do plan on eventually owning them.

Wish List:

• Graphic Design Solutions
  
• Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
  
• 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design
  
• Graphic Design Thinking
  
• Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff they don't teach you in design school, but should
  
• Making and Breaking the Grid

Hey, I'm a CG Lighting artist by trade, I'll let you know some good resources that have helped me.

As a lighter, your goal is things things, Setting the mood/atmosphere, Shaping (making sure you can make out forms of the scene), and Leading the eye (I feel like there is a fourth, but I can't think of it this morning lol)

Some good books to read:

Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painter

Light for Visual Artists (hard book to find, but worth finding a copy)

Digital Lighting and Rendering(new edition coming out soon)

Great resources to start and help train your eye, studying films is the next step. Picking apart scenes to understand how and why they lit the scene the way they did, studying photography is a great place to look as well.

Also if you can afford it, TD-U has a fantastic online course from a couple of great instructors to help you on your way of understanding CG Lighting. If you can afford the class it will be a great place to start. I took the class last year and it was an AMAZING resource, I didn't know anything beyond the technical understanding of lighting, this course really helped me understand the artistic side of lighting. The instructors are great and very helpful.

anyways, hope that helps, if you have any questions feel free to message me.

It’s actually not that complicated, but it does require that you do some serious studying. Just reading about these concepts or watching videos isn’t going to get you there. You need to apply what you learn as well. Maybe you can start by analyzing lighting situations in your daily life. What is the light source? What is its temperature/colour? Where is it coming from? Etc. Then go one step further and try to apply light/shadow to observational drawings done from life. The best way to do this (at least in the beginning) is with a setup you can control, i.e. a still life. Yes, this kind of exercise is boring as heck, but it will help you understand 3D form much better than with using photos. Photography is not great for learning this stuff cause it tends to leave out certain shifts in value that you can only really observe from real life. Which means you now have a flat reference image, which inevitably leads to a flat drawing. Learn how to draw from life first, and then you can use what you know (i.e. what you learn through drawing from life) when you draw from (photo) reference. That’s how artists like Mr. Blaise (btw, amazing source of inspiration seeing as you are into animals) here can take a relatively flat reference image and give it a truly 3D feel. They only know how to do this because they have observed how light and shadow work in real life, and have put this information down on paper time and time again.

In the image of the leopard for example, the subject is backlit, so the light source (probably the sun) is somewhere behind the animal. That means what you are actually seeing is (kinda) the “shadow” side. You might not think of it as shadow, cause we have a tendency to think of shadows as dark or light. But in reality, there is light within shadow as well (and no, thats not just my KHIII-addled mind talking), coming from all sorts of secondary or environmental light sources. All this does affect the perceived value of the shadow. For a more dramatic effect, you might choose to make the shadow side appear darker in value, or the lights brighter depending on what kind of feel or style you are going for. But until you have a working understanding of the physical nature of light and shadows, you won’t really know how to make these choices. There can be a whole array of factors to deal with in a given lighting situation, which is why I recommend doing simple still life studies to start. I also highly recommend this book as a resource on the topic of light and shadow. They teach this stuff in just about every beginning drawing class, but I found that this book in particular really presents the material in a more straightforward manner that is very easy to digest. Once you move onto colour, it also has extensive info on that as well. Anyway, hope that helps a little!

Sounds like you really want to help the guy develop professionally; and you also really want to use his work because you think it would sell. Great.

Numbers are hard to put out there without seeing his chops or the style you are asking for. Perhaps a base of, say, $500-$2000 per illustration with rights included so you own them, but with him cut in on the calendar (and other calendar year products) profits; so there is real potential and investment on his side. Then you have this great art to monetize in perpetuity and your friend has seen the light of using his talents — and, if you use the opportunity to teach him, become more comfortable with the process of doing so.

Those are opinions, this is advice:

Tell him you are interested and want him to write a quote. Tell him to base it on the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines and Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers. It's okay to mention you expect consideration for your part in this opportunity for him, but let him know you want the ownership at the end of project. If he gets the books and builds a good quote in a few weeks, good sign — have him Xerox the pages he used to make the quote and you will learn as much as he.

Have a schedule carefully set up in case he flakes. First few concepts in two weeks to develop rapport and trust — then full concepts in four, line work completed and the first few finals for approval at six-eight, finals for approval weeks eight-twelve, revised finals in sixteen. Add your slide time in secretly and only give it away harshly. Expect 12 new paid works after a life of casual attention to be a bit overwhelming for him; and if you really want to be a hero put him in contention for the next year ... but you have no responsibility to.


Because this is one of those amazing chances to really make someone's life better.

(edit: fixed studio-artist level deadline times)

Perhaps try Know your onions by Drew De Soto and How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy.

For what it's worth, the main things I've seen throughout my career that were surprises or turnoffs to new designers when they got out into the real world were:

1) You're not doing work for yourself. It sounds obvious but most people don't even think about the fact that you design for yourself when you're learning, but when you get into the workplace you design for someone else, which isn't nearly as fun. There are clients that will let you have creative freedom, but the majority will just want you to execute their ideas, no matter how bad they are.

2) It's a people job. Some folks are drawn to design because they're introverts and they envision being able to isolate themselves and be creative all day, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If you're freelance, you have to be super extroverted to drum up business for yourself - there's more face-to-face meetings and phone calls than there is actual designing. If you're in-house or agency, you generally will be working as part of a team and there's just as much confidence and extroversion needed to be successful.

3) The hours can be long and the pace can be fast. Design is deadline driven 99% of the time. That means coming up on hard deadlines you may not have a social (or indeed family) life. Most of my work days are 8-5 or 6, but deadline weeks can be 7-midnight and through the weekends. You are the last stop on the line which means you typically inherit everyone else's delays and have to compensate for them by working fast. Working fast often means you don't have the leisure of much brainstorming and concepting. Request like "I need this 18x24 poster in 30 minutes" are not uncommon. You need to be able to handle stress well, prioritize tasks efficiently and be able to turn out work that doesn't necessarily meet your own standards of perfection.

4) They won't always go with your idea. In fact they almost never will. I've seen a lot of young designers deeply frustrated that the lovely draft they sent to the client comes back as a rejection or covered in red ink. You have to be able to not take things personally, to listen and take criticism positively, and to act on alternative ideas quickly.


All that said, it is a fulfilling career if you really have a passion for visual communication, the wage is pretty good (in larger firms and agencies at least) and you can live on it comfortably, and there are upward movement opportunities into roles such as Art Director or Creative Director. Hope some of that helps.

Art School Admissions Rep here. Not here to promote my school. But I will say that its never too late to go back to school. Sounds like you were "a pretty lazy student" because there was no context for your education. A good Graphic Design program would teach you how to function in that creative environment - to communicate with your employer/clients so you can deliver what they want in the style you provide. And there's nothing like the right teacher when you're ready to learn. They can expand your style, stretch your limits, and help you do things you didn't consider.
>I've never taken any art classes, and while I think that art school would be a terrific experience, I can't justify going into debt for a degree that has a pretty good chance on not helping me pay it back.

I would point you to The Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines Go down to Barnes and Noble and just flip through it. This will give you some idea how your training can be paid back through your career. And what options are available for what you do. I will say though that from my perspective, to make a living drawing everyday, you will need to know Photoshop or(but really and) Illustrator.

