This is a list of books I find particularly important and worth your time and money. Each of these has influenced me considerably as a designer, as a teacher of design, and as a person. I will make this list grow regularly.
Books sorted alphabetically from last name of first author. Eventually, I may add categories.
This mark > denotes a masterpiece. Required reading.
Rudolf Arnheim.
Visual Thinking.
Gregory Bateson.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind.
John Berger.
Ways of Seeing.
Jacques Bertin.
La graphique et le traitement graphique de l’information.
Robert Bringhurst.
The Elements of Typographic Style.
The Solid Form of Language.
Natalie Canavor & Claire Meirowitz.
The Truth About The New Rules of Business Writing.
Frank Chimero.
The Shape of Design.
Adam Connor & Aaron Irizarry.
Discussing Design: Improving communication and collaboration through critique.
Jon Duckett.
HTML and CSS: Design and build websites.
Kimberly Elam.
Grid Systems: Principles of organizing type.
Ernst H. Gombrich.
The Story of Art.
Erika Hall.
Just Enough Research.
Marijn Haverbeke.
Eloquent JavaScript.
Jost Hochuli & Robin Kinross.
Designing Books: Practice and theory.
Robert Jacobson, ed.
Information Design.
Morris Kline.
Mathematics for the Nonmathematician.
Alla Kholmatova.
Design Systems.
Robin Kinross.
Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on typography.
Modern Typography: An essay in critical history.
Helen Lupton, et al.
Extra Bold: A feminist, inclusive, anti-racist, nonbinary field guide for graphics designers.
John Maeda.
The Laws of Simplicity: Design, technology, business, life.
Marshall McLuhan.
Understanding Media: The extensions of man.
The Medium Is the Massage: An inventory of effects.
Laws of Media.
Mike Monteiro.
The Collected Angers: Essays about design for an unwilling audience.
Ruined by Design: How designers destroyed the world, and what we can do to fix it.
Design Is A Job.
Ruben Pater.
The Politics of Design.
Caps Lock: How capitalism took hold of graphics design, and how to escape from it.
Catherine Saouter.
Le language visuel.
David Sherwin.
Success by Design.
Erik Spiekermann & E.M. Ginger.
Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works.
William Strunk Jr & E. B. White (Strunk & White)
The Elements of Style.
Kristine Tortora, ed.
Carl Dair and the Cartier Typeface: Selected correspondence.
Edward Tufte.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.
Envisioning Information.
Visual Explanations: Images and quantities, evidence and narrative.
Beautiful Evidence.
Seeing with Fresh Eyes: Meaning, space, data, truth
Bunpei Yorifuji.
Le dessin et les mots. Réflexions sur la pratique du design. (original in Japanese.)