Books

Art and Design

Books on the history, theory, and execution of design. Our current list covers chiefly graphic design.

<designing web graphics.4>: the definitive guide to web design and development Lynda Weinman, New Riders Press, 2002
One of the classics on Web design. Contains lots of useful information on everything from file resolution to layout.
http://www.lynda.com/mission/

* Envisioning Information Edward R. Tufte, Graphics Press, 1990
Tufte shows good and bad examples of information design (including time-based and computer-based examples) and provides principles and analysis of successful information design. Self-published, extraordinary production value.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_ei

Experiences in Visual Thinking Robert H. McKim, Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1980
Based on McKim's pioneering visual thinking course at Stanford, the book is "a manual of alternative strategies for expanding the power and range of your thinking." Standard perceptually-based visual thinking exercises from "right-brain" (e.g., upside down drawing) to Gestalt-inspired (e.g., patterns grouping).

How to Lie with Charts Gerald Jones, iUniverse, 2000
The title refers to the classic "How to Lie with Statistics." This publication focuses on charts and is relevant to both producers and users of them.
http://www.iwosc.org/showcase_gerald.html

* Information Visualization: Perception for Design Colin Ware, Morgan Kaufmann, 2004
A great book applying perceptual research to visualization design. Readable by non-technical people, but aimed chiefly at CS folk doing scientific visualization. Interesting first chapter on semiotics and viz design.
http://www.ccom.unh.edu/vislab/CWBio.html

The NEW Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Betty Edwards, Putnam Publishing Group; Revised and Expanded edition (September 1, 1999)
The classic book on learning how to draw using negative spaces to force the brain to see actual details.
http://www.drawright.com/

The NEW Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Workbook: Guided Practice in the Five Basic Skills of Drawing Betty Edwards, Jeremy P. Tarcher (October 1, 2002)
Guided practice in the use of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain principles.

* The Non-Designer's Design Book Robin Williams, Peachpit Press, 2003
Covers essential principles of good design and typography for novices. Exceptionally clear organization and writing, with visual examples of each point and suggested exercises.
http://www.ratz.com/robin/toc.html

A Primer of Visual Literacy Donis A. Dondis, MIT Press, 1973
A classic text with highly outdated formatting and typesetting. Get beyond this to read thoughtful coverage of what makes a visual message and how to become adept at visual communication. Nice exercises. Covers all the basics as taught in the 1970s.
http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/~ipederse/Dondis.htm

The Scientific Image Harry Robin, W. H. Freeman and Co, 1993
The author views scientific illustration as a record of our attempt to notate and make sense of the world around us as well as an interesting window "into the historic interplay of science, art, and culture." Contains useful classifications of image types.

Understanding Comics Scott McCloud, Kitchen Sink Press, 1993
A 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium and examines many aspects of visual communication along the way. OK, I haven't read it, because I dislike comics, but it gets raves from many people I know.
http://www.scottmccloud.com/

* The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Edward R. Tufte, Graphics Press, 2001
The classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables, including theory & practice in the design of data graphics, illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi

* Visual Explanations Edward R. Tufte, Graphics Press, 1997
"Visual Explanations" is about pictures of verbs, the representation of mechanism and motion, process and dynamics, causes and effects, explanation and narrative. More classic Tufte, more great production values.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_visex

Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem solving Judith Wilde and Richard Wilde, Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000
Good source of design exercises.

VizAbility: Change the Way You See the World Kristina Hooper Woolsey, Scott Kim, and Gayle Curtis, Course Technology, 2004
Conceived as a companion to Robert McKim's book, this text provides methods for visual thinking, from general awareness to drawing and diagramming. Includes many exercises. http://www.scottkim.com/
http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?category=Multimedia&subcategory=Other&isbn=0-534-49456-0

Color

A Field Guide to Digital Color Maureen Stone, A.K. Peters, 2003
 

Computer Graphics and Visualization (CS)

A somewhat eclectic group of basic books on computer graphics and visualization.