Here's what I see: you're doing a ton of work! You're working hard on advancing your work, and people are paying for what you do (even if they don't know what they'll get). These are the signs of a professional artist. No matter what you do next - keep doing those things. Your perseverance will pay off.
I say that because I don't think you have to go to school. I think it would be, as you say, terrific (we would also have accepted:easy access to mentors, a safe place to fail, and built-in networking). But the other avenues you listed: tattoos, children's books, Graphic Designer, etc are just as open to you without a degree. You have tons of material for a demo reel: put yourself out there as a freelancer. Define your business, decide what you provide, and go sell that to people who you think could use it. Write a business plan and use it. You seem like an enterprising young man. I think if you give yourself a little more credit for what you've accomplished (Graduating 2nd while Lazy, doing something about your depression, making money from your videos, the successful kickstarter), seek out those who are doing what you want to do, and double or even triple your efforts on your work - you will live a life at 35 that you cannot dream of now.
I hope that helps. If you want some schools to think about feel free to PM me. Good luck.

Thanks for all your feedback. Should have started by saying that we've already signed a contract that includes scope, contingencies, etc. and he's already paid a portion up front. We've agreed on a rate that includes a certain number of hours on training his admin assistant on how to update the site and if I have to maintain it beyond X number of hours or X number of days, I'll be paid an hourly fee. I have a good working relationship with this company. I used a contract template from this, it seemed pretty comprehensive but I guess I won't know if it missed something important until it's too late.

After reading the feedback from this thread and some addition research, I'm building on a dev site on the client's server that is password protected. Since I am new to this, I wanted to just make absolute sure that I wouldn't fuck something up moving it from my server to his after I've done a shitload of work and he's approved it. GoDaddy has a default, ahem, LANDING page (will remember to use that from now on). I'm just going to leave that as is unless he asks for something because there was nothing in our contract about creating custom graphics.

I'm not too stressed but I do want to make sure that I'm doing things efficiently and securely to best serve him. And I agree, if it goes to shit, well, then lesson learned and it probably won't be the last. Thank you for your feedback, I really appreciate it.

Oh, sure. First reddit comment of the day just after waking up. I knew I shoulda had a bit of caffeine first.

Scott Adams' is the guy who wrote Dilbert, a near-genius, and a serial entrepreneur. He's a self described 1%er and likes talking a lot about the psychology of winning. His latest book (How to fail at almost everything and still win big) talks a lot about his story of success. Early on, he references a lot of 'winners'. Invariably, most winners attribute their success to luck, circumstances, or some other uncontrollable variable. Why? Because the people asking them are almost universally less successful then they are.

Unfortunately, the secret to losing weight is eating less. Going out on more dates happens when you ask more people. Successful business owners keep going in debt for a new idea and convincing other people to finance it. Obama got his job because he's incredibly charismatic, he made a ton of friends in the Democrat Party, and he was at the perfect nexus of Progress & Diversity that often propels people in that party forward. He worked his ass off to get that nomination and eventually the presidency.

Success is based on working hard in the right way, not in getting lucky. At least according to Scott Adams.

Quick edit: And don't take this as an endorsement of Obama, his policies, or anything of the sort. I detest the man and everything he stands for. But I don't think he made it because he was lucky.

Coming from a background in art & software development, the easiest way to prevent and manage disputes is clear precise written communication. Whether it's construction, graphics, art, or anything I do for clients, following these procedures has vastly enhanced my work.

A clearly written contract does help immensely beyond mere dispute resolution, it also greatly assists in clarifying the relationship between the service-provider and the customer. It's far from a contentious or litigious document if written properly, but rather a proper description - and even a means of guaranteeing your work (At Bob's Construction, we not only guarantee our work, but also guarantees it by contract).

Beyond a contract, there are perhaps even more important documents, including a project proposal, budgets, change-order sign-offs, and perhaps most importantly the project briefing/description which clearly describes both the price, and the product to be delivered. Properly following this procedure, and having the documents signed should eliminate misunderstandings and miss-communications.

For example, I've had clients described in emails, calls, and other communication exactly what they wanted, I wrote it down as described (and even written) and sent back the project briefing only to discover the client actually wanted it in a different color. In the rare case that a client things I'm not delivering on my promises, I typically tell them "Customer service is extremely important to me, and to ensure I am delivering the product you asked for, I am following the project briefing. If you would like to make a change to this briefing, we can discuss a change-order and pricing."

If the above subject(s) sound interesting to you, the most clear concise description of this has been "Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers". Don't be put off by the "graphic design" label, this works the same in all fields and I have assisted friends and associates in construction contracting services improve their businesses by using these standard professional step-by-step procedures for interacting with clients.

Broadcloth and shirting are used pretty much interchangeably. Shirting really just describes what the fabric is usually for. I haven't tried that particular store but the prices are so low, it might be worth just taking a chance.

If you're interested in dyes and history, this is an interesting read https://www.amazon.com/Mauve-Invented-Color-Changed-World/dp/0393323137

You could of course be historically accurate in silks and woolens of varied colors. I have no doubt that peasants were wearing linen dresses continuously from it's invention in the ancient Egypt era, through, well, right now. Were "ladies" of the American south? I have no idea but they were probably wearing white linen underwear.

There's some great books scanned on google books, free, like this one from 1882 https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=syh_AAAAMAAJ if you're into primary sources.

Consider also, some dresses (why am I thinking of a royal gown in particular) had repeating motifs embroidered on ($$$!). Repeat patterns can also be accomplished through weaving, i.e. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquard_loom But I don't know how relevant that is to the dot motif.

Should I mention how the polka dot and the polka dance came about during a weird polka fad?

I am curious about how cotton came to dominate fashion, in particular the contribution of slaves and British Indians. Now, most people wear the cheapest clothes available - cotton, polyester, and rayon. What was cheapest in the past? Is it penny wise and pound foolish to choose cotton over linen, now vs then? Let me know if you have any good resources about this topic ;)

Uncategorized:

Thoughts On Design: Paul Rand


Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul

100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

Paul Rand

Paul Rand: Conversations with Students

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Bauhaus

The Vignelli Canon

Vignelli From A to Z

Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible

It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book

Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!)

Josef Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design

Popular Lies About Graphic Design

100 Ideas that Changed Art

100 Diagrams That Changed the World

Basics Design 08: Design Thinking

Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965

Lella and Massimo Vignelli (Design is One)

The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice

History of the Poster

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer

The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics

George Lois: On His Creation of the Big Idea

Milton Glaser: Graphic Design

Sagmeister: Made You Look

Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?

Things I have learned in my life so far

Covering the '60s: George Lois, the Esquire Era

Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite

Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

[Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration]
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812993012/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=VEJ64Y4T0U6J&coliid=I1WMMNNLTRBQ9G)

Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs)

I Used to Be a Design Student: 50 Graphic Designers Then and Now

The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design

Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills

Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference

Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Envisioning Information

The elements of dynamic symmetry

The elements of content strategy

Corporate Diversity: Swiss graphic design and advertising

Book Design: a comprehensive guide

Meggs' History of Graphic Design

My background: I'm a business attorney working in part with small businesses and also an entrepreneur in my own right for a marketing services company separate from my practice of law.

I often see people pursuing startups going after the flashy book titles that are on the less technical side.

While this can be fine, I'd really recommend doing as much research as you can stomach into the nitty gritty, often un-fun things that people don't care for. As a lawyer, plenty of this is fun for me, but I appreciate that it's hard to hold one's attention on legal issues or accounting.

For example, I always hear people say good things about that Lemonade Stand accounting book: https://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Game-Basic-Fresh-Lemonade/dp/1402211864. You may not need to do the accounting yourself when you start a business, but you probably will, and even if you don't, it's better to have some sort of handle on it to oversee whoever's doing it.

So learn the basics of accounting and try to put them in to practice in your personal life. Plot out your personal budget, if you don't already. Practice with tracking and sorting your expenses. You can even do this with the free accounting apps out there like Wave. Fundamentally, business accounting isn't all that different than personal, so read the basics then practice!

I wish I could think of some valuable books that explain some basics of the legal side of small business formation and operation, but I guess since I do it myself I don't really know of any offhand, go figure.

