Top 10 Free eBooks Every Designer Should Read

If you want to be on top of your game, you constantly need to be upgrading and updating your knowledge. An excellent way of doing so is reading eBooks, especially if those eBooks can be accessed absolutely for free. In this post, we will give you a list of the top 10 free eBooks that you, as a designer, need to read in order to polish your work and, consequently, become a better designer.

1. The Shape of Design - Frank Chimero

The Shape of Design is not your typical design book. It doesn’t talk about the regular design stuff like typography, grids, or logos, but instead, it focuses on storytelling, co-dependency, and craft. Unlike other books that talk in-depth about the technical portion of the work, The Shape of Design focuses on why great work is done.

It focuses on the mindset of creating, and asks and answers multiple questions such as: what are the opportunities, problems, and possibilities of the creative practice; how does it feel to create things for other people; once the work is done, what happens to in when you release it into the world? All these and many other questions get answered in The Shape of Design.

2. Design’s Iron Fist - Jarrod Drysdale

You’ve probably heard of Jarrod Drysdale before. He’s a well-established designer who is not only a great designer but an excellent essay writer in which he discusses maintaining quality and how to best do your work on a day-to-day basis.
This eBook talks about a multitude of topics, some of which are titles like “Think like a designer” and “Get out of a creative rut.” These topics and many others can be read about for free, so if you want to learn something new about design, make sure to read this eBook.

3. The Creative Aid - Kooroo Kooroo

The Creative Aid is, once again, a different book compared to some traditional ones. Unline others, the authors here strive to “give [the reader] a creative push from a direction you may not have thought of.” This book talks about inspiration as something that doesn’t happen overnight, but rather something that needs to be nurtured and taken care of on a daily basis.

This eBook is an extremely valuable guide that can help you enhance your intellect, cultivate your health, and also, most notably, become a lot more creative.

4. Designing for the Web - Mark Boulton

This is a rather technical book that goes in-depth in trying to teach you the technique for designing websites using the principles of graphic design. The book focuses on the core features of graphic design, such as typography, color, and layout.
You can think of this book as a series of easy tutorials and rules of thumb for any designer. Also, you’ll learn how to conduct design research in a very simple way.

5. Everything There is to Know About Logo Design - BlueSodaPromo

This short little guidebook does a phenomenal job of explaining the fundamentals of logo design. It can be of huge help if you’re new to logo design. Unlike the others, this book is only 25 pages long, it won’t take too long to read it, and even if you’re an experienced designer, you might learn something new as these 25 pages are chock full of best practices, color psychology, and typography principles.
While it probably won’t leave you speechless, it will give you a quick boost of help that you may need at any given moment.

6. The Design Funnel - Stephen Hay

It can sometimes be hard to understand what the client wants, as the clients tend to be vague when explaining their thoughts. The Design Funnel is a handy eBook that hands out the methodology of converting customer briefs into meaningful design concepts.

This handy little eBook will surely save you a lot of time and trouble. The ideas are simple and easy to follow. The main idea is that you can convert any client brief into a meaningful design concept if you know how and where to start. This eBook is also available completely for free.

7. Flat Design & Colors - UXPIn

If you find yourself using the principles of the flat design, then Flat Design & Colors is a must-read. This eBook outlines the reasons why flat design is effective and provides tips for using colors in order to make your designs pop out.

This 4-chapter eBook takes a look at the past and the future of colors on the web and discusses the color design techniques. It also discusses the significance of flat design and talks about its evolution from “flat” to “almost flat.” If you’re a proponent of flat design, make sure to read this eBook.

8. Pixel Perfect Precision - USTWO

At its core, this eBook released by one of the world’s leading design companies is a manual of best techniques and practices that can be useful in all segments of the design work.

This eBook, or rather its most up-to-date version, is essentially a universal run-through of the current trends, approaches, and design processes. If you’re a new designer or simply need to be refreshed in terms of the current trends, then this eBook is a valuable read.

9. Time Management for Creative People - Mark McGuinness

While being a creative individual is a plus in any case, producing creative work is one thing, however, managing your time well and having your creative work earn you a living is something completely different. Even though this eBook is not directly aimed towards designers, but rather towards creatives in any field, it is still a good read.

This book provides practical advice, such as how to find the method in the creative madness, how to identify and prioritize the most important work, how to focus and remain focused, etc. Essentially, the book is, as the time says, about time management and provides tips and tricks as to how to best use the time at your disposal to optimize creativity, and by extent, productivity.

10. Typo Tips: Seven Rules for Better Typography - Erik Spiekermann

This 9-page, short, and sweet handbook discusses typography and offers techniques and tips as to how to improve your typography design. It’s a quick read, but it’s quite good at what it does.

If you feel that something is off with your typography but can’t seem to be able to put your finger on it exactly, then perhaps this eBook can help. It discusses things like caps lock, quotes, dashes, how to emphasize text, etc.

Conclusion

No matter if you’re an experienced designer or just stepping into the scene, the books that we just discussed can only help your creativity. Most of them are not big reads, but more like handbooks and guides, so do give them a read anyway. We are certain that all of you will find something useful in all of the books, which will, in turn, make you an even better designer.