Concepts

* Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice James D. Foley, Andries van Dam, Steven K. Feiner, and John F. Hughes, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1995
While somewhat dated, this is still the standard reference in the field. Can be tough going for beginners, but offers comprehensive coverage that is thorough, detailed, and correct.
http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs123/

* Information Visualization: Perception for Design Colin Ware, Morgan Kaufmann, 2004
A great book applying perceptual research to visualization design. Readable by non-technical people, but aimed chiefly at CS folk doing scientific visualization. Interesting first chapter on semiotics and viz design.
http://www.ccom.unh.edu/vislab/CWBio.html

* Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Ben Shneiderman, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999
Defines the emerging field of information visualization and offers the first-ever collection of the classic papers of the discipline, with introductions and analytical discussions of each topic and paper.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2001/cmsc838b/

* The Computer in the Visual Arts Anne Morgan Spalter, Addison-Wesley Professional, 1999
A comprehensive introduction to the computer in the visual arts that integrates technical concepts, art history, and art theory. Includes history. Written for a non-technical audience.
http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/ams/digiart/

The Reconfigured Eye William Mitchell, , 1992
A wonderful introduction to computer graphics, its potential for artists, and relevant theoretical concerns. No technical background in CS required.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=6171&ttype=2

Visual Computing Richard Mark Friedhoff and Mark S. Peercy, W H Freeman & Co, 2000
An interesting, often thought-provoking look at computer graphics. This book examines how and why visual computing is having such a broad impact on our lives. Draws on concepts from computer science, vision and cognitive science, and the visual arts.
http://www.whfreeman.com/generalreaders/book.asp?disc=TRAD&id_product=1058000827&@id_course=1058000243

Visualization

* Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay, and Ben Shneiderman, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999
Defines the emerging field of information visualization and offers the first-ever collection of the classic papers of the discipline, with introductions and analytical discussions of each topic and paper.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/class/spring2001/cmsc838b/

Philosophy of Vision

Books drawing on traditional philosophy to discuss visual thinking and visual culture.

Philosophy in a New Key Susanne K. Langer, Harvard University Press, 1957
This book covers many topics: language, sacrament, myth, music, abstraction, fact, knowledge--to name only the main ones. But through them all goes the principal theme, symbolic transformation as the essential activity of human minds.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/LANPHI.html

The Poetics of Space Gaston Bachelard, Beacon Press, 1986
The classic book on how we experience intimate spaces in our homes, how we live in them, and how dwellings and space affect us; a book of philosophy as well as a work of serious literature.
http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/Bachelar.html

Popular Readings

Fiction

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Neal Stephenson, Bantam Books, 2000
Stephenson's fourth solo novel, set primarily in a far-future Shanghai at a time when nations have been superseded by enclaves of common cultures ("claves"), abundantly justifies the hype that surrounded Snow Crash, his first foray into science fiction.

Mona Lisa Overdrive William Gibson, Bantam, 1989
This novel completes the cyberpunk series of Neuromancer and Count Zero , following the lives of some of the characters from the previous books but can stand on its own.

Neuromancer William Gibson, Ace Books, 1995
Here is the novel that started it all, launching the cyberpunk generation, and that was the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award.

Snow Crash Neal Stephenson, Bantam, 2000
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between.

