Top Ten Books

Vormator –  The Vormator was initially a contest that started over two years ago. It challenged artists to create a visual by using a very limited palette of shapes and possibilities. Artists were provided with eight vector shapes which they were allowed to use within a set of rules. The goal of the project was to show the importance of limitations on creativity. The results prove that even with a large number of limitations, a surprising variation of outstanding graphics is possible. A large number of design teachers now use the concept as a teaching method. All the submissions are now compiled into a book which is absolutely fantastic and is worth a buy.

Geometric Book - Geometric is a unique pattern resource book featuring an exciting collection of 264 colourful and monochrome pattern illustrations.It is beautifully printed on heavy matte stock, features an embossed cover that’s wrapped in an American-style poster and bound in a distinctive rhythm technique. The Geometric book comes with a CD containing 100 pattern fonts – the most extensive pattern font collection available from any foundry. It also includes a helpful font index and easy to follow tutorials. I absolutely love this book and you can purchase this book from kapitza.com.

Brandnu - The super talented works of illustrator and designer Radim Malinic are on full display in this new book he has published. It has over 65 pages of works he has recently completed are i must say are absolutely outstanding. It is a must buy for anyone who is interested in contemporary/digital illustration. Radim Malinc is one of the most sought after, internationally renowned illustrators / designers working today, with an extensive high end clientele Radim Malinic, prides himself on his artistic sensibility, passion for details, innovative results, pushing the boundaries. His work has been described as imaginative, sophisticated, sensual and sexy. While his goal is to fulfill the needs of his client, he creates contemporary visions that are a complex montage of layered photographic, colorful elements, hand drawn renders.

Many of this guys work are up for sale as prints and i would love to buy one if they weren’t so damn expensive. They are so colourful and attractive they keep you looking at them in amazement. A couple of his prints can be seen below.

Lemon Poppy Seed - A new generation of talent is currently developing its own interdisciplinary and refreshingly off-key visual vocabulary. Lemon Poppy Seed is a compilation of work by young, international artists whose styles defy current trends and classifications and are all the more brilliant for doing so. The book is the perfect source for those who want to see the organic development of new artistic terrain before the mainstream attempts to erect shopping centres upon it. The visuals in the book are absolutely stunning and is well worth a look at.

Making and breaking the grid - For designers working in every medium, layout is arguable the most basic and most important element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that to effectively break the rules of grid-based design one must first understand those rules and see them applied to real-world projects. I bought this book a while back and is absolutely brilliant, some of the work featured it the book and genius. The front cover of the book was design by the infamous Muller Brockman.

Graphic Design for the 21st Century - i bought this book a couple of years ago and still today i look at it when i need inspiration or just admire the works of other designers in the world. It is a very useful book to have as it contains works of hundreds of designers in the world so it gives you a vast library of the most influential designers of this century at your disposal. It contains the works of DAD Associates, Stefan Sagmeister, Form and many others.

Black and White - Black & White Freedrawings is a unique exploration of collaborative drawing. In the book, over 40 international artists collaborate on a drawing with Zeptonn. These collaborations are called “freedrawings” to highlight the lack of restrictions, themes and guidelines. At the same time these drawings are not a preliminary sketch, but the final artwork. It has 132 pages filled with freedrawing collaborations the artists take you on a journey through the process of collaboration, showcasing their personal illustrations and working spaces.

Wall and Piece - For christmas i got this book by the infamous Banksy, it contains a collection of his works over 100 pages that he has created all over the world. The good aspect about this book is that you don’t need to be into design to appreciate the work of this amazing artist. The work he creates contains a serious notion either political or based on society while keeping it humorous. 

Graffiti World - Before i came to university i was well into my graffiti where i used to travel around South Wales with like minded individuals a do some throw ups on walls. This book is one of the best graffiti books out there as it has hundreds and thousands of the best examples of graffiti around the world. It was a constant supply of inspiration for me and my mates when i was growing up. They have released a newer version of the book which i haven’t yet seen. I haven’t done any graffiti for a couple of years now as it is quite hard to include it into stuff i produce in uni. However my love of expressive typography can still be seen in my work just in a more professional and graphical level. I now use the book for inspiring colour combinations which are featured in here.

Images 32 - This book is published from the Association of Illustrators and contains some fantastic images from various different illustrators like Steve Simpson, Peter Grunby and many others. The book is split into categories like Advertising, Editorial, Books and so on. You can submit work to be looked at to see if it would be included in Images 33. Below are some fantastic example featured in this book based on typographic illustration.