Comments on: Designers Don’t Read

By: What’s Black and White and Unread all Over? « Architects 2Zebras

What’s Black and White and Unread all Over? « Architects 2Zebras — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:36:55 +0000

[...] is perfect for any design professional or arts library.” If you want to know more about the book, this review is a good place to [...]

By: Editor

Editor — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:06:50 +0000

Hi Rick - Glad you enjoyed the review and thanks for the comment and story. The $50 paperweight is a common complaint of design books, as is having been to design school and not getting lessons in design. There's a longer history and rant behind that, which we'll have to save for another time. I wrote a piece for Core77 a little while back called 19 Books Every Design Professional Should Own. It's an odd list, but you might find it useful. I asked a lot of friends and colleagues about this and all of them mentioned "anything by Paul Rand", so you can't go wrong there. If you want to know about graphic design history, then Meggs' History of Graphic Design (link to our review) is a good start by all accounts, but it's not really about how to do it. Other design histories worth reading are pretty much anything by Steven Heller. On a strictly graphic design front, Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller-Brockmann and Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst are the two classics, but there are many more.

By: Rick T

Rick T — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:31:15 +0000

So I walked into borders with a $20 gift card that I received as a gift and dreams of bringing home a a shiny new picture book to inspire me. It should be made clear that I don’t read books often.

I spent about an hour in the store sipping my coffee and flipping through gimmicky books that had very little to offer. I was just about to walk out of the store with a $50 paper weight when I saw this little gem hiding behind a picture book of naked people that claimed to be about anatomy.

I picked up “Designers Don’t Read”, read the back, read the first 3 minute chapter and said out loud, “This guy is a liar!”

While I couldn’t relate on many of the levels Howe spoke about regarding agencies (I’m finishing up my senior year of college), I found the book to be pretty damn inspiring. It wasn’t groundbreaking stuff, but some refreshing bits of writing from a non-designer.

I stumbled upon your site while I was searching for reviews of Paul Rand: A Designer`s Art. Instead I found your review Paul Rand: Conversations with Students, which then led me to this. As a 24 year old design student I find myself wondering how I’m almost finished with school, but never got a proper Graphic Design history lesson. Granted, I’ve had some relative success outside the classroom, but feel a bit ignorant for not knowing that much about Rand and the other greats. What are the best Rand books I should invest in?

You’re reviews are stellar, in-depth and super-informative.