I love books. There's something very special about flicking through the pages of a brand new book and smelling the paper. Even though I'm not much of a reader, design books always had a special place in my heart. Not only they provide a lot of value as they're great places to look for inspiration and references.
I thought it could be a good idea to share (not it any particular order) some of my favourite design/illustration books and talk a bit about them. I provided Book Depository links which is from where I buy them all the time. They might take a couple of weeks to get to you but the shipping is free!
Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s
By Rian Hughes
This is the third volume (there's one for the 40's and 50's and other for the 60's and 70's) of the "Custom Lettering" series. I love it so much because it works as a massive library with lettering references of all styles dated from the 20's and 30's. There's just so much inspiration that you can take from this book. All the styles are carefully divided in different categories and cover all the lettering categories you can think of, from monoline scripts to blackletter and illustrated type.
How to Be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul
By Adrian Shaughnessy
This book was recommended to me when I was in college studying design and it's so easy to understand why after reading the first pages. It's filled with incredible wisdom nuggets and it gave me many tools that helped me build confidence to kickstart my design career. It teaches you so much about how to present your work, get clients, how to work as a freelancer etc. It's a super easy read and it also has some interviews with graphic designers that share they're hand-on experience with the profession.
Logo Design Love
By David Airey
If you love logos this book is for you. It's based on the popular blog Logo Design Love and it shares what goes behind the scenes when you're working on a visual identity. It also talks about pricing, how to create iconic and lasting logos and it also has some great practical logo design tips. It's a short book that you can read in a couple of days but it's one those books that I like to get back to once in a while.
Outside the Box
By Gail Anderson
Do you know those books that you just love through because all the pages are incredibly beautiful? This is one of those. It showcases hand-drawn packaging projects from all around the world with interviews with the designers. Even though the book is all about hand-lettering, all the projects are really diverse and different. Instead of being a picture-only book, it features interviews with the creators of all the projects which is an awesome way to learn how other people approach the briefs.
Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age
By Steven Heller and Louise Fili
This is one of the many reference book made by one of the strongest design duos in the world. I could have put any of their books here on the list because they're just a joy to look at. This book isn't just a collection of images you could find on Pinterest. The pages are filled with incredible and unique references from all over the world.
These are just a couple of the favourites from my collection so I'll probably do another post with more books! If there's one thing that I learned from all these years it's that there's no such thing as "too much books".