Non-fiction

Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser, Perennial, 2002
In addition to many scary facts about the fast foods' business, this book has a lot of material on the visual components of the advertising strategies used by fast food chains and their extraordinary success in establishing the brand identity of these franchised venues.
http://www.powells.com/authors/schlosser.html

Reading People Jo-Ellan Dimitrius and Mark Mazzarella, Ballantine Books, 1999
You can gather a great deal of information about people from they way they look (clothing, hair, jewelry, etc.), but we often don't act on what we see because we aren't consciously observant and are blinded by what we want to see/believe.
http://www.lacba.org/showpage.cfm?pageid=244

The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell, Back Bay Books, 2002
The Tipping Point presents a new way of understanding why change so often happens as quickly and as unexpectedly as it does. Relevant to rise of computer-mediated visual communication and need for visual literacy.
http://www.gladwell.com/

Vision Science

Technical readings or books with a mixture of approaches that draw on perception and other areas of vision science.

blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Malcom Gladwell, Perennial, 2002
In addition to many scary facts about the fast foods' business, this book has a lot of material on the visual components of the advertising strategies used by fast food chains and their extraordinary success in establishing the brand identity of these franchised venues.
http://www.powells.com/authors/schlosser.html

* The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception James J. Gibson, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987
Gibson's revolutionary (at the time) theories describing the role of perceptual systems from an ecological (read evolutionary) perspective have had enormous influence on thinkers in fields from industrial design to cognitive psychology.

How the Mind Works Steven Pinker, W.W. Norton & Company, 1999
A handbook for the lay person that includes a great chapter on the visual system. As always, Pinker is engaging and provocative. You may not agree with everything he writes, but you won't be bored.

Inner Vision: An Exploration of Art and the Brain Semir Zeki, Oxford University Press, 2000
Inner Vision uses findings in brain science to addresses the questions: What is it that makes a work of art appear to us as beautiful? How do external form and internal perception coalesce to create the distinctive aesthetic pleasures we look for in the visual arts? No technical knowledge required.

Inversions : a catalog of calligraphic cartwheels Scott Kim, Key Curriculum Press, 1996
Inversions are words that can be read right side up, upside down and every which way. This book represents the fruits of an imaginative design obsession and introduces the basic concepts of symmetry through 60 lettering designs by Scott Kim.
http://www.scottkim.com/inversions/

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks, Touchstone, 1998
Dr. Sacks recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders, many affecting the visual system.
http://www.oliversacks.com/hat.htm

* The Psychology of Graphic Images: Seeing, Drawing, Communicating Manfredo Massironi, translated by Nicola Bruno, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001
This is a very cool book with all kinds of interesting thoughts integrating graphical communication and perception. Includes taxonomy of all types of drawing and many good exercises. Marred by poor copyediting.
http://psico.univr.it/ephp/ricerca/manfredo.htm

Thinking In Pictures Temple Grandin, Vintage, 1996
"I think in pictures. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head. When somebody speaks to me, his words are instantly translated into pictures." - Temple Grandin
http://www.grandin.com/; http://www.templegrandin.org/; http://www.autism.org/temple/visual.html

* Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See Donald D. Hoffman, W. W. Norton & Company, 1998
This book discusses 35 perceptual rules that the mind/brain learns and uses to interpret the visual world, such as "light sources move slowly" and "choose figure and ground so that figure has the more salient part boundaries." Ends with provocative philosophical chapter.
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/

* Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology Stephen E. Palmer, Bradford Books, 1999
An incredible resource: comprehensive, clearly and engagingly written, and incorporating new research in cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and computer science/computer vision. Takes you from the retina to consciousness.

* Visual Intelligence: How We Create What We See Donald D. Hoffman, W. W. Norton & Company, 1998
This book discusses 35 perceptual rules that the mind/brain learns and uses to interpret the visual world, such as "light sources move slowly" and "choose figure and ground so that figure has the more salient part boundaries." Ends with provocative philosophical chapter.
http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~ddhoff/

* Visual Thinking Rudolf Arnheim, University of California Press, 2004
Arnheim asserts that all thinking (not just thinking related to art) is basically perceptual in nature, and that the ancient dichotomy between seeing and thinking, between perceiving and reasoning, is false and misleading.
http://astro.temple.edu/~iversteg/Arnheim.html

Visual Culture

aka "theory" Books. Includes selections inspired by a range of frameworks and disciplines, from semiotics to sociology and general postmodernism.

* Camera Lucida Roland Barthes, Hill and Wang, 1981
This book applies Barthes' perceptiveness and associative insight to the subject of photography, and includes black-and-white photos by the Avedon, Clifford, Hine, Mapplethorpe, Nadar, Van Der Zee, and others.
http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/roland_barthes.html

Downcast Eyes: The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French Thought Martin Jay, University of California Press, 1994
Vision has increasingly been critically scrutinized by a wide range of thinkers who question its dominance in Western culture and challenge its allegedly superior sensory capacity as well as its political and social implications.
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/6147.html

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences Howard Gardner, Basic Books, 1993
Howard Gardner's thesis that there are at least seven kinds of intelligences, including visual-spatial in addition to the more commonly known mathematical and logical. Argues for an integrated approach to education in general.
http://www.pz.harvard.edu/PIs/HG.htm

Handbook of Visual Analysis Theo van Leeuwen and Carey Jewitt, SAGE Publications, 2001
The Handbook of Visual Analysis is a methodological resource for students, academics, researchers and professionals interested in investigating the visual representation of socially significant issues. Focuses on "real world" visual phenomena vs. photographs.

* Iconology: Image, Text, Ideology W. J. Thomas Mitchell, University of Chicago Press, 1987
Explores the relationships between words and images through analysis of writings by Nelson Goodman, Ernst Gombrich, Lessing, and Edmund Burke (de rigueur Marxist material also). Includes superb introduction..

In Praise of Shadows Junichiro Tanizaki, Leete's Island Books, 1977
This cult classic explores the Japanese appreciation for shadows and nature-based arts and suggests that these inclinations came from practical origins. You will never look at a lacquered object the same way again.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tanizaki.htm

An Introduction to Visual Culture Nicholas Mirzoeff, Routledge, 1999
A cultural-theory introduction to the history and theory of visual culture that explains the growth of the importance of visual culture in modern society.
http://www.art.sunysb.edu/faculty/mirzoeff.html

Language, Thought, and Reality: selected writings Benjamin Lee Whorf Benjamin Lee Whorf, The MIT Press, 1964
Whorf a chemical engineer, worked as a fire prevention consultant and did original work in linguistic anthropology. He remains best known for advocating that the structure of language not only reflects but influences our world view and behavior.
http://mtsu32.mtsu.edu:11072/Whorf/

Mythologies Roland Barthes, Hill and Wang, 1972
Barthes' interest in the meaning, aka signification, of words and objects includes cultural use as signs in addition to linguistic semantics. Mythologies explores, in a series of essays, the hidden meanings underlying common phrases and objects.

* On Photography Susan Sontag, Delta, 2001
Deserves its "classic" status. If you're making or writing about photographs, don't reinvent the wheel--read this book. "In teaching us a new visual code, photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe. They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing."
http://www.susansontag.com/onphotographyexcrpt.htm

Picture Theory : Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation W. J. Thomas Mitchell, University of Chicago Press, 1995
What precisely are pictures (and theories of pictures) doing now, in the late twentieth century, when the power of the visual is said to be greater than ever before, and the "pictorial turn" supplants the "linguistic turn" in the study of culture?

Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design Gunther R. Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, Routledge, 1995
A sociocentric approach to the ways in which images communicate meaning. "Reading Images" provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design, drawing on an enormous range of examples.
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/encap/staff/vanleeuwen.html

Researching the Visual, Images, Objects, Contexts and Interactions in Social And Cultural Inquiry Michael J Emmison and Philip D Smith, SAGE Publications, 2000
This book provides an introduction to the entire field of visual research, reviews the contributions as diverse as semiotics, ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionism and material culture studies, and demonstrates their potential applications.
http://www.sagepub.com/authors.aspx?aid=514123