I'm also a big advocate for branding. This isn't just logo design, it's a ton of stuff, and not always the obvious stuff. Branding is especially important for a newcomer, because you don't have the history...so you might as well try and brand like you're established! My go to here is: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206

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

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.

Ugh. My sympathies. I'm a freelance illustrator, so yeah, I have first hand experience about how, people, clients, coworkers, even your mentors, can go batshit crazy because creative fields tend to be um, yeah, in general, batshit crazy and cutthroat. For me, it was 4 years of one of the most competitive art schools in the country where professors loved shoving the comment that 'you can't draw' down my throat even up to senior year, and now six+ months of no work and ignorance about what I do doesn't help much either. At least all the abuse gave me such a thick skin so despite I can't even get a job at McDonalds, I can at least say 'fuck it' to the world....lol.

With said mentor- I know you don't really like thinking about it- but- as a thought- If there was a contract in this mess, consider checking it to see if some breech had occurred? Because this sounds like there wasn't a written contract involved in this at all, or, this was spec (speculative work for no pay until work is completed/approved by client?) work which is by far the WORST type of contract to work under. Always lay out the terms of freelance in a contract before work begins, either go full payment before work, or a percentage up front/other percentage when work done... and this sort of stuff will be avoided. Oh, and also, to deter clients who still might try and back out, you can always put what is known as a 'killswitch' in the contract, so they still have to pay you some sort of compensation which could be a percentage of whatever your full fee was (if flat), or for however many billable hours you did before the project was killed.

(for more such advice, this book is freakin amazing for freelance designers involving contracts and ethical guidelines)

-Have you checked out any networking groups for artists+designers like AIGA (Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter's page here)? It might provide you with some actual constructive critique/help on your portfolio (did you not upload anything to a website/portfolio site like carbonmade or coroflot?), and meeting more like minded people locally. (I live in a really small town which has no such organizations- It sucks so much I am considering moving to a larger metro if only for the positive, one on one networking, as well as conventions, because in our field, networking=jobs over all else 80%+ of the time)

See also ConceptArt.org, Graphic Artists Guild, Reddit isn't too bad for the design sections, LinkedIn also tends to have local and national professional groups represented.

Other than that....hang in there. Play creative mode in Minecraft and fool around, like any multiplayer game there will be trolls. Or play a 1 person game. Read some books. Find meetups? I dunno, if you're a designer, I don't know how you are on the drawing side, but, perhaps take a sketchbook and just go sit down at a coffee shop/outdoor area and observe/record the world? It distracts me, but in a good way because I get out, I flex my design/observational muscles, and once in awhile, I get inquisitive eyes who (at least around conservative NW state) tend to tell me I have some sort of "god given talent" followed by a prayer and more kind words. (LOL) One day I hope it'll lead to a job contact to me, too!

I LOVE my inner child! I have 3 coloring books on my WL that all have different themes but seem equally enjoyable.

• Outside the Lines: An Artists' Coloring Book for Giant Imaginations
  
  
• Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book
  
  And
  
  
• The Mandala Coloring Book: Inspire Creativity, Reduce Stress, and Bring Balance with 100 Mandala Coloring Pages
  
  
  So do you have any of your own to share? I feel like I'll go through a few of them :)

What do you need feedback with?

The site isn't, like complete rubbish or anything. But there a lot of room for improvement, and I don't know where to start.

I'm guessing that'd you probably want some advice on how to make it look better. So, I'll start there.

If you want to learn how to make websites look nice, start here.

Design is actually really hard. It takes a long time to learn the fundamentals, let alone gain mastery. But there are many resources available.

In terms of coding, start by learning about validation.

Getting a design right across different browsers is hard. Validating your code as you go along will make things easier.

Learn the development tools in your browser of choice. Firefox has firebug, which has an awesome array of extension for helping you craft your pages. Firefox can also be extended with the web development toolbar, which you can use to validate your code as you go.

(Incidently, if you search reddit, you will find threads where developers list their favoured web development tool sets.)

Tangentially-related experience will be your game. Get a series of temp jobs. You'll be surprised at the skills you can pick up at these jobs.

From a design perspective, there's too much white space in your resume. That can be a supporting if not sufficient reason to fill up the page more with more detail about your working past, as insomniaclyric suggests.

With regard to resume format, I think you should do some mugging on resume advice websites. It seems very simple, but try to go through the websites over the course of a week and distill the good advice from the bad.

With regard to resume layout, try to buy this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265645414&sr=8-3

There's a very good chance your library can help you out here, so do ask them first, but I do recommend buying it if possible. Seriously, it's worth the money. You can get it used from Amazon for less than one buck! Given that you'll be applying its advice to your resume, the purchase should be easily justified.

Try to keep in mind that a lot of people here have degrees in graphic/web design and we're not too keen on people suggesting that it's a skill one can just pick up in a week from reading a book.

OK, that's all the berating I'm going to do. Smashing Magazine had a series of articles recently that might be right up your alley.

• Applying Mathematics to Web Design : Talks about practical ways to use math to improve the aesthetics of a web design.
  
• Color Theory for Designers - Part 1 of 3 : A good introduction to color theory.
  
  Some other things to look into are the rule of thirds for composition and grid frameworks like 960.gs.
  
  Some other advice to prevent newbie mistakes:
  
  
• Pay attention to margins and padding. Text doesn't like to be crowded.
  
• Create visual divisions in your design that correspond to logical divisions in your HTML markup. Web design is all about applying design principles to the content and structure in your HTML, so don't dismiss the importance of clean markup.
  
• Avoid using "pure" black and white in your designs. You'd be amazed at the depth a subtle hint of color can make.
  
• Since you don't know what you're doing, avoid mixing sans-serif fonts(Times New Roman, etc.) with serif fonts(Arial, Helvetica, etc.). In fact, just pick a font and stick with it.
  
  Supposedly, Non-Designer's Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for Visual Novices is a good introduction to many of these concepts. I've not read the book for myself, so I'm just going off the word of others.
  
  Hope that helps. Good luck.

> Logistically, how would I go about getting it developed, and on what should I be focusing most of my efforts? I.e., do I just look up local developers via Google search? Are remote developers viable? Should I aim for developers who have developed similar programs, (for example, say a team developed MyFitnessPal, and I want to develop a fitness-based app, do I go after them, too?). Another important question, what qualities, qualifications, experience, etc. should I look for? (beyond the common sense ones that I should know, like work ethic, chemistry, etc.)

Without details of your app, it's difficult to say what size of team you'll need. My recommendation would be to heavily screen the portfolio of any potential app developers. Any potential candidates should have at least several apps of good quality, and that were moderately challenging to make.

The candidate should also demonstrate (by their actions) that they are familiar with standard professional consulting practices; there should be a contract (I hear you know a lawyer) which clearly details the project including copyright (work for hire), final deliverable, kill fee, change orders, etc. There should also be a document 'briefing' describing exactly what will be delivered, when it will be delivered, and how much it will cost (the proposal). While there is some variation in the process, any 'professional' should do something similar since these processes help ensure that both the vendor (developer) and client (you) know exactly what you're getting into.

For a book which describes this in detail (useful to both freelancers & clients), read Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers. Unfortuantely, this series doesn't have one specific to software development, but the principles within are applicable across many industries. The book is very concise, so it's a quick read too.

> I wouldn't be involved in the nuts and bolts of programming at all. I would of course have input on layout, design, and function, etc.

Draw as much of that as you reasonably can; any information you can give will help with the initial design, and planning stages.

> I haven't even thought about cost or funding

Good and experienced software developers tend to be well paid. Perhaps not as much as lawyers, but understand it won't be cheap,

Lastly, don't forget marketing! Marketing is such a huge portion of many successful apps; simply having a 'good' app is rarely enough.

Basically you brand for an idea, feelings, values or maybe even a story/history .. and not a literal activity or object.

It sounds complicated but think of it this way. What does Nike's logo convey? Speed, momentum, agility. The exact messages are subjective but the overall theme is easily understood by consumers. Athletisism. Theres reasons why thier logo was never a shoe.. same for adidas.


This book will help.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206

As long as you use elements and compositions that communicate certain (sometimes abstract) ideas youll be fine! Slanted objects: movement. Heavy lines: strength. Leading lines: progress etc.

I use a contract for everything. No matter how small the job, if it's for a friend, etc. Call it an agreement instead if you feel a contract is too imposing for your client, and be clear that it's to protect and benefit both parties. For smaller jobs less than $1k I like to take half the cost as a deposit. Bigger jobs I take milestones.

I would try to find contract resources specific to your industry. For example I'm a designer so I have a book from the Graphic Artist's Guild and it did a great job of explaining all of my rights and what to look out for.

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.

Not a living from writing, but like any reasonably intelligent person, I'd like to make a living off my creative abilities rather than working a regular day job.

You should read Scott Adams' book. To summarize, I don't ever make goals of any sort, I only create systems that win more often than lose. I don't own a car because it's a major expense that won't pay off for a very long time. I don't plan out my entire story with precision because in the heat of the moment, something might strike me that I want to add. I have a general end goal for the story, but it might shift over time. As an example, my original goal for the labyrinth was that Umi had created a false representation of reality and everything was a weird simulation of reality. This is why there was a magic freezer that could create chicken from nothing, and a series of odd rooms that weren't quite right, such as a Japanese styled bathroom mixed with a victorian era bedroom and an alien-style armory.

These priorities shifted over time when I started mapping out the story just a bit more.

But yes, in the end, it all just grew organically out of the WP. It needs a lot of fixing, and I'm currently tracking 60-something plotholes and major story issues, not least of which was me forgetting Barbatos and confusing him with Agares. (CRINGE), my worst error to date.

• I like travelling, Ohio State football, watching gymnastics, reading and eating fruity candy. :)
  
  
• I would love to have this awesome coloring book. It's so cool!
  
  
• I'd like to win because I'm going to be living in another country for the next two years, and having a package to cheer me up (my mom would send it to me, so no international postage for you!) would be freaking amazing. Especially because I'll be spending Christmas in a Ugandan village where I don't really speak the language. And that's a bummer.
  
  
• Moon Knight

Don't make me think - The seminal book on web usability

The definitive guide to HTML5 - Great book to cement your current knowledge of HTML,CSS,and jscript while preparing you for more advanced concepts.

White space is not your enemy - I think this is the book every non designer should start with. It's the best introduction to the art of expressing through visual communication and introduces concepts that you'll start tweaking on your own as your repertoire and skill grows. It also introduces some valuable habits necessary of all designers.

Naturally these are just the books I would reccomend. I would also supplement them with up to date standards like Opera Web Standards Curriculm and active javascript practice that sites such as Codeacademy offer.

EDIT: Apparently, Opera's updated it's standard and donated them to W3

The second edition of Logo Design Love by David Airey came out relatively recently. It's great. The first edition was outstanding and I was surprised to see that the second is even better.

Also, Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler is wonderful as well.

Start by downloading scribus, gimp, and inkscape.

These will be your free design suite. Scribus is a layout application, like Adobe InDesign. Gimp is a photomanipulation application like Adobe Photoshop. Inkscape is a vector graphics application, like Adobe Illustrator.

None of these applications are as easy to use or as powerful as the Adobe suite, but several hundred dollars isn't "little to no cost," so you're going to have to make do. Plus, there's probably a ton for you to learn, anyway.

For the design side, try this book. It starts at the very beginning, and gives you some great beginner tools like the "works every time" (or WET) layout.

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.

I don't have much time to go dig up a ton of links, however, this should get you started with how to go about producing good logo designs. What Aaron Draplin does in this video is how the logo design process should work.

Aaron Draplin for Lynda designing All Base Concrete Foundations Logo

Widely regarded as one of the greatest Identity Designers of all Time:
Paul Rand, Identities

I also highly recommend this book:
Designing Brand Identity

Good luck, and don't design for quantity. Design for quality. If your work is worth it, you won't have trouble finding work.

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

The bad news: There are mountains of legal issues and risks an artist takes on with sharing that kind of information. Also there are many of variables from company to company, project to project: rendering package involved, in house tools, required techniques involved, client demands, time/money resources, final look goal, delivery specs, etc. Even if someone could provide production scripts, these factors make it an ineffective and possibly detrimental approach to learning.

The good news: You can start learning in much more effective ways that will actually prep you better for production! I agree with Bootylicious overall, in that you're going to get the most from making your own projects and learning to problem solve them as you move forward and hit unforeseen hurdles. Doing is the biggest, the most challenging, and the most important part.

With that said, it's not always enough to just keep trying without being equipped with the proper knowledge, you'll eventually come up against issues you can't solve just by pushing without outside information. But it won't be specific scripts that get you through these times either. Core, software agnostic, concepts are going to push you through your biggest obstacles and help you learn to ask/answer critical questions:

What image do I have? What do I want it to be? What are my resources? What approaches do these 3 answers allow for?

Assume that every company, every client and every project you encounter is going to be totally different, so learning to answer these will help make you a flexible, comp-rock-star.

Make a project with as clear of a goal as you can and start there, when you get stuck, or as you go along in general, learn from software agnostic sources that focus on the skills and theory, over sources that focus on a specific program.


I've included a few book links below + happy comping!


https://www.amazon.com/VES-Handbook-Visual-Effects-Procedures/dp/0240825187/


https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Compositing-Film-Video-Production/dp/1138240370


https://www.amazon.com/Light-Visual-Artists-Understanding-Design/dp/185669660X/

I think i'm not quite following. What exactly is the theme of the essay that you have to write?

Branding for a student festival? "Relevant literature for my practice" sounds like it refers to theatre.

Maybe these books can help you:

Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team, 4th Edition

Paul Rand - Thoughts on Design

If you could be more specific/clear things up, i'd be happy to recommend more books.

Two resources you need to read on color: http://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719 and http://www.amazon.com/Light-Visual-Artists-Understanding-Design/dp/185669660X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419319385&sr=1-1&keywords=light+for+visual+artists

Lots of illustrations and examples, very easy to understand and yet both are no more than 250 pages. I have both of these books and they are great! I would also look at Cubebrush and Ctrl+paint. You need to definitely focus on color theory as well.

Along with learning these, also check out Andrew Loomis' books (Google Save Loomis to find pdf of his books for free). And this one -- > http://www.amazon.com/Human-Anatomy-Artists-Andr%C3%81s-Szunyoghy/dp/3833162562/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419319599&sr=1-4&keywords=andras+szunyoghy

But once your learn color theory and look at the resources I suggested, you will definitely improve on your coloring skills. Gurney's may be aimed at painters, but it's for everyone really. I can't give much advice since I'm learning color theory but these results have been very helpful.

I found the The Brand Gap to be very elementary. If you've been in marketing for a while you should already have a solid foundation on branding that that book covers. It's definitely an easy read and a great source for an introduction to branding.

With that said, I'd recommend:

• Designing Brand Identity
  
• Positioning
  
• Youtility
  
  

Maybe you might want to pick up this little book. It will give you some hints and tips on type design for paper:

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594

(not an affiliate link or anything; just a quick search to find it online somewhere)

As others have said, you have a lot more room for play when dealing with printed items. Brochures don't have web limitations, so feel free to try out different type faces. Also, keep in mind that printing so much black might lead to costs you don't see with web design, so choose a printer (either the machine, or a company) wisely. You don't want tacky inks making the brochures stick together.

Lastly, some acknowledgements. I like the spacing on the inside view of the brochure. There's enough room at the bottom to hold it, and not cover text (this is often an oversight). You use fore- and background color to break up the questions and notes, which is nice.

