Pre-course preparation 1

Reading

Throughout the summer I studied 7 books from the Basics Design and Basics Graphic Design series:

Basics Design 01 Format, Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris

Basics Design 02 Layout, Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris

Basics Design 03 Typography, Paul Harris

Basics Design 07 Grids, Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris

Basics Design 08 Design Thinking, Gavin Ambrose & Paul Harris

Basics Graphic Design 02 Design Research, Neil Leonard & Gavin Ambrose

Basics Graphic Design 03 Idea Generation, Neil Leonard & Gavin Ambrose

I read all of the above books and made notes on them. I feel that they have all helped me gain a good basic understanding of some of the areas of graphic design so I will not be starting the degree coursework completely ignorant. 

Other books I borrowed from the library and read:

Graphic Design : a user’s manual, Adrian Shaughnessy

Visual research : an introduction to research methodologies in graphic design, Ian Noble, Russell Bestley

Type & typography, Phil Baines & Andrew Haslam

Just my type : a book about fonts, Simon Garfield

100 ideas that changed graphic design, Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne

The A-Z of visual ideas : how to solve any creative brief, John Ingledew

Some of these  books I found very engaging, others less so.  Graphic Design ; a concise history was really interesting as I had no knowledge of this area at all.

100 ideas that changed graphic design is an amazing resource for layout ideas: