Suggested Reading

One of the things that designers have to cope with is just how little they know. I’m including myself when I say that. There is so much to learn in the world, we can’t possibly absorb it all.

There is absolutely no way for me to teach you everything you will need to know about visual communication and design during the short time we will have together. I am still learning new things about design every day after 18 years of working as a professional visual designer in various roles.

As a designer, you have to be able to learn and adapt, often very quickly. In fact, I would say learning new things is one of the most important parts of being a designer. We have to quickly become experts in the subjects we are designing for so that we can portray them in a way that almost anyone can recognize and relate to. Whether new knowledge or new technical skills, we have to be able to think on our feet and adapt.

You are not required to buy any textbooks for this course. But if you are planning on pursuing a career in visual communication, then you should buy the books listed below and read their contents until you more or less have them memorized. This will take years for you to do, so I recommend starting as soon as possible.

I also recommend looking at other designers’ work as much as you can. Follow designers you like on social media. Comment on their work and ask them questions. Find out why they did what they did. You’ll be surprised how open and forthcoming some of them are. Above all, just get comfortable talking to other designers and learning from others about their work. We don’t want to copy anybody. But we can learn a lot by exploring other designers’ techniques. Everybody was a beginner at some point, right?

meggs' History of Graphic Design

 

editing by design

 

thinking with type

 

dont make me think