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Here it is! Our annual Design Book Gift Guide! In this list, we’ve compiled our favorite titles from the past year. We hope this helps you find the perfect gift for your loved ones this holiday season.

Graphic Stamps: The miniature beauty of postage stamps
Editors: Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy
Stamps selected by Iain Follet & Blair Thomson
Essay: Mark Sinclair
Published by Unit Editions
328 Pages

The Archive Series is a bibliographic celebration of graphic design archives and collections. The first title in the new series is devoted to the design of postage stamps. Sourced from the collections of stamp design experts Iain Follett and Blair Thomson, the book celebrates the brilliance of postage stamp design from around the world.

Available at Unit Editions

Prints
By Karel Martens
Published by Roma Publications
48 pages

This artist publication contains a sequence of unique letterpress monoprints, made by Karel Martens between 2014 and 2016, reproduced at actual size (except for two larger prints). It is available in two different cover versions which is the result of a printing experiment by printing all the content of the book in 3 layers on one print sheet, which was cut and folded into two different covers.

Available at Roma Publications, Amazon, and your local bookshop.

Hall of Femmes: Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
By Hall of Femmes AKA Samira Bouabana and Angela Tillman Sperandio
Published by Hall of Femmes

A Hall of Femmes book about Californian Supergraphics pioneer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon.

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon was the first to create what came to be known as Supergraphics: monumental graphics designed in harmony with architecture. Her iconic style – mixing Swiss Modernism and West Coast Pop – pioneered the look of California Cool, an important moment in graphic design history.

In addition to an impressive portfolio, she boasts a fascinating life story. Ranging from being a teenage flamenco dancer, to marrying a well-known film director, to suddenly finding herself a young widow with a child to support. At a crossroads, she moves to Switzerland to study under the influential modernist designer Armin Hofmann, before returning to the U.S and creating influential designs that were bigger and bolder than her Swiss counterparts.

Coming Soon.

Official Symbol of The American Revolution Bicentennial: Guidelines for Authorized Usage; Official Graphics Standards Manual
Designed By Bruce Blackburn
Published by Standards Manual
52 pages + 8 panel jacket

The 1976 American Revolution Bicentennial symbol was the logo for America’s 200th birthday party and a precursor to the NASA logo that Bruce Blackburn would design in 1974.

This edition is a perfect facsimile of the original, wrapped in a black jacket with a foil stamped foreword from Bruce Blackburn and an essay from Christopher Bonanos. The first 1,976 copies are limited edition, featuring a hand-placed original bicentennial post stamp from ’76.

Available at Standards Manual and your local bookshop.

Design By Wangzhihong.com
By Wang Zhi-Hong
Published by Faces Publications and Cité Publishing
504 pages

Design By Wangzhihong.com is a collection of the work of one of Taiwan’s top book designers, Wang Zhi-Hong. From typography manuals to Albert Einstein’s Ideas and Opinions, Wang has tackled a range of translated volumes for Asia’s book market. Often employing geometric illustrations and minimal layouts, his work is clean, bold, and intriguing. His approach has earned him international recognition including six of Taiwan’s Golden Butterfly Awards, Kasai Kaoru’s Choice Award, and Excellent Works from the Tokyo Type Directors Club.

Available at Cité Publishing and your local bookshop.

This Brutal World
By Peter Chadwick
Published by Phaidon Press
224 pages

A curated collection of some of the most powerful and awe-inspiring Brutalist architecture ever built. This Brutal World is a global survey of this compelling and much-admired style of architecture. It brings to light virtually unknown Brutalist architectural treasures from across the former eastern bloc and other far flung parts of the world.

Available at Amazon and your local bookshop.

Mapping Graphic Design History in Switzerland
Edited By Rober Lzicar and Davide Fornari
Published by Triest Verlag für Architektur
328 pages

This volume presents eleven original essays on the production, mediation and consumption of graphic design artifacts and processes, as well as their respective discourses, by authors from the German, French and Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland.

Mapping Graphic Design History in Switzerland discusses theoretical and methodological approaches for historical research on graphic design; helps to establish graphic design history as an academic field in Switzerland; and aims to make this discourse accessible to researchers and professional graphic designers in Switzerland and abroad.

The texts are illustrated with around 100 color and largely unpublished images. In addition to the academic texts, the publications contains three visual essays on the history of graphic design in Switzerland, as well as an extensive list of literature and other references.

Includes an epilogue and prologue by the editors and contributions by Constance Delamadeleine, Davide Fornari, Roland Früh, Invar-Torre Hollaus, Barbara Junod, Leslie Kennedy, Robert Lzicar, Corina Neuenschwander, Franziska Nyffenegger, François Rappo, Michael Renner, Bettina Richter, Teal Triggs, Amanda Unger, Peter Vetter. With visual essays designed by Diana Iennaco, Marina Prado and Leonardo Signori

Available at Draw Down, Amazon, and your local bookshop.

Alain Grée: Works by the French Illustrator from the 1960s-70s
By Alain Grée
Published by PIE International
224 pages

This is the very first art collection title introducing his beautiful illustrations selected mainly from his work during the 1960s and 1970s. More than 200 art works are showcased, some of which are only available today in antique books. In addition, this title features Grée’s original paintings, rough sketches and interviews. This is a treasured collection for adults who have grown up with Grée’s books, who will recall their own childhood days, as well as a good reference for those studying illustration.

Available at Counter-Print, Amazon, and your local bookshop.

Explorations in Typography (Second Edition)
By Carolina de Bartolo with Stephen Coles and Erik Spiekermann
Published by 101 Editions

A brand new edition of Explorations in Typography is now available. It has been revised and expanded to include more typesetting examples and more typefaces as well as a visual index of page layouts and grids. Along with the same excerpt from Erik Spiekermann used in the first edition, this edition also features the writing of Stephen Coles who composed all new typeface descriptions and an index of alternates for each that are low-cost or free for educational use.

Available at 101 Editions and your local bookshop.

The British Rail Corporate Identity Manual
Created and edited by Wallace Henning
Published by Henning Limited
472 pages

Leaves on the lines, the wrong kind of snow, and soggy stale sandwiches never really helped British Rail become a brand that was truly loved by the nation. Yet, in 2011 the readers of Creative Review voted British Rail’s ‘double arrow’ as their sixth favourite logo.

This book celebrates the British Rail Corporate Identity in its entirety – not only it’s distinctive symbol but it’s full graphic design programme, from detailed specimens of the famous Rail Alphabet typeface to the livery of the Inter-City 125. With full agreement from the Department of Transport – this iconic manual initially created in 1965 have been published as a new, high specification book.

The nature of the ring binder system used to hold the individual Sheets of the original Manual has meant most, or quite possibly all sets of the Manual were never complete. This publication is the only printed full collection of the British Rail Corporate Identity Manual. Outside of museums, archives and private collections, this is only physical form of the Manual.
 
Foreword by Michael C Place, Creative Director and Founder of Build. Introduction by Tony Howard, former Head of Design at British Rail.

Available at British Rail Manual and your local bookshop.

Jde O To, Aby O Něco Šlo
Typograf Oldřich Hlavsa
By Barbora Toman Tylová
Published in 2015 by Akropolis Publishing House in cooperation with Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
592 pages

For the first time, a publication summarizes the extensive graphic works of an author, whose work is an important chapter in the history of Czech graphic design of the late 20th century.

In his works, Oldrich Hlavsa (1909 – 1995) focuses especially on the typographic design of books. With the number of designed books, amounting nearly two thousand, he significantly formed the view on creation, function, and purpose of books. He is a follower of Czech avantgarde, works of Karel Teige and Ladislav Sutnar, but through his typographic work the constructional and functional elements get a new meaning.

He left a deep imprint on the history of graphic design with his four publications about fonts, illustration, and books.

His Typograficka pisma latinkova was published in 1957, followed by its English translation A Book of Type and Design published three years later. Three volumes of Typographie were published in 1976, 1981 and 1986. Oldrich Hlavsa was a member of a number of international applied graphic art institutions and committees, he took an active part in work of various international book culture and typography juries; he presented his work both at home and abroad. The quality of his work repeatedly received many local and international awards. For many years, he would take the top places at the competition for the most beautiful Czechoslovak book, and in 1991, he received the prestigious Gutenberg prize of Leipzig, as recognition of his extraordinary lifetime work in book art.

The extensive monograph starts with studies of Barbora Toman Tylova, Jan Rous, and Iva Knoblochova. The following pictorial part describes the essential milestones of Hlavsa’s innovative and unique art work, which is relatively and comprehensively described in the bibliography of Hlavsa’s book and magazine work. The publication is accompanied by a summary of Hlavsa’s theoretical articles, interviews, and reviews of his work, and Hlavsa’s correspondence with reputable Czech and foreign figures in the 20th century design (L. Sutnar, A. Frutiger, H. Zapf).

Available at OldrichHalvasa.ch and your local bookshop.

