Design Like You Mean It
A (slightly nerdy) roundup of the best non-fiction graphic design books for creatives who love kerning, color palettes, typography, and learning how not to destroy a layout. For beginner and advanced designers alike!
created by chelssicle
last updated December, 2025
Comments
oooh this is so interesting! Was actually just looking for some typography books, perfect timing đ
Also highly recommend looking for typography magazines, even one off issues. I find a lot of inspiration in those!
perhaps "the black experience in design"? and you mentioned magazines in another comment... only things that come to mind from studying design history is the EmigrĂŠ mag and the Ray Gun mag, but idk if theyre actually about design or if theyre just extremely influential in style/messaging/experimentation? for a more modern day mag, AIGA's eye on design magazines are also pretty good! though theyre discontinued now i believe, at least for print. i used to know some books on the printing press and such, but id have to go digging for what they were... đ¤
I know, I've been digging way down to remember which ones I had to read in design school lol I remember lots of magazines but I don't think many are still in print!
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