9 essential design books
9 essential design books
We have compiled a list of books that we recommend to read for everyone involved in design.
By the way, some of these books were collected by the guys from the @dbooks telegram channel – you can read them for free 🙂
The World of Charles and Ray Eames
Ray and Charles Eames are one of our favorite creative tandems. This couple has become the inspiration of an entire generation. Working together in cinema, architecture, photography, interiors and furnishings, they have transformed many objects of everyday life. From ergonomic plywood tires for injured soldiers to instructional videos for a clown school, the Eames had no children, but their legacy is immense. Interestingly, the book includes the writings of Ray and Charles, as well as fragments of their correspondence – readers will be able to get acquainted with the world of their ideas, feelings and passion to change the world.
Modular systems in graphic design
Josef MĂĽller-Brockmann championed the communicative function of graphic design, informational clarity and authenticity. This classic tutorial on modernist design demonstrates the variety of modular systems and teaches you how to work with meshes of different complexity in different contexts: book, poster, exhibition space, publications. A handbook for all designers.
A book about letters from Aa to Yai
The third edition, significantly expanded, because the Cyrillic alphabet lives on and in the six years since the release of the first edition, many fonts and new type designers have appeared. This is an attempt to understand the specifics, anatomy and individual properties of Cyrillic letters, as well as to understand how a designer can work with this given. On our YouTube channel there is a great conversation about the origins of inspiration in the profession with the author of the book, Yuri Gordon.
Sagmeister and Walsh: On Beauty
Design changes the environment and the person’s sensations in it, the perception of the world. The book-catalog of the large-scale exhibition-research of the same name by cult designers Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh is dedicated to just this. They try to answer the questions of what beauty is, how we identify it and how it affects us.
100 Years of Swiss Design
The visual book in two volumes provides an insight into Swiss design through an introduction to the most famous and typical works from 1900 to the present day. It consists of 30 essays, ranging from the study of design and manufacturing processes to the transforming role of a designer over time.
Yuri Gordon: On the language of composition
The book, which has become a reference for a whole generation of designers, is an essay by the famous graphic artist, type designer and artist Yuri Gordon that almost all areas of human activity obey the same compositional laws. From the Sistine Chapel and Velazquez’s painting to Nefertiti’s head and the text justification on the poster.
3 books on architecture
Architecture is design in large forms, design is architecture in small formats. They study people and design their experiences and relationships. The history of architecture is richer and longer, which means the layer of accumulated knowledge too. Therefore, we encourage designers to take inspiration from architecture. We recommend Le Corbusier’s memories of his first trip to the USA, which inspired him to the rhythm of New York and a new sociality, a dialogue between Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas about the structure of the reality around us, and an album with the works of Tadao Ando, ​​whose design is compared to haiku created from matter, space , water and light.
In addition – the film almanac “100 Years of Design”. Each series is dedicated to a separate period in the history of world design between 1918 and 2018 and was made by a studio or a famous Russian designer. You can watch it for free.
Source: vc.ru
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