expanding on a recent thread:
which are your 10 most inspiring books for what you do?
books you think are the essence of your library and that you think of as must-haves now and that you will equally appreciate in ten years time?
Here are some of the books that most inspired and influenced me:
Tom Peters - Re-Imagine
Buy this book right now. Here, I’ll even help you out.
Donald Norman - The Design of Everyday Things
The bible of Cognitive (User Centered) Design. Read this constantly for maxium effect. It’s principles are really all you need to know beyond your God-given talent as a designer.
Doug Hall - Jump Start your Brain
Brainstorming is a myth. Doug tells us why and what to do about it (hint: it involves stimulation and validation.)
Alan Cooper - About Face
The bible of UI Design. Also pick up The Inmates Are Running The Asylum–and give a copy to your CEO.
AppleDesign - The Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group
The best insight into a successful ID studio (I prefer this to Tom Kelley’s The Art of Innovation because it preaches to the choir–while the Apple book tells it like it happened.)
The Innovators Delimma - Clayton Christensen
I also like Michael Schrage’s - Serious Play.
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works - Erik Spierkermann
All you need to know about Type in a really fun read from one of the biggest influencers in modern graphic design
Why We Buy - Paco Underhill
Paco is leading the revolution in qualitative “experience” research.
Unleashing the Ideavirus - Seth Godin
Okay, read ANYTHING by Seth Godin, I don’t care.
The End of Marketing as We Know It - Sergio Zyman
I was doing marketing technology for a while and this book really helped re-frame some of the basic questions of what Marketing is supposed to be.
Dont forget Watches Tell More than Time - Del Coates
and the new Emotional Design - Donald A. Norman- the sequel to Design of Everyday things.
Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0897331532/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-4944094-6177501#reader-page
hard to live by, but it can be done…
The Car design yearbook is a must have for trans. designers by Stephen Newbury. This book is nothing less than a few hundred pages of pure inspiration. Must purchase.
Unspecial Effects for Graphic Designers by Bob Gill
The Art of Looking Sideways - Alan Fletcher
MTIV - Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer - Hillman Curtis
I will check out some of these books for sure. mostly i read fiction so this will be good for the designer in me…
anything by Donald Norman also the Art of innovation is quite good…so anything from IDEO…the materials book is the don aswell.
thanks for all the lists - there’s some interesting stuff.
Any books you can recommend from other disciplines - Art, Architecture, Graphics, Illustration etc that you find very inspirational?
the art of return of the jedi or any of the art of star wars books…great source for design process.
the sketches kick butt like a 7-legged ninja.
ISBN 0-345-3125-6
the art of patrick nagel old, school illustration inspiration
ISBN 0-912383-21-6
sentinel II old, school futurist syd mead. any new school futurists?
ISBN -06-2034522-9
design for the environment
hey, i don’t have big, green hands for nuttin’
ISBN 0-8478-1390-8
I just opened up (thanks, Amazon) my copy of “Where Stuff Comes From” by Harvey Molotch - http://tinyurl.com/yw8af
i would suggest:
design outlaws on the ecological frontier.
a great collection (edited by chris zelov) on amazing designers pushing the limits of what ‘design’ is and how our designs shoul interact with the world.
anyone interested in making meaning through design and resposibility should read…
jw