What makes a designer's work alluring? It takes years of academic qualification and practical experience to create designs that become instant visual communicators. Whether you are working with branding, illustration or publication, there are certain books every designer must keep on his/her shelf. We love them all, and believe that many are a must-have for designers.

1. 25 must-read Graphic
Design Books to Inspire
Innovation in 2015

2. The Graphic Design
Reference and
Specification Book
by Aaris Sharin
Template layouts to metric
conversion charts, the all-in-
one reference and
specification book for
designers.
by Aaris Sharin
.

3. Graphic Icons: Visionaries
Who Shaped Modern Graphic
Design by John Clifford
What’s in it?
Feast your eyes with a visual
history tour that is filled with
great work of multimedia,
typeface, logos, ads and
posters of some renowned
designers in history.

4. Give a Type a Face: 80 artists give a face to the most popular fonts by M Elena Gonzalez Ygoa
What’s in it?
An astounding joint venture in which 80 artists contributed to put up stunning pieces for Arial, Verdana,
Helvetica and 78 typeface more

5. What’s in it?
Graphic Design Journals is a unique collection of the most influential magazines
devoted to graphic design, advertising and typography.
100 Classic Graphic Design Journals by Steven Heler & Jason Godfrey

6. What’s in it?
David Carson was accused and criticized designer of his time. But countless designers imitated his techniques
and now they dominate the advertising and design industry.
The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson by Lewis Blackwell
.

7. Just My Type:
A Book about
Fonts by Simon
Grafield
What’s in it?
A hugely entertaining and
revealing guide to the history of
type that asks what your favorite
font says about you?

8. What’s in it?
A must-have for graphic design students to get a little edge in their career and learn what is not taught at
school.
How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy

9. .
A Designer’s Art by
Paul Rand
What’s in it?
The leading graphic designer
Paul Rand describes his work
with acute precision and passion
and this book sets an aspiring
example for upcoming designers.

10. • What’s in it?
• This book deconstructs 300 plus logos from around the world, clear understanding of how to target your
market and convey brand values.
Design DNA – Logos: 300+ International Logos Deconstructed by Matthew Healey

11. What’s in it?
An effective layout makes or breaks a design. This book is a guidance for the conventional grid designs so that
the designers can apply those rules in mainstream projects.
Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara

12. Logo, Font & Lettering Bible by Leslie Cabarga
What’s in it?
Not every designer can create logos,
fonts and lettering. Logo, Font and
Lettering Bible is a textbook of type for
the experienced graphics professional
as well as the beginning student of
design.

13. What’s in it?
Pantone, the worldwide color authority offers an elaborate view on the color transformations through the
years and this book covers its official color palettes to reveal the trends and radical shifts.
Pantone: Twentieth Century in Color by Leatrice Eiseman & Keith Recker

14. Designing the Editorial
Experience by Sue
Apfelbaum and Juiette
Cazzar
What’s in it?
Explore different mediums that display
content including traditional book
formats to mobiles and tablets. Find
out how designers, editors and digital
analysts exploit these mediums.

15. The Art of Looking Sideways
by Alan Fletcher
What’s in it?
It is an inexhaustible
mine of anecdotes,
quotations, images,
curious facts and
useful information
that explores the
working of the eyes,
the hands, the brain
and the imagination.

16. How to Think Like a
Great Graphic Designer
by Debbie Millman, and
Steven Heller
What’s in it?
Take a peek inside the
heads of the world’s
greatest living graphic
designers. How do they
think, how do they connect
to others, what special
skills do they have?

17. Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe by Tim Leong
What’s in it?
An inspiring infographics based comics for designers of all ages. Most of your comic book questions are
answered here plus a variety of infographic styles bring tons of inspiration.

18. What’s in it?
Infographics are the best means to display crude data visually. This book showcases examples of infographics
and encourages and advices designers on how to create their own unique visual displays of language.
Infographics & Data Visualizations by Tang Art

19. Illustration: Meeting the Brief by Alan Male
What’s in it?
This book is aimed at students and illustrators who are looking for inspiration to create artworks to fulfill a
specific brief, as part of their course, job or career.

20. Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs) by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips
What’s in it?
Creativity is a skill that improves with practice. Graphic Design Thinking explores a variety of informal
techniques and formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking and providing viable solution.
.

21. The End of Print:
The Grafik Design
by David Carson
What’s in it?
An iconic designer, David
Carson steps forward to
reveal an unconventional
approach to display design in
distorted type and
fragmented imagery.

22. What’s in it?
To build a charismatic brand, a design needs to apply creative as well as strategic approach. The Brand Gap is a
must-read for every designer because it reunites both strategies.
The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design by Marty Neumeier
.

23. Creative
Advertising: An
Introduction by
Miriam Sorrentino
What’s in it?
This book explores
the fundamentals
of advertising and
branding. It’s clear
and concise guide
for designers who
wish to build
portfolios and craft
new ideas.

24. What’s in it?
This book covers the fundamental areas of graphic design but besides that the author manages to pin point the
layouts that work in the design industry.
Layout Workbook: A Real-world Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design by Kristin Cullen

25. What’s in it?
Explore the thinking
behind some of Rand’s
best-known identities. In
this book, he has
illustrated his ideas with
examples of his own
graphic work as well as
with the work of artists
he admires.
Design, Form
and Chaos by
Paul Rand

26. The Little Know-It-All:
Common Sense for
designers by Robert
Klanten
What’s in it?
It’s an amazing reference
guide for all designers. Even
after becoming a professional
designer, you can always refer
back to this guide making it a
winner on all levels.