With the results of Print’s Regional Design Annual and Typography & Lettering Awards on my mind, I’ve been hooked on all things lettered—hand lettering, typographic history, shadow type and more. I delved into MyDesignShop on the hunt for some publications to quench my thirst for lettering love, and I came up with 5 excellent resources for any designer or type aficionado.
Check out these gorgeous gems (and find them in the shop):
5 Books & Resources for Typography & Lettering Lovers:
Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili
By Louise Fili
Well-known for her contributions to book cover designs, Louise Fili has been an inspiration to designers worldwide since the 1980s. In 1989 she started her own graphic design studio, Louise Fili Ltd, and began working in the restaurant and food packaging design fields. Fili’s typography screams opulence and elegance, and helped promote several well-known brands such as Bella Cucina, Good Housekeeping, Sarabeth’s, and Jean-Georges. She has won several awards, and her work exemplifies her attention to detail, love for all things Italian, and reinterpretation of vintage sources.
With Elegantissima, the first documentation of her body of work, discover the wide reach of Fili’s four-decade design career. Case studies explore sketches, inspiration, references, and design process, making this the perfect reference for graphic design students and professionals, or anyone with an interest in books, advertising, food, restaurants, and Italy.
Responsive Typography: Using Type Well on the Web
By Jason Pamental
Establishing solid typography design for your website is a must, but how do you ensure your web fonts are also responsive? With Responsive Typography by Jason Pamental, discover how to get a top-notch appearance from type while also ensuring your web fonts perform well on any device.
Explore the evolution of type on the Web and typography fundamentals, then utilize real examples, code, useful approaches, and other advice to ensure your type is performant, progressive, proportional, and polished — the 4 Ps of responsive typography.
Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography
by Nikki Villagomez
Inspire your type designs with the side-by-side travel photo comparisons in Culture+Typographyby Nikki Villagomez. Each image features examples of typography in culture, along with cultural and historical commentary to go with the image. Explore how design choices can be informed by the language of the cultural surroundings, and learn more about type selection, color usage, and more with this inspiring book.
Check out some pages from Culture + Typography:
Read an excerpt from Culture+Typography on Ghost Signs here.
Thinking in Type: The Practical Philosophy of Typography
By Alex W. White
With this visually stunning primer, designers will develop the skills and vision to produce truly innovative, stunning type design. Using more than 1,500 images from the 18th century up to the present day, the author describes type as a unique language that follows its own rules for communication and that requires great sensitivity for the reader’s needs.
Like its companion volume The Elements of Graphic Design, the book can be used as a first exposure primer for students and as a reader for professionals. Section one covers basic information about type design, while the remaining sections What Readers Want, Creativity, and Typography Timeline provide in-depth information about more advanced topics.
Typographic Design: Form and Communication
By Rob Carter, Philip B. Meggs, Ben Day, Sandra Maxa, Mark Sanders
Containing up-to-date information on current design trends, Typographic Design: Form and Communication, 6th Edition by Rob Carter, Philip B. Meggs, Ben Day, Sandra Maxa, and Mark Sanders provides a comprehensive look at typography. Because of its versatile nature and presence among several industries including print, video, television, film, packaging, digital design, advertising and more, typography, and having proficient type design skills, is an essential component of every graphic designer’s arsenal.
Inside this typography book is a view of the discipline incorporating an exploration of typography in media versus typography in motion, and coverage of topics like letterforms, syntax and legibility, the evolution and technology of typography, communication and the typographic message, typographic design processes, using the grid, and more.
Check out a few pages from the book:
