My 7 favorite books about creativity & design

Creativity Inc — Ed Catmull

If you buy one book from this list, buy this one. It was written by one of the founders of Pixar, the best animation studio ever and known from Toy Story, Finding Nemo and (soon) Coco. Based on great anecdotes, you can read how Pixar is the first studio to get a full-fledged 3D animation film in theaters. It is a book about leadership, creativity and management, with all kinds of valuable tips and insights.👉 www.creativityincbook.com

Practical Design Discovery — Dan Brown

I recently read this one and I really liked it. Dan Brown uses a flexible framework for planning and executing 'design discovery'. In many projects I have done in recent years, large and small, this is the phase that is often underestimated. Sometimes you spend too long on it, sometimes too short, but usually it is unstructured. This book gives you the tools to get more structure into this.👉 https://abookapart.com/products/practical-design-discovery

House Industries: The Process Is the Inspiration

When I saw the work of House Industries on a design blog somewhere in 2003, I was immediately a fan. Their work consisted mainly of decorative fonts, with which you could make cool retro- flyers and posters. But soon they started making posters, clothes and objects themselves in addition to fonts. In this beautiful book (with extra pressures in bronze and varnish) they tell how they have personally made satisfactory and successful work with their obsessive curiosity.👉 https://houseind.com/hi/the-process-is-the-inspiration

Steal Like an Artist— Austin Kleon

This is a short and handy book with ten things Austin Kleon wanted to know when he started his career. With fun examples and exercises for anyone who is creative, or wants to be. And when you've got this one out, there's also a sequel: Show Your Work, about how best to share your work with the world.👉 https://austinkleon.com/steal/

Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything — Aaron James Draplin

If you don't know Aaron Draplin yet, watch first — or later — this talk. This book not only summarizes Aaron's work so far, but also describes the life course of this down-to-earth graphic designer. He presents his famous work for brands such as Nike, Patagonia, Ford, Burton and Obama, as well as his own products such as Field Notes and the merchandise of DDC, the Draplin Design Company. With a lot of humor and a strong opinion about the design profession, this is a wonderful book to read.👉 http://draplin.com/book/

Design is a job — Mike Monteiro

Mike Monteiro is co-founder and design director of design studio Mule Design. This book is packed with valuable lessons for designers. From selling design, working with customers to working with colleagues, in this book you will learn that 'design' is a real profession.👉 https://abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job

How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World — Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut is a designer and partner at the renowned design agency Pentagram. In this book he describes 36 case studies with design topics such as corporate identities, logos, branding, books, websites and more. Using the phrase 'How to...' Michael describes his work, such as 'How to get where you want to be' on designing signage for pedestrians in New York. The cases are detailed from start to finish, with insights into the creative process, his relationships with customers and what he has learned from the project. Very cool to take a look at the creative process of such diverse design work.👉 https://www.pentagram.com/work/how-to/story

Have you read a great design book that I don't know yet? Let me know!