The best design books, podcasts, movies, and more
“I’m a believer in doing over reading. You learn the most from actually designing and building products instead of reading about the practice.” (Mizko)
Designers come from different backgrounds, with some having studied arts and crafts at school and college, while others are self-taught. Regardless of their training, it is crucial that you as a designer understand the foundations of the Design field. In today’s design-driven world, designers take many avatars — graphic designers, UX designers, fashion designers, animation designers, and so on.
To pursue one’s interest in design and to choose the right design career, here are 10 best design books that will strengthen your understanding of the fundamental principles of design and its applications.
Books
- Don’t Make Me Think
- Rocket Surgery Made Easy
- The Design of Everyday Things
- A Pattern Language
- Designing Your Life
- User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play
- Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men
- Change by Design
- Loonshots
- This Might Get Me Fired
- Good to Great
- Make Time
- Find Your Why
- Design Leadership Handbook
Podcasts
- 99% Invisible
- The Crazy One Podcast
- High Resolution Design
- Twenty Thousand Hertz
- The Design of Business | The Business of Design
- Clever
- The Deeply Graphic Design Cast
- The Honest Designers Show
- Design Matters
- UI Breakfast
- The Design Better Podcast
- User Defenders
- The Method and Design Notes Podcast
- Presentable
- The Futur Podcast
- The Reflex Blue Show: A Graphic Design Podcast
- Grits & Grids
Short films
Feature films
- “Tim’s Vermeer”
- “The Creative Brain”
- “The Pixar Story”
- “Jeremy Scott: The People’s Designer”
- “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead”
- “Print the Legend”
- “Have You Seen the Listers”
- “Helvetica”
- “Objectified”
- “Urbanized”
- “Rams”
- “General Magic”
- “Design Disruptors”
TV series
Digital opportunities
Want to learn more?
Want to get an industry-recognized Course Certificate in UX Design, Design Thinking, UI Design, or another related design topic? Online UX courses from the Interaction Design Foundation can provide you with industry-relevant skills to advance your UX career. For example, Design Thinking, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Conducting Usability Testing or User Research — Methods and Best Practices are some of the most popular courses. Good luck on your learning journey!
I hope you’ll enjoy reading this article.
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Kiran Shivlingkar a Director of Product Design
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Peace out
