Books like Letters from the avant-garde by Ellen Lupton

A comprehensive guide to graphic design and typography, offering practical advice and design techniques for students and designers alike.

Bruno Munari, celebrated Italian designer, shares his vision that design should be beautiful, functional and accessible, exploring its impact on everyday objects from lamps to road signs and typography.

The Elements of Graphic Design, Second Edition, presents a refreshed, color‑rich exploration of typography, layout and visual hierarchy, featuring over 750 images and new content on web design, modularity and motion.

German-born typographer Jan Tschichold (1902-74) revolutionized the field of graphic design with his bold, asymmetrical compositions, use of sanserif type, and exacting attention to detail. Inspired by the work of the Bauhaus, he proclaimed his personal philosophy through both his design work and a series of articles and books, including the groundbreaking Die neue Typographie (The New Typography) of 1928. Tschichold, perhaps the most visible proponent of modern graphic design prior to World War II, eventually embraced a more classical sensibility, raising that to a new level of refinement. Today, Tschichold remains one of the most important figures in the history of graphic design, and every practicing designer owes a debt to his innovation. Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography offers a concise biography of this complex figure, accompanied by numerous annotated illustrations of his work. An excellent introduction for those unfamiliar with Tschichold's influential style, it also offers the experienced designer an outstanding collection of his wide-ranging designs.

For designers working in every medium, layout is arguably 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 in order to effectively break the rules of grid-based design, one must first understand those rules and see them applied to real-world projects. Basics include composing typographic space, format determination, and sequencing and systemization. Various types of grids a manuscript, column, modular, hierarchical a are also covered. Text reveals top designers' work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Each project is shown comprehensively so readers can see its structure revealed over several pages, at a size that allows for inspection of detail. Also included are historical overviews that summarize the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice.

A practical guide that applies classic typographic principles to screen-based design, covering websites, apps, video, and mobile interfaces.