Overall, you can use more contrasts with typeface, size, and alignment than on the web, so please do! And, try out that book; if you need to do this again, you will definitely get some ideas there (I did).

Mi-a placut mult Confessions, dar suna foarte bine Introvert Power, o sa citesc musai, am vazut ca a ajutat Confessions, dar omul cam tinde sa uite daca nu face un obicei din ce invata :)

Din pacate, ai dreptate ca e formatul limitat, trebuie cautat bine, cele care sunt disponibile in format kindle se vad si ok si n-au neaparata nevoie de culoare: Logo Design Love a fost excelent, o baza buna a fost White space is not your enemy, cu ceva greutate am citit pdf-ul The fundamentals of graphic design si acum citesc The creative process illustrated - desi, ce-i drept, e clar mai mult despre creativitate, dar la fel mi-a facut placere sa citesc Hey, Whipple, squeeze this.

Altceva de design cu imagini si explicatii, mai comprehensiv, clar nu merge pe kindle. Si daca ai recomandari pentru mine legate de design, pentru kindle or not, nici nu stii cat mi-ar placea sa ascult!

Pick up the ethical pricing guide. It's about $50 at any book store or you can get an older edition for cheaper off of amazon ( For example, this one that is only $.13 ). It has contract blanks in there you can copy but LOTS of legal advice for working as or with artists. Good luck!

I am in almost the same situation.
I have also been looking for books for motivation, inspiration and so on.
Here are some stuff that keep getting recommended as well as other books that I think are interesting judging by their description and reviews (note: I haven't read anything yet I am just sharing my searching results from the past 2 or 3 days):

For creative problems

• Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
  
• Burn your Portfolio
  
• The Design Method
  
  For Inspiration
  
  
• 100 ideas that changed graphic Design
  
• Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
  
• Graphic Design, Referenced
  
• Drawn In
  
  And this one seems to go into depth of the business itself:
  
  
• Know Your Onions
  
  Like I said, I haven't read any of those but maybe this will save some time for you or for other people searching for books.
  
  There is also Thinking with Type, The Elements of Typographic Style, Universal Principles of Design, Deign for how people learn, How to be a Graphics Designer without losing your soul.
  
  Edit: I was actually going to make a thread similar to this but I am gonna post my similar question here anyway,
  Does anybody know of more books for people who are already involved in the medium ?
  
  A lot of recommendations I see around the internet seem to be for someone just starting graphics design or still in school but rarely is it something for a higher level.

I read a fair amount of pop history, and there's lots of good pop history! The "good stuff" tends to be quieter and not published by Certain Big Names and will cover more niche topics, or just generally make more modest arguments. I review pop history regularly on Saturday Sources. Honestly I tend to be harder on the academic history. Some recentish pop history I've liked (loosely defined as "costs less than $30")

• This Gulf of Fire: The Destruction of Lisbon, or Apocalypse in the Age of Science and Reason
  
  
• Neither Snow nor Rain: A History of the United States Postal Service I should be posting this review this Sat if I get my review together
  
  
• Lost Animals: Extinction and the Photographic Record
  
  
• [The Great American Cereal Book: From Apple Jacks to Wheaties] (http://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Cereal-Book-Breakfast/dp/0810997991/) breaks my rule because out of print, used copies are pricy for a reason... Happy Cereal Day.
  
  
• Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World
  
  
• Bel Canto Bully: The Life and Times of the Legendary Opera Impresario Domenico Barbaja

This book here has a pretty good standard, and is widely used:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334545819&sr=8-1

If you don't want to spend money on a book, I'd recommend coming up with an hourly wage, and multiply that by hours used to complete a piece. So say you think $15 an hour is fair, 15 x 10 is ~$150. you can also factor in cost of materials and framing.

Another way you can do is ask, how much would it cost for me to give these away, what do I feel as if they were worth?

I'm currently reading his book - it's a quick read, funny, and interesting. Your post has that same flavor.

I hope you make the big bucks in Vegas. I'll bet you're really good at what you do!

Study lighting a bit, I still have very shitty lighting myself but this book helped: https://www.amazon.com/Light-Visual-Artists-Understanding-Design/dp/185669660X


As for Arnold courses, the best in-depth tutorial that helped me understand it was : https://inlifethrill.com/mastering-arnold-cinema-4d-bundle/

Depends, on what you want to do. Render interiors? products? Mograph? I did them all and I still suck at pretty much all of them :)

I'm pretty sure this is from Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe. Very interesting book and put together quite nicely.

The Famous Red Notebook by Best Made co has doted pages. Check out the second image to see.

There is this dot grid notebook at Creatives Outiftter.

This dot grid journal at Levenger.

And This sort of generic one from Amazon.

In general it seems like searching for dot grid notebook is pretty fruitful.

The "bible" is "The Grammar of Graphics" by Leland Wilkinson. (link to amazon). The "gg" of ggplot2 stands for grammar of graphics.

Then we go into other books, resources that help with actually showing visualizations:

• Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten [Few, 2004]
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information [Tufte, 2001]
  
• The Functional Art [Cairo, 2012]
  
• Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps [Bertin, 2010]
  
  Then we can look at the "Table of Elements of Data Visualization":
  
  
• A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
  
• The Data Visualisation Catalogue
  
  Then, we can look at some blogs to help you see what works and doesn't work:
  
  
• http://helpmeviz.com/
  
• http://wtfviz.net/
  
• http://thumbsupviz.com/
  
  Finally, some blog posts about other people in data visualization that you can learn from:
  
  
• An Incomplete List of Females in Data Visualization
  
• Data and visualization blogs worth following
  
• Teaching data visualization: Recommended readings and resources
  
• 90 dataviz Tumblr blogs to follow
  
• The 30 data viz blogs you can't miss - in one place

this week just got started and it's sucking because I have $20 to last the next 2 weeks but this..

Color Your Own Young Marvel by Skottie Young https://www.amazon.com/dp/0785195556/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_It2ACbM3BSKV6

..would make me feel more on the super duper side.

Buy/rent/borrow this [book] (http://amzn.com/0932102158)
it has pricing and tons of information about contracts and various other things that will help you immensely. It was required reading for my senior year portfolio class in college and its just a generally good reference to have on hand.

Also take into consideration how they want to pay you. Is it by piece? after you finish the project? At the beginning? You may want to have them pay you part before you start and then the rest in increments. Make sure you get everything in writing.

That is a great book.

Someone recommended this the other day, it's a great primer for graphic design in general:

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594

----

They've got a web version these days:

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Web-Book-3rd/dp/0321303377/ref=pd_sim_b_2

I love my inner child!!

Either:

Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity Book

Or

Unicorns Are Jerks: a coloring book exposing the cold, hard, sparkly truth

Thanks for the contest!! It reminded me how much I LOVE to color! It's therapeutic for me.

Edit: I also have Between the Lines: An Expert Level Coloring Book == and == Outside the Lines: An Artists' Coloring Book for Giant Imaginations (totally stole that one from /u/chickenfriedsoup so if you pick this particular book, give it to them)

Ways of seeing by John Berger. A great book on visual communication.

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul by Adrian Shaughnessy. The title says it all.

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. My go-to book on typography - covers everything related to typography with beautiful detail.

Know Your Onions: Graphic Design: How to Think Like a Creative, Act Like a Businessman and Design Like a God

This book has a fantastic description that will help:

http://www.amazon.com/Texturing-Modeling-Third-Procedural-Approach/dp/1558608486/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293160934&sr=8-1-spell

If you have any questions or want more info, please let me know.

I've got this dot grid comp notebook. It's OK. Like any comp notebook it doesn't lay flat. It handles ink well and there is some ghosting with wetter inks but it's not bad at all. The dot grid is fairly small, which is nice.

