*(sorry trees)
Vince Frost

A chronicle of Frost’s journey from London to Sydney, and from Pentagram associate to international design icon. This is a fantastic book with the right balance of eye-candy and information, exploring case studies spanning from the mid 90′s to the present day. Simply one of the best and most inspiring designers working today.

Not sure what stock used was, but it feels incredible and is unlike any other book I’ve held. I can’t recall any other book typeset in Franklin Gothic Bold either, but it works.

Love the black on fluoro-orange cover too.

Cover Art By: New Music Graphics
Adrian Shaughnessy

One of my favourite books. Cover Art By is an indispensable guide to some of the best in contemporary music design, and features the likes of Julian House, Kim Hiorthoy, Rune Mortensen, Steve Byram, Jeff Jank and Grandpeople.

It’s great to just flick through and enjoy the hundred of images, but there’s actually some quite in-depth interviews with the artists and designers profiled, as well as detailed information on all the images.

Typeset in Lineto’s Simple— which is a personal favourite.

Made You Look / Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far
Stefan Sagmeister

If you don’t own both of these books, stop reading and purchase them immediately.

Sagmeister’s two books compliment each other nicely, and not just because they are identical in size. Made You Look doccuments Sagmeister’s life (literally from day one) and professional development, and provides one of the most honest & candid accounts of the design business you’ll ever read. Things I Have Learned… is more of a design exercise than an autobiography, but it still essentially picks up where Made You Look left off, and examines where Sagmeister’s journey has taken him and where it might go next. Very inspiring.

Both books are also incredibly rich in content and detail too, with visual gags and little anecdotes hidden throughout.

Vaughan Oliver: Visceral Pleasures
Rick Poynor

The amazing, inimitable Vaughan Oliver. Poynor’s book chronicles almost all of Oliver’s career, and provides plenty of images and insight into his work with 4AD. This is one of my most read and beloved design books.

display copy only, a book of intro work
Intro

This is extremely hard to get hold of, but it’s well worth hunting down, particularly if you’re as huge a fan of Julian House & Mat Cook as I am.

There’s a great forward by Intro founder Adrian Shaughnessy, followed by another great forward by John O’Reilly, but beyond that there are very few words. This is no bad thing when you’re treated to the beyond-brilliant work the studio has done for Stereolab, Broadcast, Primal Scream, and Depeche Mode to name just a few.

Plastered. The Poster Art of Australian Popular Music
Murray Walding / Nick Vukovic

Like Symbols of Australia this book is the result of a labour of love, and it too is a must have for any lovers of Australian design. It features an abundance of music related poster art collected from the 1950′s to the present day, and is an absolute feast for the eyes.

There’s plenty of information about each period, interviews with selected designers and artists, and almost all the posters are annotated.

Perfection.

Perverse Optimist
Tibor Kalman / Peter Hall

This book will make you a better designer and a better human being.

Mmm Skyscraper I Love You
John Warwicker & Karl Hyde

A non-musical collaboration between one of my favourite studios Tomato and one of my favourite bands Underworld. This book is essentially a typographic map of New York, taking in the architecture, culture and movement of the city and translating it into designs built from abstract illustrations and fonts.

It’s part concrete poetry and part experimental sketchbook. A dark, dense and hugely compelling exploration of the city that never sleeps.

I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy yet, by John Warwicker’s new book The Floating World looks incredible too.

Non Format Love Song
Non Format

Who doesn’t love Non Format? Their work is big, bold and incredibly sexy. It’s what the future should look like. The sheer volume of incredible images makes you forget that it’s pretty light on written content. It contains quite a few images that are only available in this book too, including a selection of fantastic typographic experiments.

Pure, unadulterated, and delicious eye candy.

The End Of Print
David Carson / Lewis Blackwell

Carson is probably the most contested and debated designer of all time. Few designers inspire such extreme positions of love and hate within the industry. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, there’s no denying his influence, particularly during the 90′s where his gritty, digital, rule-breaking designs changed everything.

There are a number of books by and about Carson, but this is my favourite. It contains mini essays on Carson by luminaries such as Tibor Kalman and Douglas Coupland, and covers some of his best work, including the groundbreaking designs for Ray Gun Magazine

Town Of Mirrors
Robert Pollard

While I don’t listen to Guided By Voices much these days, they provided much of the soundtrack to my high school years. Singer Robert Pollard composed not only most of the band’s music, but also the artwork for their album covers.

Pollard’s collage art is sublime, quite surreal and mostly quite minimalist. There’s a great deal of humour and fun (as well as some darker material) in there, and you can see Pollard’s love for vintage film and animation in almost every image.

As well as all the artwork for Guided By Voices, there’s a huge amount of content from Pollard’s personal sketchbooks and collections, some of which is published for the first time in this book. Great stuff.

Jazz Covers
Joaquim Paulo / Julius Widemann

Of all my many Taschen books, this is my most prized – a bumper collection of Jazz record covers, from the iconic cool of the 50′sBlue Note era to the explosion of colour and psychedelia inspired by the jazz-fusion records of the 70′s. The book also contains interviews with design giants like Rudy Van Gelder.

I bought this one while in New York last year, and I pick it up and flick through at least once a week. Superb.

I’d love to know some of your favourite art and design books, particularly some of the more obscure and vintage in your collection. Feel free to leave a note below.

The following video was recorded for TED Talks in July of last year and was released online in October, although I hadn’t gotten around to watching it until this morning. The video looks at how taking time out is essential for getting the most from of your work and personal life. I highly recommend both designers and non-designers check it out— particularly if you find yourself getting creatively stifled or unhappy and unfulfilled by your work. It’s fairly short, and worth it for the closing clip alone.

You can find Sagmeister’s earlier TED videos here. His two books are also essential.

Additionally there’s a great interview with Paul Fuog of Co-öp in Melbourne at The Design Files. Paul joined Sagmeister for part of his sabbatical, and here he provides a bit of show and tell from the experience. Make sure you browse through the rest of the site too, there’s a whole lot of interior & graphic design goodness in there.

Following the video are just a few of my favourite pieces of Sagmesiter design. Enjoy—