Why have design books gotten so boring?
While other sectors such as food and sport have flexed outside of their typical settings, and reached new audiences in turn, design books have remained static.
It’s time for a shake-up
Design books serve a number of purposes: inspiration fodder; instruction manual; coffee table monograph as interior decor; creative studio bookshelf-based signifier of taste; trussed-up design agency business card. But while the creative industries have undergone some seismic shifts in recent years, the books that guide and reflect them seemingly have not.
The same titles are referenced again and again: Beryl McAlhone and David Stuart’s A Smile in the Mind; Alan Fletcher’s The Art of Looking Sideways; Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color; Debbie Millman’s Essential Principles of Graphic Design.
That’s no bad thing: such books are hardy perennials because they deserve to be. They’re good. We can still learn a lot from them. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t time for a shake-up, or that there’s no space for some useful, thoughtful new entrants to the category. Design books have become predictable. And that needs to change.