Inspiration / Reading Lists
Many years ago, I was given a studio tour by my mentor, a distinguished local designer. The lasting memory I have, apart from the monasterial silence and my own nervous disposition, was the vast studio library. Shelf upon shelf peppered with tomes on all manner of subjects including, but not limited to, art, architecture and graphic design.
The realisation that inspiration arrives from many and varied sources, often outside one’s own discipline, was a hugely revelatory moment for me. It also fortified a preoccupation with books that has remained with me today, and perhaps explains why Reading Lists, a cleverly conceived publication from UK graphic design studio Spin, has become a favourite reference tool of mine.
The premise is deceptively simple: Tony Brook asked a select list of graphic designers a question: What are the ten books you believe designers should own? It is the heavyweight nature of those invited — Wim Crowel, Alan Fletcher and Karl Gerstner to name a few — that gives the project such resonance. Any aspiring (or expiring) designer looking to build a reference collection will find fertile ground in Reading Lists.
These are few of my favourite things (I couldn’t keep it to 10).
(DH)
Karel Martens: Printed Matter/Drukwerk/Robin Kinross/1996
A beautifully designed, tactile distillation of Marten’s unique and personal approach to design.
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Graphis Diagrams/Walter Herdeg/1974
A superb overview of information design which continues to inspire some thirty years after it was first published.
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Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography/Emily King/2005
Goldfinger, The Rolling Stones, heroin... the catchy title is entirely appropriate.
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Archigraphia/Architectural & Environmental Graphics/Walter Herdeg/1978
A comprehensive survey of architectural and environmental graphics that remains fresh and invigorating.
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Otl Aicher/Markus Rathgeb/2006
Forgive him for Rotis. A long-overdue monograph on this hugely influential figure.
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Packaging — An International Survey/André Deutsch/1968
This collection of superb 1960’s packaging was edited by Wim Crouwel and Kurt Weidemann.
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The FontBook/Fontshop International/1991—
32,000 type samples still doesn’t seem quite enough, and seeing them in print is so much better than on screen.
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Grid Systems in Graphic Design/Raster Systeme Fur Die Visuele Gestaltung/Josef Muller Brockmann/1981
There are so many books on grids, but I would start here.
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Notes on Book Design/Derek Birdsall/2004
As reviewed here.
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Graphis Annuals 1960—1970/Walter Herdeg
Take your pick. A golden age.
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Sagmeister: Made You Look/Peter Hall/2001
Honest, inspiring, clever and occasionally hilarious. The book that begat the Sagmeister phenomenon. Tibor would be proud.