For anyone that likes stuff like this, I'd recommend Super Graphic. More comic book focused, but a fun little book nonetheless. I have a copy that sits on my coffee table.

Random people on Reddit will be the most transparent.XD
I have asked the designers, they seemed okay but who knows what's inside?

I do consider to take a short course or at least a proper online course. Right now, I'm learning digital print production using EFI products.

If you can suggest some good online courses?

Some books that I have studied properly:

1. https://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Design-Reference-Specification-Book/dp/1592538517
   
   
2. https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Graphic-Design-Communication/dp/3721201450
   
   
3. https://www.amazon.com/Layout-Essentials-Design-Principles-Using/dp/1592537073
   
   
4. https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206
   
   If anyone can recommend books specifically for print design, that would be great.:)

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c

Their guidelines are usually above normal but I think that is their plan. If they say something "should" be 50% higher than it is, and you end up charging 25% more then they succeed in increasing the dollar value throughout the industry.

add all the books by edward tufte! and also semiology of graphics by jacques bertin, modern typography by kinross, elements of typographics tyle by bringhurst, man there's quite a lot of basics missing here :)
as others come to mind I'll add them here, unfortunately I don't have my books with me at the moment

EDIT: The two dataflow one two books are pretty interesting as well, Information graphics by Robert Harris

I have a pile of coloring books I want, this being one of them.

I totally think /u/ilovepaperdolls would love something like this!

Life is about using the whole box of crayons

I love to color! It takes me out of my stress and into the world of whatever I am coloring. :P

I love to color while listening to these guys!

I agree about your photography and 3D designs. With a bit of work, you can turn these, or any other artwork into different design pieces. Simple things like CD covers, business cards, posters, can quickly beef up your portfolio.

Consider adding Typography to your extra curricular studies. A lot of your stuff that you think isn't portfolio worthy, might be after some thoughtful typesetting. Thinking with Type and Designing with Type are old standbys that are easily available.

If you're looking for a practical text that stays focused on data visualization I'd recommend William Cleveland's Elements of Graphing Data. Unlike Tufte, Cleveland wasn't focused on aesthetics, but that made his books far more focused on categorizing and solving data analysis and visualization problems.

If you want to go deep into the theoretical side of information design check out Bertin's Semiology of Graphics. It's a challenging text that takes time to digest, but read this and you'll have a much deeper understanding of how people will perceive visual data of all types.

Charge more. Come up with a base fee and then tack hourly on top of that. As an example: $599 pase price plus $30/hr for 12 hours = $960 or whatever works for you.

Get this book: Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

It explains how to price and what the average pricing is for different types of websites, among other extremely useful information.

I highly recommend this book. I'm sure your college or local library will have it, if not you can get them to order you in a copy. If you find it useful - buy it!

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.

Agreed. Plus undercharging has its own ethical implications for the industry. Nab yourself a copy of this book and it will help you put a price on your work that is on par with the industry standard.

To keep the interest up, here is a book that is not a textbook, but a fun read nonetheless. History is important, plus it teaches a valuable lesson about not ignoring results just because they aren't what you were looking for - something organic chemists especially must be aware of.

http://www.amazon.com/Mauve-Invented-Color-Changed-World/dp/0393323137/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321478836&sr=8-1

Aww yiss this book looks fantastic! It's out of stock on Amazon but I ordered it anyway for when it's back. Thanks for the recommendation!!

Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler is a great book and I think would be a good starting place for you. And just some advice, brand identity is about showing the experience and personality of the brand. It is much, much, more than just the logo or stationery or how a website is designed. You are telling a story of the brand.

If I remember correctly, he said that he had to use it once. If they don't pay, then you can take them to small claims court. Not sure how well that works with long-distance clients... That might fall more under getting a healthy deposit upfront and getting paid as distinct work phases are complete. It they quibble on the deposit or payments at different phases, drop them... they will probably be more trouble than they are worth.

He said he barely edits the contract spelled out in the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It comes out every 2 years with the newest being 2010. You might be able to grab a copy at the library to read, but I've included the Amazon link also:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299991161&sr=8-1

Getting a good contract and not giving an inch once terms are agreed upon would probably help take away some of that stress of dealing with bad clients (or help avoid them?) and then you could focus on your work. I've only had a few clients so far, but 2 of them have been bad and it stressed me the fu%% out. The other issues that I had were because of things that I needed to learn how to do better. Hopefully that helps.

A mentor who is a professional character designer and has worked in-house and freelance recommended these two books to me:

The Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
https://graphicartistsguild.org/handbook

Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers
https://www.amazon.com/Business-Legal-Forms-Graphic-Designers/dp/1621532496

Scott Adams' book is also pretty fantastic.

A great book about some simple basics that help give even the most plain design some polish: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594

The one I recommend really helped with getting into the mindset of what an agency MD is looking for in a designer. Contains really useful & insightful tips, as well as a glossary for jargon busting.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Know-Your-Onions-Creative-Businessman/dp/9063692587

I have [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0399162089/ref=aw_wl_ov_dp_1_14?colid=25BLPYUL7C3IL&coliid=I1LBMA2Q2Z7JT1) on my WL :D It is fancy. I like it. I love my inner child.

The book Texturing & Modeling: A Procedural Approach is an exceptional introduction to the subject, starting from the basic theory. While this book is worth its price, you might, um, be able to find a copy floating around the internet.... maybe.

Also, this dude is doing a good job sharing the techniques behind his procedural world.

Light for Visual Artists by Richard Yot. I like it more than Digital lighting and rendering, although that is great for learning the software side. "Light" Is more about light from an artistic stand point and less about the software implementation.

The earlier parts of the book are on his website http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/light.htm
The book can be found here http://www.amazon.com/Light-Visual-Artists-Understanding-Design/dp/185669660X.

Check out the book Designing Brand Identity . Its a great resource for questions like this.

His book is at 4.5 stars, and only 3% of the reviews are 1-stars. Looks like his "trolls" are greatly outnumbered by his sycophants.

Based on the fact that the rest of his blog post is all about how great it is to psychologically manipulate people, his false claim about the reviews is probably just an attempt to drum up book sales.

Non-Designers Design Book.

You could drastically improve the current design simply with better use of space. Text shouldn't be touching the border!!

I read a book a while ago about this: Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World. Quite interesting. They got all sorts of cool stuff out of coal tar. Synthetic aspirin is another example as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102123

This book is super informative and cheap. I asked a buddy the same question and he directed me towards this. It starts by giving you the usual rates, proposal writing and etc.

Get Designing Brand Identity. It covers the basics.

Look at other schools for inspiration. Find their brand guidelines, or identity guides. If you can't find any specific to schools, look at other brands guidelines for info/inspiration. Here's a couple.

Find their needs and keep to the essentials. When and if they need branded coffee cups or USB-sticks, you'll be there to add them.

Do they have competition in the area? What's their identity? Make sure you're different from their branding.

http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job

http://creativemornings.com/talks/mike-monteiro--2/1

http://www.amazon.com/Business-Legal-Forms-Graphic-Designers/dp/1621532496

Decide what you feel is fair. You can always negotiate down. Think of the business agreement as a partnership, which is what it is. There is nothing dirty about it.

Every freelance designer should have this book:
Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Legal-Forms-Graphic-Designers/dp/1581152744/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

and this book:
Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158

Of course!

Books:

Graphic Design: A New History

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

Eye Magazine

Blogs:

swissmiss

Design Envy

We Love Typography

The Dieline

One of the books I own is Texturing and Modeling: A Procedural Approach.

There's also this PDF online about L-Systems: Algorithmic Botany.

Hope those are useful links.

I'm a really big fan of Know Your Onions; it both serves to cover the basics of design, as well as some of the post-design process that often tends to be glossed over in other content.

There's a Web Design version as well.

I'm just out of school and about as far from a professional freelancer as you can be, but my last semester in school they advised us to get the Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. I haven't freelanced much, but its helped me out a lot for the little bit I have done.

Perkins' discovery of Mauve and the beginnings of synthetic organic industrial chemistry is also a good read.

Also might check out the Chemical Heritage foundation. They may be able to help you.

Check out Textures and Modelling: A Procedural Approach. This is a great book (although it does have a lot of old-fashioned ideas), but it explains fractals and infinite fractal terrains very well.

Aside from Trump, I think Scott is the person who changed my perspective the most.

His book is also great.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still/dp/1591847745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478797144&sr=8-1&keywords=scott+adams

I believe this book gets suggested quite often on the sub, it was also recommended by my course tutor.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/9063692587?keywords=know%20your%20onions&qid=1451835390&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

It covers a wide range and will get you started with principals and terminology allowing you to expand on that.

I'm sure others will post with more suggestions.

Hey RJAG. We don't always see eye to eye but you seem to be one of the more level headed guys around here! I almost always appreciate your posts -- they usually have an interesting perspective to them -- even if they aren't well received. I probably should pay more attention to them! But enough of how reddit tends to shoot the messenger and ignore the message.

You're right -- a lot of material is total crap. Out-of-date, not explained well, piss-poor naming, poor architecture, etc.

Warning:

I first started doing professional game dev back in 1995, so I am extremely biased. I've seen the fad of programming languages, toolkits, libraries, etc., come and go. I think Boost's 1,109 lines for a simple CRC is over-engineered C++ crap compared to the ~30 lines of C/C++ you actually need to solve the real problem.

With the #include <disclaimer.h> out of the way ... ;-)

The best authors I have found are (aside from Jason obviously):

• Christer Ericson's Real Time Collision Detection
  
• Everything by Eric Lengyel i.e. Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics, Projection Matrix Tricks, and A Bigger Mathematical Picture for Computer Graphics
  
• Everything by Mike Acton
  
• Everything by Jonathon Blow
  
• Everything by Casey Muratori
  
• Everything by Wolfgang Engel
  
• Robert Nystrom's Game Programming Patterns is surprisingly very good. See note below!
  
• Beej's Guide to Network Programming
  
• Gaffer on (Networked) Physics
  
• Matt Pharr's Physically Based Rendering, Second Edition: From Theory To Implementation is fantastic
  
• OpenGL Insights is good
  
• Everything by David H. Eberly, such as the Game Physics Even the ancient 3D Game Engine Architecture: Engineering Real-Time Applications with Wild Magic is worthwhile -- but this should be last on your list.
  
• Everything by Michael Abrash
  
• I was never impressed by Tomas Akenine-Moller's Real Time Rendering though some people like it. The object/object intersection website is fantastic
  
• The ancient Texturing and Modeling, Third Edition: A Procedural Approach is an oldie but goodie!
  
• The AI Game Programming Wisdom series is decent
  
• Now I'm really dating myself! Avoid everything by Andre LaMothe -- he was popular in the '90s
  
• Likewise Avoid Algorithms and Networking for Computer Games It is overpriced academic crap that barely includes 2 chapters on networking!
  
  The first few guys are all old-skool hard-core developers. The younger crowd doesn't like them since newer game devs usually spend more time arguing over pointless subjects such as the "proper" C++ pointer to use. Good game developers are more interesting in practical and pragmatic engineering tradeoffs then worrying about theoretical "perfection."
  
  Speaking of Design Patterns, Christer Ericson recently said:
  
  > Design Patterns are spoonfed material for brainless programmers incapable of independent thought, who will be resolved to produced code as mediocre as the design patterns they use to create it."
  
  And to some degree I would agree with that.
  
  i.e. You'll notice this sub likes to waste time arguing over "proper architecture" such as Entity Component System
  
  My view is: IF your data, code, and model match this problem, then go ahead and use them. However keep in mind that rarely does the real-world exactly match some theoretical problem set. At the end of the day all you care about is shipping -- not being some academic writing theoretical "perfect" architecture -- whatever that is supposed to mean.
  
  Hope this helps!
  

I'm partial to Thinking with Type and How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul myself.

Both are very instructional and inspirational

If you are curious about how to charge clients, you should definitely invest in The Graphic Artist Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethnical Guidlines. it has tons of information on how to price your work accordingly.

Take a basic design course. If you want to learn design basics, start with the BASICS.

This book: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594 will actually get you started off right by teaching how graphic design is more then colors, but about presenting information and solving problems. (And it looks like you can pick up a used copy via amazon for a few bucks)

Just thought I would mention this is from a book called Super Graphic:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Super-Graphic-Visual-Guide-Universe/dp/1452113882

Buy his book! I bought 5 copies last month and gave them away and everyone says it's fantastic.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still/dp/1591847745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478922393&sr=8-1&keywords=scott+adams

Not out yet, but the Skottie Young one might be a bit better: http://www.amazon.com/Color-Little-Marvels-Skottie-Young/dp/0785195556/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=61rBAdzsmAL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=01VEMGH2Z6X0QB3NA9PB

My first though was to take a look at the Virtual Terrain Project (http://vterrain.org/). I'm not sure if it's up to date, but it does have a *lot* of information on that subject.

As for books, I recall that "Texturing and Modeling: a procedural approach" (https://www.amazon.com/Texturing-Modeling-Third-Procedural-Approach/dp/1558608486) has a chapter or two dedicated to vegetation

Try this book of his and read it: How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

Possible that it will blow your mind.

Relevant blog post out of many: http://blog.dilbert.com/post/150816666991/blowing-your-mind-as-promised

This is a fun read. And as someone else here stated you may want to invest in a copy of Illustrator or possibly even InDesign. Trying to work with text in Photoshop will have you pulling your hair out.

You should take a look at this book if you want to write your own contract, learn to negotiate, etc... Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

My ex is a graphic designer. She used Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. Should give you all the pricing info you need.

I feel like that is a fair price for new branding and a new website. Assuming the designers are experienced in branding, you are not only paying for a simple logo, you are paying for an entire brand language and how to use it. They are responsible for shaping the aesthetics of your company, and will give you a set of brand guidelines that will help you utilize the logo in context with typefaces, colors, patterns, etc.

You are also paying for the rights to use the artwork... The larger the company, the more expensive the logo because more people will see it. This kind of scale is seen throughout all types of image licensing.

Of course you might be able to find someone who will do it all for $1,000-$2,000 but you would be cheating them out of money whether the client or designer realizes it.

For more understanding about the pricing of creative work, you might want to check out this book which has become somewhat of a standard for designers/illustrators/creators:

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158

This one is fun.

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

I bought the book Super Graphic on a whim once and it's pretty decent. It covers some of what you're asking and more.

> fragrances evolve, and stronger elements fade and subtle undertones come to the forefront.

Indeed. I discovered about 20 years ago that every guy who splashes on some Polo smells like blueberry muffin mix after 30 minutes to 4 hours. That's the long-lasting undertone of Polo.

Truth: Food flavorings are perfumes for canned/packaged foods. They're not added for your taste buds, but for your sense of smell. And they are designed and blended by the same chemists and perfumers who also do perfume for the human body. IIRC, I learned this from a chapter in a book called Mauve, although that book is primarily about fabric dyes.

There are lots on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Your-Own-Women-Power/dp/1302901583/

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Your-Young-Marvel-Skottie/dp/0785195556/

I don't know where you live, but just go to Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Five Below etc and they have them there as well.

I think Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler is a good overview: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1405532860&sr=1-1&keywords=branding

There are so many. Here is a well-written, easy to read introductory book for some of them:

https://www.amazon.com/Know-Your-Onions-Creative-Businessman/dp/9063692587

Good start. Still far away from encyclopedia. This is the reference: https://www.amazon.com/Information-Graphics-Comprehensive-Illustrated-Reference-ebook/dp/B00VQVNUWM/
This is the approach:
https://www.amazon.com/Semiology-Graphics-Diagrams-Networks-Maps/dp/1589482611/
So come on, continue to make it the encyclopedia of old stuff. Then add new. Especially from big data, molecular biology and genomics.

