Clare Lynch Creative – Graphic Design Services Dublin – Branding and Packaging Design
  • Home
  • About
  • Work
    • All Work
    • Branding & Identity
    • Packaging
    • Communication
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact

recommended

7 Books that every Graphic Designer should read

7 Books that every Graphic Designer should read

Entering in to the world of graphic design can be exciting! There is so much to discover to improve your knowledge and skills.

Here are some books I can recommend that I found helped me most along the way – hopefully they can help you to grow too and be as successful in your design career as you would like to be…

 

1. Graphic Design: A New History

by Stephen J. Eskilson

This book is great for teaching the complete background and history to graphic design. It’s a really thick, content-heavy book full of useful information and stories – it’s great to educate yourself on where the beginning of graphic design stems from. It’s important to understand this as it can help connect the past, present and future of design and form the decisions you make, adding more substance and context to your design work.



 

2. Graphic Design: A Concise History

by Richard Hollis


Again, this book teaches about the background and history in graphic design – the more you understand this, the better designer you can be, by playing on or remodernising styles in a new way or understanding the reasons as to why good design works.

 

3. Making and Breaking the Grid

by Timothy Samara


I found this book along with Josef Müller-Brockmann’s book below brilliant in understanding grids and how they can create structure and bring design together through working with them. Sometimes you have to know the rules to break them! So when you can understand how using grids can enhance your design work, you can then afford to break them at times to add visual interest and create a unique point of interest.

 

4. Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works

by Erik Spiekermann

Typography is an key element of graphic design. Learning about kerning, font choices, alignment, visual hierarchy and of course… dreaded widows, will really enhance your skills and knowledge and enable you to become a better designer.

 

5. Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual

by Josef Müller-Brockmann

Swiss design is known to be leading in design. As mentioned above, I loved learning about grids – it was a real eye-opener and offered so much more opportunities to create good design that worked well and looked visually appealing. Swiss designer Josef Müller-Brockmann is the master of grids and this book gives you a whole new system and way of working to add structure and order to your design work.

 

6. How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul

by Adrian Shaughnessy

I love the title of this book. Irish designer Adrian O’Shaughnessy shares his tips and tricks on how to make it in the design world and many of the things that he has learned along the way. This is especially a good book if you want to become a freelancer or are thinking of setting up your own studio. It’s a good book to dip in and out of for helpful pointers.

 

7. A Smile in the Mind

by Beryl McAlhone

This book is inspiring and makes you think. It is more advertising focussed and features clever ways of looking at things and selling products /services by portraying the story or idea in unique ways. It’s a large, easy to read book, which will leave you enthusiastic about creating your own ideas and how you can look at things differently.

 

An Added Extra:
It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be

by Paul Arden

Another book I love I added in as an extra. This isn’t strictly a graphic design book, although it is a creative book, centred around the design industry. I think you can find it inspiring no matter what you work at. It encourages the reader to think differently…bigger…to do the opposite…and to challenge what you see and think. It’s a small book which is inspiring, really easy to read and a great book to keep after you have first read it, to dip in and out of it, for fresh ideas or motivation when you need it.

The award-winning designer Paul Rand’s ‘Thoughts on Design‘ is another good book to read if you have got through this list! Happy reading and good luck bringing your design career ambitions to life or becoming a better designer if you are already working in the creative industry 🙂

September 15, 2017 /  

Posts navigation

About me

Clare Lynch Creative are a Dublin based graphic design practice specialising in the design and development of unique brand identities, packaging, visual communication and print design.

Popular Posts

  • Shortlisted for the IDI Design Awards October 13, 2022
  • Hello Hinterland Book Launch April 28, 2022
  • The Big Idea Mentoring April 5, 2022
  • MUSE Design Award Winner 2022 March 31, 2022
  • Your Life Audit Brand Launch February 18, 2022

Archives

  • October 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • July 2021
  • November 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • December 2014
  • March 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • April 2013

Categories

  • Blog
  • Uncategorized

Tags

2017 2022 Advertising art artist awards award winning designer brand design brand identity branding Children Clare Lynch Creative clarelynchcreative colour communication Competition Winner creative Design designer design event Dublin etching exhibition feature Gift store Graphic Design graphicdesign graphic designer Illustration ireland irish Letterpress logo design packaging packaging design positivity Poster design print Prize Winner Shop talent Tales for Tadpoles Typography Winning Entry wishes

Clare Lynch Creative


Clare Lynch Creative

Graphic Design Services
Dublin 1, Ireland
hello@clarelynchcreative.com instagram.com/clarelynchcreative
©2022 Clare Lynch Creative

Award Winning Design Studio Specialising in Branding, Identity and Packaging Design Services