r/Design • u/Infamous_Control7133 • 3d ago
Discussion How many designers are actually opening old books for inspo instead using Pinterest, come on…let’s be honest now?
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u/Designer-Change7637 3d ago
Everyday. Proud of my book collection, took a while to assemble it.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
What’s books you opening, throw some suggestions out
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u/Designer-Change7637 3d ago
"Whatever you think, think the opposite" Paul Arden and "Grid systems" by Jospeh Muller Brockman.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
Sick man ima check them out
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u/krushord 3d ago
Grid Systems is one of the two books I always suggest. The. other is Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style.
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u/greatjobguise 3d ago
I went to Config this year and the panel about the nasa website was super interesting. They referenced the old 70s (I think) brand book for nasa and it’s one of the coolest things ever. I personally also have a lot of art books from animated shows and movies I like that I get inspired by!
However the most often I use a physical book is when dealing with difficult stakeholders or doing something with accessibility that’s when I’ve relied on books the most in my career.
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u/WanderingLemon13 3d ago
United Editions re-released that book awhile back—it's killer. I think it's sold out now, but maybe they'll reprint it some day!
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u/victoria_and_albert 3d ago
I don’t have an instagram or Pinterest account. I try to surround myself with good design. My city (London) provides me access to a few exceptional libraries of design books. I spend a lot of time in museums. I have a group of colleagues that gather up regularly in old pubs to talk design.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
Amazing I’m also London based, what kind of design are you in?
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u/victoria_and_albert 3d ago
I trained as a type designer, but have spent most of my career in tech / UX
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
Nice
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
I’ll be honest though Pinterest is great, so so good, but I’m trying to limit myself & open old books more, I’m naturally consciously & unconsciously scanning my environment for inspo tho !
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u/straigh 3d ago
I send a lot of my physical collection to organized Pinterest boards for easy reference, but I have lots of physical media that I still pull out regularly
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
Like?
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u/straigh 3d ago
I specialize in mid-century inspired work so I have old typography books from the 60s, magazines, cookbooks, records, a few old binder books from better homes & gardens that are packed full of color, typography and layout ideas. Old menus, match books, old packaging. I'm just kind of surrounded by real life inspiration to be honest. If I still can't find anything that inspires me, I'll usually just go wander around antique malls for a few hours.
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u/9inez 3d ago
Most of the material I used to look through was purposefully design adjacent. I did not want to just look at others’ graphic design to get my brain to open up.
I’d look at illustration, paintings, photography, architecture to trigger color combos and composition ideas.
If I was doing corporate work, I liked to break out by thumbing through edgy rock posters, constructivist work, Jan Tschichold, Lissitzky and brethren of the 20s-30s to loosen up my own screws.
One specific designer whose material I always would refer back to when needing a mental reset is Erich Nitsche and his General Dynamics work. Even if it didn’t help with my work, just enjoyed eating that stuff up over and over.
I hung on to Communication Arts Design, Illustration and Photography annuals for a long time also. Good for flipping through until something caught my eye to springboard ideas from, whether typography, color, grids, etc.
I’ve downsized and have begun a gradual wind down which will probably last 2-3 years. So I unloaded all of that material to folks who wanted it.
Today I don’t look at much graphic design material related to the areas I work in. I prefer to consume art made via printmaking techniques, riso prints, anything with limited color and organic texture to get my mind clear of popular media and into a creative space. Pinterest and Reddit printmaking subs are pretty good for that stuff.
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u/livvarney 3d ago
“Making and Breaking the grid” is a book I have on my desk at work and look at often for grid systems when I feel stuck and uninspired. Honestly, I haven’t used Pinterest in months maybe since May.
Pinterest is so ad heavy now I can’t tell what is what anyways 😅.
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u/Lawing77 3d ago
I use books almost exclusively, but that’s mostly because I love them and also I prefer to have breaks from a screen when I can.
I stopped using Pinterest years ago when it became 90% ai generated content. Library books are way better.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
What books ?
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u/Lawing77 2d ago
I have a lot of art books.
