This is a required reading for my graduate course on professional design practices. Shaughnessy has great advices on making a living as a designer ranging from finding a job, running a studio, seeking new work to talking to clients. For example, here’s his rule when meeting clients:

I never talk about myself until they ask me to. Instead, I let them talk, I ask them questions about their business, and I allow them to have a center stage. Then, a little bit of magic occurs; they (usually) turn to me and say—OK, tell me about you.

His advice on interview is worth-noting too:

It is only by meeting people in both environments that we gain sufficient insight to allow us to decide which is best for us. In fact, here’s another little nostrum to add to the list that we’re accumulating: there’s no such thing as a bad interview. Even bad ones are good; I learned a lot about design and life from being interviewed by people.

I wrote a post on “The Art of Interview” two years ago; therefore, I concur with Shaughnessy that you can learn a great deal from being interviewed.

I recommend How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul to new designers, especially recent graduates, even though I find the book a bit dull. For one, I am no longer new to the game and I have heard of every tips in the book. For two, the book is set in Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk, which makes the reading experience incredibly bland, and the changes in layout interrupt the flow.

Rather than writing an exhaustive biography on The Amazing Bud Powell, Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr. focuses on the development of bebop and Powell’s important contributions to the movement. Ramsey touches Powell’s troublesome life, but delves more into his musical genius. His exploration of Powell’s compositions is an engaging read for fans who are interested in the technicality of bebop.

Hendel’s book on book design is insightful and compelling. He speaks to leading designers in the industry about their process, philosophy and typography. The type choices that they made fascinate me. The designers have done their job if readers could get through the entire book without noticing anything about the texts they set. Hendel also managed to get Kent Lew to share his design of Whitman. Even though I probably will never design a book, I still find this book useful for someone whose interest is in designing a pleasure reading experience.

A comprehensive documentation of Frutiger’s typographical work based on his own words, complete with history and detailed analysis from the editors, Heidrun Osterer and Philipp Stamm, and extraordinary visual comparisons of the typefaces. The amount of knowledge, information and technicalities are overwhelming for one read. I intend to reread it.

Rereading William Zinsser’s On Writing Well reminds me why I have been blogging for ten years. He advises: “You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.” (p. 25)

I am not a writer and my grammar still sucks, but I love writing for myself. When I started to blog, my main goal was to improve my English. Over the years, writing has become my passion. Writing sets me free. When I write I have no obligation to anyone else but myself.

Whether reviewing an album, recommending a book or ranting about life, I have the complete freedom to write what on my mind. Sometimes the unfiltered opinion could get me into trouble. In retrospect, I have toned down my language in recent years. Being a husband and a father plays a role in it, but the main reason is that I am much more mellow than I used to be.

With the rise of social media, blogging has become less popular, but that is also why I still enjoy writing on my own site. The blog is still a quiet place, especially without comments, for me to just write. In 2014, I will continue to write as much as time would allow me to.

Over Thanksgiving break, I had a chance to go through two books on grid. Both Grids and Page Layouts by Amy Graver & Ben Jura and 100 Design Principles for Using Grids by Beth Tondreau are filled with great case studies and informative tips, but they don’t delve into the technical details of designing with grid. If you want to dig deep into the technique, start with Khoi Vinh’s excellent Ordering Disorder first before reading these two books for inspiration. The only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is in Grids and Page Layouts where the quotes aren’t hanging. I don’t mind serif all-cap typeface, but the unhung quotes are unforgiven.

By turning topics that only type nerds appreciate into accessible storytelling, Simon Garfield has written one of the most engaging books about fonts I have read. From “We Don’t Serve Your Type” (the first chapter on Comic Sans) to “The Worse Fonts in the World,” Just My Type is quite entertaining even for folks outside of the typographic geeks.

This well-written book, a collaboration between Nancy Skolos and Tom Wedell, examines the creative process designers had taken when they approach a project. Even though each case study is unique to the designer and the individual work, one can learn something from all of them. I find Graphic Design Process quite valuable for my own process.

Ari Rafaeli’s criticism on Book Typography is bold, meticulous and constructive. He took Robert Bringhurst to task on small caps and Richard Hendel on a wrong comma (Galliard comma was used in Garamond font). It’s quite an intriguing, sometimes intimidating, read.

My latest interest has been on branding as I am taking a graduate course on it; therefore, I am very excited to see a book titled Branding Typography. It turns out to be a coffee table book. Still worth flipping through when in need of inspiration on branding.