I highly recommend this book.

Edit: We updated the post to add this link.

There are the books I was recommended:


1 2 3 4 5 6 7.

This book might be of help.

I'm personally using this one right now. Definitely going to pick up another.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1481011162/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seems fair to me. I usually work $20-$30 hr with a $50 minimum. So that sounds about right. You might want to look into buying this http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158 of course look for the most recent edition

Super Graphic has similar visually stunning charts and such. It's just all based around superheroes and comic books.

• Typography Intro - http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/techniques/a-20-minute-intro-to-typography-basics/
  
  
• Typographic History - http://ilovetypography.com/2007/11/06/type-terminology-humanist-2/
  
  
• Typographic Terminology - http://ilovetypography.com/2008/03/21/extreme-type-terminology/
  
  
• Typographic Hierarchy - http://blog.typekit.com/2011/03/17/type-study-typographic-hierarchy/
  
  
• Mixing Fonts - http://www.typography.com/ask/recentTopic.php?rtID=92
  
  
• Typography Book (the de facto standard) - Elements of Typographic Style by Binghurst - http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881791326
  
  
• Also, Thinking with Type - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568984480?ie=UTF8&tag=thedescub-20&creativeASIN=1568984480 - (available electronically) - http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
  
  
• Typography on the Web -
  
  http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/14/technical-web-typography-guidelines-and-techniques/
  
  http://www.webtypography.net
  
  http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/choosing-the-right-font-a-practical-guide-to-typography-on-the-web/
  
  http://www.alistapart.com/articles/on-web-typography/
  
  
• Design Theory - http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/sessions/web-design-theory/
  
  
• Design Principles -
  
  http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/
  
  http://www.fuelyourcreativity.com/the-lost-principles-of-design/
  
  http://inspectelement.com/articles/the-principles-of-good-web-design-part-1-layout/
  
  http://desktoppub.about.com/od/designprinciples/Principles_of_Design.htm
  
  
• Layout - http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace/
  
  
• Grid Design -
  http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/04/14/designing-with-grid-based-approach/
  
  http://www.alistapart.com/articles/outsidethegrid/
  
  
• Rhythm - http://24ways.org/2006/compose-to-a-vertical-rhythm
  
  
• Visual Hierarchy - http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/01/the-principle-of-proximity-in-web-design/
  
  
• Color Theory - http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/a-look-into-color-theory-in-web-design/
  
  http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/
  
  
• Color Applets - Contrast Analyzer: http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
  
  Color combinations: http://www.colourlovers.com/, http://kuler.adobe.com, http://www.0to255.com
  
  
• Art Direction - http://www.alistapart.com/articles/art-direction-and-design/
  
  
• Print Design - http://www.underconsideration.com/fpo/
  
  
• Brand / Logo Design - http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/
  
  http://justcreativedesign.com/2009/07/27/what-makes-a-good-logo/
  
  
• Design History -
  http://designishistory.com/
  
  http://www.designhistory.org/
  
  
• Random graphic design theory -
  
  http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-totally-free-lessons-in-graphic-design-theory/
  
  http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/teach-yourself-graphic-design-a-self-study-course-outline/
  
  
  Get through all of that and you should be well on your way to expert graphic/web design.

Or you can just read his PhD thesis, Computational Information Design, which covers pretty much all of the same conceptual topics but doesn't go into the technical aspects of project development as much. Other essential reading would be Semiology of Graphics by Jacques Bertin, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte, and Visual Complexity by Manuel Lima.

Correction: See How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big for Scott's diet and fitness systems.

It isn't for me either. I only know the basic tenets of design as described in:

The Non Designer's Design Book

• C - Contrast
  
• R - Repetition
  
• A - Alignment
  
• P - Proximity
  
  These principles get me through most of the fine grained design chores. I contract out all of my major design work (like the overall look of the site + assets). If you're strapped for cash, try
  99Designs .

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul.

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Designer-without-Expanded-Edition/dp/1568989830

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul - Adrian Shaughnessy

Not an online resource, but you may want to hunt down these books (check out your local/university library):

• https://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi
  
• https://www.amazon.ca/Semiology-Graphics-Diagrams-Networks-Maps/dp/1589482611
  
  

http://www.amazon.com/Texturing-Modeling-Third-Edition-Procedural/dp/1558608486 Is the go to resource?

I must admit i have yet to read it, but I have seen it referenced enough that it has made its way to my book shelf.

We could color some stuff if you want. :P

Mauve was the first synthetic dye, created in the 1850's. It was totally by accident, the inventor was trying to create a cure for malaria, I think. But the color became a instant fashion craze, and everyone had to have it. It set off a real race among the chemical companies to create new colors and dyes. There's a book about it and the chemistry revolution it started off: Mauve

After I read those two, I was looking for more oddly-specific nonfiction books and came across Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World, check it out.

If you're into coloring books, may I also suggest Outside The Lines. A collection of coloring book art from 100 contemporary artists.

The book that the guy behind voxelfarm reccomended was Texturing & Modeling, A Procedural Approach.

Get this book and this book

http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Designer-without-Expanded-Edition/dp/1568989830

This perhaps?

Amazon link

Logo. Design. Love

Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team

> So choosing to discard ALL inventions will give you 99% prediction score.

This is correct. But someone who does this will also never be able to capitalize on a great opportunity. The higher one aims, the greater risk that person needs to accept. But most people vastly overestimate the danger of taking on some risk.

Just because you take a risk and lose, doesn't mean your life is over. You can rebuild and try again. Scott Adams (the author of the Dilbert comic strip) wrote a great book about how to look at risk. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life

In one sense, being too risk-adverse is just as bad as being reckless with risk. Risk is a natural factor in any growth. Learning how to manage it well is a very valuable skill.

Also, most people vastly underestimate the risk in traditional investment vehicles. What they think is a low-risk investment strategy is actually a lot more risky than they know. See the Japanese NIKKEI for a lesson on how risky a whole stock index can be over a long period of time, for example.

"The Non-Designer's Design Book" and "The Non-Designer's Typography Book", both by Robin Williams (no not that RW). Great starter books for a general introduction that isn't so detailed that it's boring.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic/dp/1566091594'

Neil Armstrong tripping on the moon (I'm aware moonboots aren't laced)

> One small step for [a] man... ohsi...


Lee Harvey Oswald tripping in the depository and JFK inciting Russia into a nuclear war resulting in a fallout-style wasteland...


William Perkin failing to create the color Mauve and the ramifications of that decision...

Think of the famous scene in Norma Rae when the textile worker, played by Sally Field, shuts down her machine and, standing up on it, trips and fails to convince all her fellow workers to strike because she lost her credibility.

Trotsky: "If neither Lenin nor I had been present in Petersburg, there would have been no October Revolution." Lenin trips on shoelace, breaks a leg, misses Petersburg trip, rendering Oswald's shoelace redundant.

Google "One man changes the course of history" and then replace the last part of the sentence with "but trips and doesn't" then extrapolate the consequences.

hallowayillustration and Erinaceous are the only people here that know what they are talking about. If you're looking to hire an illustrator because you think it will help you get published don't bother. Book publishers hate that, and if they liked your writing they would throw away the illustration work and hire someone themselves, so it's a waste of money. I hate that students are willing to work so cheap, here's some advice for any current students. If you want a portfolio piece you should draw for yourself. Craigslist is where illustration goes to die. Don't undersell yourself because you undersell the industry, buy this book and use it for pricing http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=dp_ob_title_bk