Best books on design/aesthetics?

[archerships]

What books on design or aesthetics do y’all like? The one that comes immediately to mind for me is Edward Tufte’s Visual Display of Quantitative Information. I also liked Design of Everyday Things.

What else is good? What’s the graphic designer’s bible? Specialist titles (for example, design of typography) are also welcome.

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments

[darius.livejournal.com]

I liked _The Non-Designer's Design Book_. It's basic, but that's what I needed.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

I loved Tufte's Visual Explanations. I asked a friend who's a designer, and he replied:

"I like:

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller-Brockmann

Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, and Philip B. Meggs

and, of course

Interpretation By Design: Graphic Design Basics for Heritage Interpreters by Paul Caputo, Shea Lewis, Lisa Brochu"

That he's one of the authors of the last might be taken into account.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Which author is he?

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

The Paul.

[candid.livejournal.com]

Presentation Zen was very influential for me.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

I can't tell if you're serious or not.

[candid.livejournal.com]

Serious.

(The book doesn't actually have anything to do with Zen.)

[girlvinyl.livejournal.com]

I went with a friend to a local "town hall" type meeting thingie. And the presentation was SO AWFUL that in the middle I looked at him and said "oh my god, Tufte needed." My friend said "fuck yes please". It was so bad we almost left early, but were boxed in to our seats and didn't want to cause a commotion getting up.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

My sympathies.

[kenshi.livejournal.com]

Study gestalt theories of perception. It'll teach you the basic mechanics of hacking people's visual cortexes.

[crasch.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Any books you'd recommend?

[kenshi.livejournal.com]

Actually, a good place to start is with some online resources. Google "gestalt perception design" and that should get you on the right track. From there, as you get more familiar with some of the basic principles, you can move on to a text like this one.

Beyond that, you might also look into Dr. V. S. Ramachandran's work on neuroscience and art.