Always Learning
The team at ADS keeps abreast of the latest relevant information on our industry from a large selection of websites, blogs, news feeds and social media, however we have developed, collected and are very proud of our own Library of high quality reference books on everything from the Los Logos collection, the entire Graphics collection to masterpieces by design geniuses Stefan Sagmeister and the guys at D&AD.
A few standouts we love are:
“It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be” by Paul Arden
A short period of time is all that is required to read Paul’s magnificent snippets of a truly creative thinker. It really is not a book to read from front to back in one go, but more one that you strategically place next to the loo, and pick up on a daily basis for the fact or thought of the day. I think it could stay next to the rolls of Kleenex for many years as I try to absorb and learn from the facts and true meanings of each of these pearls of wisdom. I recommend anyone and everyone that has anything to do with the creative, marketing or sales decisions of a growing business to read this little gem.
“Los, Dos, Tres and 4 logos” by Robert Klanten, Nicolas Bourquin and Thorsten Geiger
All 4 books in this brilliant and exciting series are essential resources for any branding project and a design agency’s library is not complete without them. Full of weird and wacky, but also famous and functional designs, this is the ultimate set of Logo bibles.
“Bastardised” by Bunch.
This is a great little project from London design agency Bunch. The brief; to take their very simple original logo…and basically do whatever you want to it! Once enough people had ‘bastardised’ their logo, Bunch printed various material with the results, including t-shirts, mugs and this book. Designers from all over the world participated in the project and it’s well worth a look. If you want a copy or would like to have a look at the entries, go to www.madeinbunch.com.
“The Big Book of Brochures 1-10” by Funf Freunde
A great resource of some of the best brochures from around the globe. The BBB includes some superb visual and typographical designs such as Get Huge, which has one of my favourite Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes of all time… “Milk are for babies, when you get older you drink beer”. Classic. Beautifully presented and great for inspiration, I recommend this book if you’re ever in need of some graphical stimulation.
“Designer’s Color Manual” by Tom Fraser & Adam Banks
Colour is one of the most important aspects of great design and we just love colours. The Designer’s colour manual it not just full of beautiful images, but it has also got detailed content on colour theory, psychology, practice and application. Even better it’s in relation to modern design including print and digital media. You can read this book from start to finish, but if you don’t have the time it’s great to use as a reference book.
“ABC3D” by Marion Bataille
One of the most useless, pointless…but truly fantastic books I’ve ever ‘read’! French author Marion Bataille, expertly executes this incredibly innovative pop-up book. The letters of the alphabet are brilliantly brought to life as you turn each page, each one leaving you with a cheeky smirk on your face. Clever name, clever concepts…a winner in my books.
“Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far” by Stefan Sagmeister
It’s not very often that you come across a design project that reveals the personal mottos of its creator…generally a designer needs to communicate a client’s message, so it is exciting and refreshing to discover something interesting about someone who has had such a monumental effect on the design industry. Most well known for his unique and sometimes controversial style of advertising (such as a poster where the text has been created by carving it into his own body), ‘Things I have learned in my life so far’ is a boxed set of twenty ‘mini books’, each containing a project based on one of Sagmeister’s ‘maxims’ as he calls them. Using mixed media such as photography, sculpture, craft and found objects, the author creatively portrays sayings such as “Having guts always works out for me”, “Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live now” and “Everything I do always comes back to me”, with a story behind each one. An insightful look inside the mind of Stefan Sagmeister, and also one of the best ideas for a die cut that I’ve seen. And if that doesn’t make you want to read it, one of the projects also features a huge blow up white monkey…’Nuff said.
