Well everyone should have a good collection of books in my opinion, they’re a great resource and even if you don’t read them you can still appreciate the images, designs and photos they contain. I always turn to them when I’ve come to a creative dead end. As more and more things become digital they are perhaps the only thing I consider to be irreplaceable by a digital alternative. It’s the physicality that makes them so great.

So as a post I thought it’d be nice to have a look at some of the books I consider to be the best and most useful on my bookshelf in my own opinion anyway.

Neubau

Neubau Modal and Neubau Welt are brilliant resources, coming with a CD/​DVD packed with vectors, bitmaps and patterns that are free to use wherever you like. Modal contains an exhaustive list of patterns whilst Welt takes hundreds of everyday sights and objects and turn them into highly detailed vectors. Sadly it would seem that Modal is no longer in stock but can still be purchased as part of a limited edition box set.

Stefan Sagmeister

Thing I Have Learned In My Life So Far contains 20 excellent tips when living the life of a Graphic Designer, what makes this book all the more remarkable is how his advice has been strewn about his past work as if he’d be planning such a book for a very long time. Which I wouldn’t put it past him. The unique cover design changes depending on which book you have at the front as well, which is also a bit nifty.

Jim Krause

Design Basics Index, Colour Index and Type Idea Index are all nifty little books full of visual stimulus (though I’m not a fan of the spines, they don’t open up enough). Colour Index is full of colour wheels and swatches that compliment each other perfectly as a set. The first and last teach the founding ideas of good idea, you probably know quite a few of the tips already but only carry them out subconsciously, certainly was the way for me. Helps to know why you do things a certain way when you’re designing.

Ava

Well there are a lot of Ava books out there and judging from the five I own they’re all quality. Obviously I’ve gone for the design based books but there are plenty of others covering all visual arts. I find them really useful for just picking up and flicking through the pictures for some inspiration. Of course they’re also full of information.

There are more books for me to choose from but I’ll leave that for another post and another time.