Postage Stamp Designs – From Kafka to Loriot
By Hans Günter Schmitz
Published by Niggli Verlag
160 pages

The world’s first official postage stamp was issued in May 1840: the legendary “One Penny Black” with the profile of the Queen of England. The new payment system in the field of logistics by Sir Rowland Hill quickly gained hold all around the world. For the first time, this publication discusses the significance and functions of postage stamps as prominently visible elements of communication design.

The expressiveness inherent in the small-sized images and the very peculiar and heterogeneous mage vocabulary of this medium of mass culture is analyzed based on more than 40 designs by Hans Günter Schmitz. The book also presents concepts that were not implemented, in addition to sketches, studies, and variations – from Adenauer to the film festival Berlinale, from a mathematicians’ congress to the famous Wuppertal suspension railway.

Available at Niggli Verlag, Amazon, and your local bookshop.

Draplin Design Co.: Pretty Much Everything
By Aaron James Draplin
Published by Harry N. Abrams
256 pages

Esquire. Ford Motors. Burton Snowboards. The Obama Administration. While all of these brands are vastly different, they share at least one thing in com­mon: a teeny, little bit of Aaron James Draplin. Draplin is one of the new school of influential graphic designers who combine the power of design, social media, entrepreneurship, and DIY aesthetic to create a successful business and way of life.

Pretty Much Everything is a mid-career survey of work, case studies, inspiration, road stories, lists, maps, how-tos, and advice. It includes examples of his work—posters, record covers, logos—and presents the process behind his design with projects like Field Notes and the “Things We Love” State Posters. Draplin also offers valuable advice and hilarious commentary that illustrates how much more goes into design than just what appears on the page. With Draplin’s humor and pointed observations on the contemporary design scene, Draplin Design Co. is the complete package for the new generation of designers.

Available at Amazon and your local bookshop.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Graphics Standards Manual
Designed by Richard Danne & Bruce Blackburn
Published by Standards Manual
220 Pages

The NASA Graphics Standards Manual by Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn is a futuristic vision for an agency at the cutting edge of science and exploration.

The book features a foreword by Richard Danne, an essay by Christopher Bonanos, scans of the original manual (from Danne’s personal copy), reproductions of the original NASA 35mm slide presentation, and scans of the ‘Managers Guide’, a follow up booklet distributed by NASA.

Available at Standards Manual, Counter-Print, and your local bookshop.

Ghost
Written by Blaise Hemingway and Jesse Reffsin and illustrated by Chris Sasaki and Jeff Turley
Published by Illustratus

Ghost is a chilling new collection of short stories from a team of writers and illustrators with roots at Pixar, Disney and Paramount. Produced by Illustratus, Ghost marks the studio’s first foray into publishing. If the book is indicative of future releases, then they are off to a very good start. Sizing in at 9.25” x 12”, this mighty tome (or should I say tomb?) contains 13 hair-raising vignettes told through the voice of a reclusive groundskeeper. In each tale, the author meticulously summons the spirit of campfire nights of a youthful past through vivid storytelling that is equally engaging as it is terrifying. Interacting with and shaping the words are a series of dense and haunting visuals. Employing snow-bleached landscapes, speckled textures and muted tones, the images take on an ephemeral and otherworldly quality. The end result is aesthetically stunning and will serve as a worthy benchmark for a new generation of ghost stories.

Available at Illustratus and your local bookshop.

TD 63-73: Total Design and its pioneering role in graphic design (Expanded Edition) 
By Ben Bos / Edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy / Design by Spin
Published by Unit Editions
520 Pages

Total Design began in Amsterdam in 1963. Ben Bos joined the founders (Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing, Friso Kramar and the Schwarz Brothers) from the outset. Together and individually, they set new benchmarks for typography, identity design, cultural design, exhibition design and product design. These benchmarks have rarely, if ever, been surpassed.

The expanded edition of TD 63-73 is a unique insider’s account of Total Design’s golden period. It contains hundreds of images from the TD archive, and in Ben Bos’s text the reader is given a personal history of a design group that remains as important today as it did when it launched in 1963.

Expanding on this original edition, this new edition features an updated and extended text by Ben Bos that looks beyond 1973, as well as many previously unseen images from his personal archive.

