The story behind the fifty selected typefaces, including Baskerville, Comic Sans, Futura, Garamond, and Helvetica, in this book has been told many times before. Loxley doesn’t add anything new, but his writing is brief and approachable. If you know your type history, skip it. If you don’t, read it, design students in particular.
A collection of 14 research essays focusing on legibility and readability. If you care about typography, this book will provide informative studies on reading experiences ranging from highway signages to newspapers to everything in between. Required reading for designers.
I have read 50 books this year, which is 6 books less than 2015. It’s still a good number according to my reading history. I do hope to keep reading around 40 to 50 books a year. I am still obsessed with reading. I read to relax and when I have time to myself. It also helps me stay away from social media. After this year’s election, I have drastically reduced reading the news; therefore, I will focus more on books next year. In addition to reading, I have started to collect books I love to keep. I will continue to update my wish list.
An attentive assessment of Palatino, a typeface with an extended family Hermann Zapf had spent six decades designed and refined. Once again, Bringhurst’s poetic prose, technical analysis, biographical documentation, and beautiful typesetting make this book a real treat for type nerds.
From Investigation to Strategy and Narrative to Design to Implementation to Engagement, Johnson delves into the five-step process as well as the essential half step that bridges the gap between Strategy and Design. Clear and approachable explanations combined with rich visual illustrations make this book a must-have guide for creating successful branding in any industry.
Celebrating 30 years of type design, the 752-page compilation of Emigre’s prolific work goes beyond the art of type specimen. The essays provide the designers’ approach and thinking process that go into their types. From Mrs Eaves to Tribute to Vista to Alda, you’ll appreciate the details of setting each of these exceptional typefaces.
A big, beautiful coffee table book on typography begins with brief stories from ten type designers and ends with short articles and interviews. The huge chunk of this book showcases commercial typography. It’s nice to have for the office, but not required.
A gorgeous, historical collection of cover designs from Penguin Classics. Breathtaking illustration and expressive typography make it an inspiring reference for graphic designers.
A brief and practical introduction to create an effective brand. In addition to social media, branding and marketing strategist Karen Leland explains the important of developing a modern, marketing-oriented website:
In my experience, many business people (especially entrepreneurs and small-business owners) glossy underestimate the impact and importance of their websites. I can tell you with absolute certainty that the quality of your website is critical to your customers, potential customers, and even members of the media.
In other word, setting up your site on SquareSpace or Wix won’t help your brand. Take it from the branding expert and president of Sterling Marketing Group, not to be confused with Sterling Brands as I did.
An early Christmas gift to web designers from the one and only Jeremy Keith, Resilient Web Design takes us back to the beginning of the World Wide Web, shows us what makes the web resilient, and guides us in building a web that would last. As always, Keith’s writing is clear, concise, and thoughtful. His approach to web design sums up in three steps:
- Identify core functionality.
- Make that functionality available using the simplest possible technology.
- Enhance!
In addition to being free, the best part about the book is using the web as a publishing platform. It makes perfect sense for a book written about the web to be read on the web (or offline via Service Worker). Typeset in ET Book, the design of the book website is as beautiful as it is readable. Without a doubt, Resilient Web Design is a required reading for web designers and front-end developers everywhere.