The Top 20 Best of The Best Graphic Design Books

Compiled From 13 “Best Graphic Design Books” Articles

I've collated the results from 13 "best graphic design books" articles to create this semi-scientific ultimate best graphic design books list. Each design book was given a score between 20 and 1 each time they featured on one of the 13 articles. Jump to the bottom of the page to see exactly how the scores were calculated.

1. How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing Your Soul

by Adrian Shaughnessy

96 points

View on Amazon

2. Thinking With Type

by Ellen Lupton

95 points

View on Amazon

3. Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team

by Alina Wheeler

74 points

View on Amazon

=4. The Elements of Typographic Style

by Robert Bringhurst

58 points

View on Amazon

=4. Making and Breaking the Grid: A Layout Design Workshop

by Timothy Samara

58 points

View on Amazon

6. Elements of Graphic Design

by Alex White

53 points

View on Amazon

7. 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design

by Steven Heller, Veronique Vienne

51 points

View on Amazon

8. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts

by Simon Garfield

50 points

View on Amazon

9. Paul Rand: A Designer's Art

by Paul Rand

45 points

View on Amazon

10. Grid Systems in Graphic Design

by Josef Mülller-Brockmann

42 points

View on Amazon

11. Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

by Graphic Artist's Guild

40 points

View on Amazon

=12. Graphic Design : The New Basics

by Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips

38 points

View on Amazon

=12. Graphic Design, Referenced

by Armin Vit, Bryony Gomez-Palacio

38 points

View on Amazon

=12. The Art of Looking Sideways

by Alan Fletcher

38 points

View on Amazon

=12. The Big Brand Theory

by Gingko Press

38 points

View on Amazon

=16. A Smile in the Mind: Witty Thinking in Graphic Design

by Beryl McAlhone, David Stuart

37 points

View on Amazon

=16. Know Your Onions: Graphic Design

by Drew de Soto

37 points

View on Amazon

=18. Type Matters!

by Jim Williams

33 points

View on Amazon

=18. Creative Workshop

by David Sherwin

33 points

View on Amazon

=18. Sagmeister: Made You Look

by Stefan Sagmeister, Peter Hall

33 points

View on Amazon
handbook_best_of

21. The Print Handbook

by Andy Brown

A cheeky (and unofficial) entry

View Store

How The Scores Were Calculated

Each design book was given a score between 20 and 1 for each of the 13 articles. If the book was top in the article it received 20 points. If it was bottom in a top 20 list then it got 1 point.

Some articles were not strictly top 10 or top 20 articles, but the books were still entered in the order they appeared on the page.

Want to see the full spreadsheet of 140 books? Or course you do. Here it is.

Amazon Review Bonus Points

Additionally each graphic design book received bonus points depending on how many stars it received on Amazon.

  • 5 stars: 6 bonus points
  • 4.5 stars: 3 bonus points
  • 4 stars and below: 0 bonus points

Books need to have at least five reviews to receive bonus points. If they have less than five reviews then they receive 0 bonus points.

Pages used

The following pages were used to create the scores:

Back To All Resources

Swatchos

Photo of Swatchos CMYK Colour Cards

Choose Colours With A Deck Of Cards

A box of cards for choosing colours and making colour schemes.

  • 130 Cards
  • CMYK Values
  • RGB Values
  • 900 Colours
  • Millions of combinations

Take a look
£36 / $47 / €43

Brought to you by

Swatchos

handbook01

Pick Colours With A Deck Of Cards

A box of 130 cards for playing with colour. For digital or print creatives. RGB and CMYK values. Millions of combinations.

handbook02 handbook03 handbook04 handbook05