Available at Unit Editions

Very Graphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century
Edited with introduction by Jacek Mrowczyk. Preface by Piotr Rypson, Krzysztof Lenk, Agata Szydowska.
Published by Culture PL
448 Pages

VeryGraphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century is the first comprehensive history of Polish graphic design. The book showcases its immense and diverse legacy, from the world-renowned Polish Poster school to the lesser-known achievements of artists in the field of applied graphic design, including books and covers, typography and lettering, logos and visual identification as well as packaging. Chronologically detailing the work of over 60 of the most prominent Polish designers, the volume offers a review of Polish graphic design unprecedented in its scope. The cover of each copy is hand-painted, rendering it a truly one-of-a-kind object.

Available at Amazon, artbook.com and your local book shop.

The Music Library: Revised and Expanded Edition
By Jonny Trunk / Published by Fuel
248 Pages

This new and expanded edition of The Music Library contains twice the content of the original book, featuring 625 rare sleeves from 230 music library companies of the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. The amazing cover designs of over 100 newly discovered library albums are beautifully reproduced (alongside all the sleeves contained in the first book) and accompanied by exhaustive, updated captions.

Available at Amazon, artbook.com and your local book shop.

The ABC of Custom Lettering:A Practical Guide to Drawing Letters
By Ivan Castro / Introduction by Ken Barber of House Industries
Published by Korero
140 Pages

This practical and inspirational workbook features easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for hand drawing a range of letterforms, from Modern Roman and Gothic through to Latin, Script, and Interlocked. Offering traditional instruction methods with a modern twist, this reference also comes with gallery sections for inspiration and accompanying projects to practice your technique.

Available at Amazon and your local book shop.

Design for People – Stories About How (and Why) We All Can Work Together to Make Things Better
Edited by Chappell Ellison, Bryn Smith, Scott Stowell. Introduction by Karrie Jacobs. Foreword by Douglass G.A. Scott. Text by Wynton Marsalis.
Published by Metropolis Books
256 Pages

Most design books focus on outcome rather than on process. Scott Stowell’s Design for People is groundbreaking in its approach to design literature. Focusing on 12 design projects by Stowell’s design firm, Open, the volume offers a sort of oral history as told by those involved with each project–designers, clients, interns, collaborators and those who interact with the finished product on a daily basis.

Available at Amazon, artbook.com and your local book shop.

Min: The New Simplicity in Graphic Design
By Stuart Tolley
Published by Thames & Hudson
288 Pages

As creatives take contemporary design in fresh and exciting directions, they are also waving goodbye to the ornate patterns that have saturated our visual culture for the past decade.

MIN is the first thorough look at this rebirth of simplicity in graphic design. It showcases around 150 outstanding minimalist designers working across a wide range of formats and media – from independent magazines and album covers to corporate identity and branding.

Available at Amazon, Thames & Hudson and your local book shop

Max Bill
Published by Fundacion Juan March
Edited by Manuel Fontán del Junco, María Toledo.
Text by Karin Gimmi, Jakob Bill, Manuel Fontán del Junco, Neus Moyano, Fernando Marzá, María Amalia García, Gillermo Zuaznabar.
352 Pages

This gorgeously designed, hefty volume—the most thorough Bill overview ever published in English, and the only monograph in print—presents Bill’s oeuvre both chronologically and thematically, across every facet of his multifaceted oeuvre: painting, graphic art, sculpture, architecture, book and magazine design, industrial and furniture design, graphic design and advertising typography—from large-format posters to small inserts in periodicals—as well as his designs for exhibition spaces.

Available at Amazon and artbook.com

Herb Lubalin: Typographer
Editors: Adrian Shaughnessy & Tony Brook
Published by Unit Editions
208 Pages

Herb Lubalin claimed not to be a great typographer. ‘In fact,’ he said, ‘I’m terrible, because I don’t follow the rules.’ This new book proves the opposite. On every page it features Lubalin’s typographic genius (logos, layouts, lettering and typefaces), and places him at the forefront of 20th century typographic innovation.

Available at Unit Editions and your local bookshop.

Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe
Published by Vitra Design Museum
Edited by Mateo Kries, Jochen Eisenbrand.
Text by Susan Brown, Jochen Eisenbrand, Barbara Hauss, Alexandra Lange, Monica Obniski, Jonathan Olivares.
512 Pages

Alexander Girard was one of the most important modern textile artists and interior designers of the 20th century. He combined Pop and Folk art influences to create a colorfully opulent aesthetic language whose impact continues to be felt today. This richly illustrated catalogue draws on the vast holdings in Girard’s private estate, which were exhaustively investigated for the first time at the Vitra Design Museum. The book presents the oeuvre of the multitalented designer in all its facets, while offering the first scholarly, critical examination of his work.

Available at Amazon, artbook.com and your local book shop.

