Books Every Designer Should Read

3 Lists of Books Every Graphic Designer Should Read

Ellen Lupton, Rick Poynor, and Véronique Vienne

October 1, 2013

Three graphic design authorities tell us the books (and not only design books) they think every graphic designer should read.

Ellen Lupton’s Book List

I’m a designer who writes and a writer who likes to fuss with fonts, formats, and the techniques of publishing. Typography and writing are deeply connected. Writing makes thought exterior, converting fleeting notions into concrete things—indelible patterns of ink or pixels. My reading list includes in equal measure books that study (and exemplify) design processes and those that explore (and demonstrate) the qualities of strong writing.

Rick Poynor's Book List

Books led me to typography and graphic design. Love of reading became love of the medium in which the words are printed, of the type that composes these words, of the substrate that supports them, of the page layouts that give form to narrative and argument, of the covers and bindings that hold these texts and pictures together, of the lettering and imagery that seek to express a book’s essential nature.

Véronique Vienne's Book List

I thought that I had an idea that would make me rich. I wanted to develop a smart interactive “wand” that would help me geo-locate my favorite books, many of them tucked in my bookcases in the wrong place or forgotten on a pile somewhere on a table, a ledge, or a chair. This “Book Beeper,” as I called it, would be able to identify a misplaced book with a beep, the same way some devices help you find misplaced phones, remotes, or car keys.

Hardcovers and Paperbacks Will Always Rule: Gail Anderson’s Book List

Warren Lehrer’s Book List: A Life in Visual Literature

Inspirations and Reflections of a Flâneur: Ken Carbone’s Book List

50 Books on Type and Typography

4 Lists of Books Every Architect Should Read

3 Lists of Books Every Fashion Designer Should Read

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Announcements

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Published: May 2022

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Published: February 22, 2022

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
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Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

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