Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The Elements of Typographic Style

by Robert Bringhurst

Renowned typographer and poet Robert Bringhurst brings clarity to the art of typography with this masterful style guide. Combining the practical, theoretical, and historical, this edition is completely updated, with a thorough exploration of the newest innovations in intelligent font technology, and is a must-have for graphic artists, editors, or anyone working with the printed page using digital or traditional... (more)

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students

Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students

by Ellen Lupton

The organization of letters on a blank sheet -- or screen -- is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or... (more)

How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

by Adrian Shaughnessy

Designers are quick to tell us about their sources of inspiration, but they are much less willing to reveal such critical matters as how to find work, how much they charge, and what to do when a client rejects three weeks of work and refuses to pay the bill. How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful... (more)

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

by Timothy Samara

For designers working in every medium, layout is arguable the most basic and most important element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that to effectively break the rules of grid-based design one must first... (more)

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

by Edward R. Tufte

A modern classic. Tufte teaches the fundamentals of graphics, charts, maps and tables. "A visual Strunk and White" (The Boston Globe). Includes 250 delightfullly entertaining illustrations, all beautifully printed.

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters

The Cheese Monkeys: A Novel in Two Semesters

by Chip Kidd

From People Who Liked It "It is rare for a book to produce uncontrollable laughter as loud as this one did. The narrator is at art college in the 1950s, and after failing to get the courses he wants, finds himself attending 'Introduction to Graphic Design,' taught by the inspiring, sadistic, and compelling Professor Winter Sorbeck. Through humiliation and excess he shows his naive young charges how to see the... (more)

The Non-Designer's Design Book

by Robin Williams

So you have a great concept and all the fancy digital tools you could possibly require—what's stopping you from creating beautiful pages? Namely the training to pull all of these elements together into a cohesive design that effectively communicates your message. Not to worry: This book is the one place you can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help. In The Non-Designer's Design Book, 2nd... (more)

The Art of Looking Sideways

by Alan Fletcher

The ultimate guide to visual awareness. Compiled over decades by one of today's most brilliant graphic designers, this is a panoply of curious facts, visual puns, anecdotes, serious science, insights, images, jokes, memories and reflections, with 700 illustrations and quotes from over 1000+ writers. The Art of Looking Sideways is a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye,... (more)

Don't Make Me Think

A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

by Steve Krug

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read Steve Krug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the same style as the original: wry and entertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for novice and... (more)

Envisioning Information

by Edward R. Tufte

A remarkable range of examples for the idea of visual thinking, with beautifully printed pages. A real treat for all who reason and learn by means of images. -- Rudolf Arnheim

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, Second Edition

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, Second Edition

by Erik Spiekermann, E. M. Ginger

Stop Stealing Sheep, Second Edition is a unique, entertaining, and educational tour through the most basic unit of written communication: type. World-renowned type experts Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger explain in everyday laymen's terms what type is and how you can use it to enhance the legibility, meaning, and aesthetic level of your work. They elegantly touch on all aspects of typography, including the... (more)

Beautiful Evidence

by Edward R. Tufte

"Science and art," according to Tufte, "have in common intense seeing, the wide-eyed observing that generates empirical information." This book is about how that seeing turns into showing. Tufte, professor emeritus at Yale University and author of three previous widely praised books on visual evidence, displays outstanding examples of the genre. One of the most arresting is Galileo's series of hand-drawn images of... (more)

Colour Index

by Jim Krause

The best-selling author of Idea Index and Layout Index returns with an all-new title! Color Index provides more than one thousand color combinations and formulas--guaranteed to help graphic artists solve design dilemmas and create effective images for both print and the Web. From progressive colors to natural tones, Color Index makes choosing hues for any job easier! Designers will start working with color in... (more)

Meggs' History of Graphic Design

by Alston W. Purvis, Philip B. Meggs

Now in its Fourth Edition, this unrivaled, seminal work continues its long tradition of providing balanced insight and thorough historical background. Under the new authorial leadership of Alston Purvis, this authoritative book offers more than 450 new images, along with expansive coverage of such topics as Italian, Russian, and Dutch design. It reveals a saga of creative innovators, breakthrough technologies, and... (more)

Understanding Comics The Invisible Art

by Scott McCloud

Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.

Logo Lounge: 2,000 International Identities by Leading Designers

by Bill Gardner, Catharine M. Fishel

Logos -- for everything from food and fashion to conferences and corporations -- are among designers' most prized projects. When LogoLounge debuted in hardcover, it was the first in a series celebrating the work of top logo designers on the innovative LogoLounge website.This book, now in paperback, presents the site's best designs of the year as judged by an elite group of name-brand designers. ... (more)

Fingerprint: The Art of Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design

Fingerprint: The Art of Using Handmade Elements in Graphic Design

by Chen Design Associates

Make Your Mark Design is at a turning point. Our infatuation with--and the backlash against--technology is over. Today's best designers have learned to embrace its advantages and think beyond its limitations by combining the power of the computer with the tactile qualities of handmade elements. Inside you'll find examples of work that showcase a variety of design methods, including mixed media,... (more)

Forms, Folds, and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Need to Know but Can Never Find

Forms, Folds, and Sizes: All the Details Graphic Designers Need to Know but Can Never Find

by Poppy Evans

Forms, Folds & Sizes will be the book that is always next to a designer?s computer. Completely practical with only the most needed information, this book will provide designers with all the little details that can make or break a design such as how much space to leave in the gutter when designing barrel folds, how to layout a template for a box and the ratios of each part, metric conversion charts, standard... (more)

The Zen of CSS Design

Visual Enlightenment for the Web

by Molly E. Holzschlag, Dave Shea

Proving once and for all that standards-compliant design does not equal dull design, this inspiring tome uses examples from the landmark CSS Zen Garden site as the foundation for discussions on how to create beautiful, progressive CSS-based Web sites. By using the Zen Garden sites as examples of how CSS design techniques and approaches can be applied to specific Web challenges, authors Dave Shea and Molly... (more)

D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (Design Handbooks)

D.I.Y.: Design It Yourself (Design Handbooks)

by Ellen Lupton

Not satisfied with the new T-shirts on sale at the local mall? Maybe you'd like a wedding invitation that expresses your own vision, not your party planner's? How about some personalized stationery? An upgrade to your website? A business card? A poster for your political campaign? A CD package for your band? Sound good? Then get up off your couch and Design It Yourself! Avoid graphic identity theft: build your... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: graphic design

by Robert Bringhurst

by Ellen Lupton

by Adrian Shaughnessy

by Timothy Samara

by Edward R. Tufte

by Chip Kidd

by Robin Williams

by Alan Fletcher

A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

by Steve Krug

by Edward R. Tufte

by Erik Spiekermann, E. M. Ginger

by Edward R. Tufte

by Jim Krause

by Alston W. Purvis, Philip B. Meggs

by Scott McCloud

by Bill Gardner, Catharine M. Fishel

by Chen Design Associates

by Poppy Evans

Visual Enlightenment for the Web

by Molly E. Holzschlag, Dave Shea

by Ellen Lupton