* Survival of the Prettiest : The Science of Beauty Nancy Etcoff, Doubleday, 1999
The first in-depth scientific inquiry into the nature of human beauty posits that beauty is an essential and ineradicable part of human nature, and not the direct result of modern media's portrayal of women.
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/NewFiles_Staff/etcoff_nancy.html

The Reconfigured Eye William Mitchell, , 1992
A wonderful introduction to computer graphics, its potential for artists, and relevant theoretical concerns. No technical background in CS required.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=6171&ttype=2

The Rise of the Image, The Fall of the Word Mitchell Stephens, Oxford University Press, 1998
Video and motion-based visuals have never received higher praise. Fascinating review of historical suspicion of writing. Neil Postman look out.
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/stephens/rise%20of%20the%20image%20page.htm

A Theory of Semiotics Umberto Eco, Indiana University Press, 1979
Eco attempts to develop semiotics to describe everything. Didn't make it all the way through and remain deeply skeptical of whole project.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco

Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual Communication Ann Marie Seward Barry, State University of New York Press, 1997
Lots of great proof (via real studies and functional MRI use) that demonstrate the extraordinary power of images, as well as some idea of how they exert this power.
http://www.bc.edu/schools/cas/communication/faculty/fulltime/barry/

* Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials Gillian Rose, SAGE Publications, 2001
A clearly-written and engaging overview of a range of visual research methods, including content analysis, semiotics, discourse analysis and more. Some sociology bias, but terrific intro text. Undergraduate level.

* Visual Studies, A Skeptical Introduction James Elkins, Routledge, 2003
Elkins summarize past and present influences and camps in the field of visual studies (aka culture studies) and bravely describes where he thinks things have gone astray. Ends with concrete suggestions for shoring up the academic integrity of this important discipline. Should be required reading for anyone teaching "theory."
http://www.jameselkins.com/

* Visual Thinking Rudolf Arnheim, University of California Press, 2004
Arnheim asserts that all thinking (not just thinking related to art) is basically perceptual in nature, and that the ancient dichotomy between seeing and thinking, between perceiving and reasoning, is false and misleading.
http://astro.temple.edu/~iversteg/Arnheim.html

* Ways of Seeing John Berger et al., Penguin Books, 1995
Cult classic. One of the few visual thinking books that creatively uses images. Ignore Marxist overtones throughout and read!
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=380

Visual Literacy

A narrowly defined category consisting of books for visual novices and for teachers of visual literacy.

Visual Literacy: A Conceptual Approach to Graphic Problem solving Judith Wilde and Richard Wilde, Watson-Guptill Publications, 2000
Good source of design exercises.

VizAbility: Change the Way You See the World Kristina Hooper Woolsey, Scott Kim, and Gayle Curtis, Course Technology, 2004
Conceived as a companion to Robert McKim's book, this text provides methods for visual thinking, from general awareness to drawing and diagramming. Includes many exercises. http://www.scottkim.com/
http://www.course.com/catalog/product.cfm?category=Multimedia&subcategory=Other&isbn=0-534-49456-0

Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century Robert E. Horn, MacroVU Press, 1999
Horn argues that there is a new "language" in play which consists of images and words fully integrated and working together. Worth reading even though he suffers from a delusion that one can illustrate a visual thinking book effectively with clip art.
http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn/

* Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn Lynell Burmark, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2002
A clearly written, practical, effective book on using visuals in education. Great resource for teachers, especially the section on PowerPoint.

* Visual Studies, A Skeptical Introduction James Elkins, Routledge, 2003
Elkins summarize past and present influences and camps in the field of visual studies (aka culture studies) and bravely describes where he thinks things have gone astray. Ends with concrete suggestions for shoring up the academic integrity of this important discipline. Should be required reading for anyone teaching "theory."

* Ways of Seeing John Berger et al., Penguin Books, 1995
Cult classic. One of the few visual thinking books that creatively uses images. Ignore Marxist overtones throughout and read!
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=380