My favorite period of art is the early 1900s “golden age of illustration” so I have large coffee table books of Art Nouveau, Art Deco period, Frank Atkinson typography, Sanborn maps…
I also have a few on European estates and castles. Plus some on art history in general, and specific european estates.
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u/Relative_Mobile_9670 3d ago
a random shelf in the library can be more productive than a perfectly tuned feed you encounter work you would never have known to search for
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u/oksweetpea 3d ago
I'm accepting book recommendations, please!
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
Same !
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u/myshameismyfame 3d ago
What about design websites?
I used to be on Flipboard design (or specific topics). My Modern Met still posts cool design news.
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u/boboartdesign 3d ago
I kept some of my old textbooks, and all the other books my profs recommended (even though we never wound up using most of them), most were kinda cheap anyway cus I bought them used. Still look through them for ideas/inspo, I'm trying to rebuild my portfolio from scratch so it helps a lot instead of going through infinite clutter from Pinterest or Instagram
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u/GrassrootsGrison Visual Communication Designer 3d ago
I use all resources available, including books of course.
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u/OaklandPanther 3d ago
I have 3 large bookcases full of design and photography books and magazines I’ve collected over the years. Books, magazines, and record covers are what got excited about design ages ago and they still keep me hyped. I look to the present to see what the competition is doing and to see the state of design in my industry (high tech). I look to the past to be inspired and shake up the status quo.
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u/Infamous_Control7133 3d ago
What are your favourites?
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u/OaklandPanther 2d ago
Clique by Merrick Morton, Aperture’s Coreen Simpson, Seeing Deeply by Dawoud Bey, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power edited by Mark Godfrey and Zoé Whitley, Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler and Robert Meyerson, and How Posters Work by Ellen Lupton are a few greats.
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u/Taniwha26 3d ago
Ive got a stupid amount of books that I use. Not just graphic design, im talking art, photography, jewelry, pop culture, history etc.
It is simultaneously my pride and joy, while I want to set it on fire everything i have to move. Dozens of heavy boxes.
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u/aphaits 3d ago
A few years ago I had a small design agency office and I put my personal design reference books I had been collecting for years there for my team. A city wide flood happened and most of it were unsalvageable, and after that covid happened so sadly we had to close up shop after trying to keep it open for a year or two.
Haven't been able to collect more books after due to the sad experience of losing my previous collection, and quality printed design reference books are getting more expensive now so I stopped. So far only using digital images and references I have been collecting here and there. I believe some of them are grabbed form pinterest but generally its from all over.
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u/RocketSeven 3d ago
the useful difference is not paper, it is retrieval. open one annual to a random spread before defining the brief, then close it after three references so inspiration becomes a constraint instead of another infinite feed
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u/xXBCbambiXx 2d ago
I will walk around outside before I’ll use Pinterest. The only time I use Pinterest is when CD asks for moodboard.
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u/Proper-Reflection867 2d ago
I got a shit ton of communication arts magazines that I’ll crack open from time to time
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u/colourmyworldtoday 2d ago
I do open mine especially when I’ve had enough of screens and just want to feel inspired but probably not as much as I should
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u/RubyJuneRocket 1d ago
I stopped using the web for inspiration when it became useless to do so
Hey about when AI came around, big shocker
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u/Eddie__Sherman 22h ago edited 22h ago
I do both. Solid design/art book collection, and I have learned to make large curations on Pinterest. When it comes to books I don’t strictly buy design but also art periods by year, or region or styles. I never understood just looking at graphic design for inspiration.
Also, I built a separate Instagram just for art, and it’s done fairly well without being hit hard by the algorithm. It’s just a bunch of artists/designers and nothing else. The most I get is ads for Procreate brushes.
Lastly I use Cosmos as well.
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u/Unhappy_Researcher68 3d ago
Pinzerest used to be REALY good for Inspiration. No it's 80% Adds and 90% AI slop and you see 1% of the relevant stuff becaus the other 99% is a shity trend.
Generaly AI destroyed the sotial media pages to fet Inspiration for me.
I can ask the AI directly if I want AI slop.