Most Important Typography Books

Fred reviews his top book selections for a well-rounded education in typography and graphic design using type, fonts and lettering. Each of these books represents a solid, authoritative aspect of typographic education. If you don’t have these on your bookshelf, shame on you. Get them before they go out of print!

One of the most badly needed areas of training is Typography. I’m seeing more and more pure junk coming out these days — I just cringe and say; “Someone’s got to start teaching typography to these kids!” All you have to do is spend a little time in the Design Cafe to learn that some people calling themselves “designers” really don’t have a clue!

With any of the following books, you have a resource right in your hand that you can use again and again — keep it open — and walk through the best tutorials and training the industry has to offer. So here, I’ve picked just a few of my favorites. . .

Advertising Design and Typography

Advertising Design and TypographyThis is truly the most comprehensive overview of advertising design strategies on the market today — and tops our list of ‘must-have’ books for designers. * 1,500 full-color illustrations showcase outstanding advertising design from around the world * Unique comparisons of print, web, TV, and other campaigns–which techniques work best? * Ideas for forging corporate identity through advertising. It will help students and professionals in advertising, design, and typography understand and use persuasive visual messaging. Design principles such as unity, contrast, hierarchy, dominance, scale, abstraction, and type and image relationships are covered in depth. Readers will also learn how print design compares to television, web, and interactive design, and how to apply each style to create persuasive designs. The extensive section on typography offers essential information on how readers perceive type, typographic history, principles, and practice.
CLICK HERE Advertising Design and Typography
Don’t even worry how much it costs! (You’ll save: $18.50, 37%) just buy it!

Logo, Font & Lettering Bible

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Leslie Cabarga put together the end-all, be-all book for typographic design and manipulation. I called it a classic in my 2004 review — and that claim still holds true five years later. This is probably the most fun, inspirational, and exciting book on typography in a decade. In fact, I’ve NEVER seen one that I quite like as much as this. What is most important about this book however is that this is a better trainer on working with computer type than all the trendy Photoshop and Illustrator writers put together. Why? Because those people are basically writers who have read the manuals and can write tutorials. Cabarga on the other hand was creating fabulous graphics before many of those people were born. As an illustrator he’s drawn covers for Time, Newsweek, Fortune and National Lampoon. He has also worked as a designer in the art departments of Rolling Stone and San Francisco’s City Magazine. He was doing it for top art directors two decades before anyone heard of Adobe. Don’t just sit there — you’re missing the best time with typography you’ll ever have!
CLICK HERE Logo, Font & Lettering Bible

Typographic Design: Form and Communication

Typographic Design: Form and Communicationby Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs
For more than two decades, the type book of choice for design professionals and students — this Fourth Edition continues to provide a comprehensive overview of every aspect of designing with type; with detailed coverage of such essential topics as the anatomy of letters and type families, visual communications and design aesthetics, and designing for legibility. Supplementing these essential topics are theoretical and structural problem-solving approaches by some of the leading design educators across the United States. Unwrapping the underlying concepts about typographic form and message. Includes access to a new ancillary Web site containing resources for self-learners, students and professors
CLICK HERE Typographic Design: Form and Communication
ESSENTIAL, MUST HAVE ~ $50.00 – our discounted price: $38.36 ~ Published by: Wiley; Paperback; 336 pages

Thinking In Type: The Practical Philosophy Of Typography

Thinking In Type: The Practical Philosophy Of Typographyby Alex W. White
No need for us to brag about this book … just take the advice of Ed Benguiat, world-renowned Typographic designer … “Wow” at last. Here is a practical, exciting reference book that will stimulate the student as well as the professional typographic designer. It really is a good book.” — this is a visually stunning primer, designers will develop the skills and vision to produce truly innovative, stunning type design. Using more than 1,500 images from the 18th century up to the present day, the author describes type as a unique language that follows its own rules for communication and that requires great sensitivity for the reader’s needs — the differences between type applications; how typography creates identity; what readers look for and respond to; step-by-step guides to developing distinctive type treatments; how to generate type ideas; and the historical development of typographic rules and letter forms.
CLICK HERE Thinking In Type: The Practical Philosophy Of Typography
Author: Alex W. White ~ $24.95 – our discounted price: $11.00 ~ Published by: Allworth Press; Paperback; 213 pages

The Non-Designer’s Design and Type Book, Deluxe Edition

The Non-Designer's Design and Type Book, Deluxe Edition
We love Robin Williams. You’ll love Robin if you haven’t met her yet. There are over 700,000 copies of this book in print! — Robin uses her straightforward and lighthearted style to define the principles that govern good design and type as well as the logic behind those principles. Using numerous examples, you’ll learn what looks best and why on your way to designing beautiful and effective projects — find inspiration and direction for the design quandaries and conundrums you are sure to encounter! LEARN The four principles of design that underlie every design project ~ Categories of type ~ Working with color ~ How to combine typefaces ~ Readability and legibility ~ proper typographic punctuation ~ Letter spacing, line spacing ~ and tons more
CLICK HERE The Non-Designer’s Design and Type Book, Deluxe Editionicon
Author: Robin Williams ~ $45.00 – our discounted price: $28.07 ~ Published by: Peachpit Press; Paperback; 448 pages

The list goes on and on

I could list several hundred, but for now, any of the above books can bring you up to speed in your chosen area of design gently and quickly. In the Design Bookshelf department of the Design Center, we do not review books that don’t offer real-world solutions to your learning experience — bad books are simply ignored.

Go for it… and …

Thanks for reading…

Fred Showker
Editor / Publisher, DT&G Magazine

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