How to Write an Email
By Justin Kerr
Published by Extracurricular Press
109 Pages

The biggest mistake new employees make in the corporate world is thinking that hard work is what leads to success. The reality is that some basic and often overlooked behaviors are the real keys to thriving in the workplace. Part survival guide, part corporate myth-buster, How to write an email shows you how to raise your profile and make the most of your time in any organization.

Available at Amazon, Extracurricular Press and your local book shop.

Looking for gifts for your fellow design-minded friends and family members? Check out our Gift Guide on Canopy where we have organized our gifts into five fun categories – For the Studio,  Home, Design Books, Under $20, and For the Kids, but Kinda for Me. See a small sample of the guide after the jump.

Everything I want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking

The Journey by Francesca Sanna

Draplin Design Co. – Pretty Much Everything

Monta-Birra Beer Glass Set

Wine Bottle Holder

Mikkeller’s Book of Beer

Starry Wi-Fi Staton

Moleskine Rechargeable Booklight in Cadmium Orange

LEGO Architecture Villa Savoye

Digital Stylus Pencil in Graphite by Fifty Three

Tower Bottle Opener

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Also worth viewing:

2015 Holiday Gift Guide Design Books
2014 Home & Office Gift Guide
New Additions to Our 2014 Holiday Book Gift Guide

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Dear Holiday Spirit(s):

We’re approaching the end of 2010, a year filled with work, work…and did we mention, more work? Seeing as we’ve all been on our best behavior, please take a look at the wish list we’ve compiled with some of our favorite artists and friends. It’s much BIGGER than last year’s list and excited to share it with you. Please say you’ll bring some of these goodies our way!

Yours Truly,
Grain Edit + Friends

1.  Bang! lamp by bitplay inc.: When you fire a shot at the lamp with the included gun, the light turns off and the lampshade falls to the side, showing that it’s been hit. Super cool!

2. iPad

3. Groove Merchant 20 Year Anniversary shirt designed by Freddy Anzures (Apple/Wax Poetics) for Props.

4. Harris Tweet iPad Case

5. Charcoal water pitcher

1. Mike Leigh’s Naked. A powerful film from one of my favorite directors. I’d actually take any of the films from Iron & Wine’s or Wes Anderson’s top 10 favorite films list.

2. I love the portfolio of Austin-based design Ryan Rhodes. Everything in there is top-notch. This Vans shirt is no exception; it has been calling my name for a long time. “Ethan! Wear me! I’m a medium, too!”

3. I’ve been in the market for a new pair of glasses for some time. It’s a daunting task, searching for specs. After stumbling upon this pair, the NEBB (shown in crystal), I was quite taken with it, along with the rest of Moscot’s catalog.

4. If Christmas had a color, no doubt it would be Pantone 354. If my iPhone had a color, I’m hoping it’s Pantone 354. Now all I need is an iPhone! See these beautiful cases at Engadget.

5. My Polaroid SX-70 has sat quietly and sadly alone these past few years, due to the extinction of Polaroid film. Thanks to the Impossible Project, instant film is back again! I’ll take 3 packs of Color Shade, please!

1.

When I think of new year's resolutions, I often think of teachers.  You now have a good handle on the personalities, hot buttons, learning styles and capabilities of your students.  The second half of the year will fly by before you know it and you are already back in the middle of it all. 

As I was thinking about my own resolutions, I was reminded that the International Reading Association's Response to Intervention Commission has published their Guidelines (and a working draft of guiding principles).  These guidelines focus on several important keys for today's teachers and move us from a restrictive, repetitive approach to teaching which relies too heavily on curriculum (to the neglect of other important factors).

The next few blogs this week will address each in turn.  I solicit your comments about your experiences, what your school is doing with RTI, and how you'd like to see teaching change (for the better).  During your implementation of RTI, what have you learned?  There are even books such as Beyond the RTI Pyramid which have study guides to help you work through those answers.  After all, our resolutions (at least some of them) should be on behalf of our students and their families.

RTI is first and foremost "a prevention model", according to the Commission.

Are you seeing the form of RTI being implemented in your school or district as "just more work"?

Or, is it resulting in less referrals to special education, extensive intervention and diagnosed learning disabilities?

One of the purposes of RTI is to prevent unnecessary referrals (and perhaps premature ones) to those programs.

What a grand idea!  Giving students what they need in order to succeed.  Here's hoping that it makes its way from these high ideals down to the everyday classroom.  The National What Works Clearinghouse gives some guidelines of their own that can help make sure that happens.

One of the best ways I've seen for doing that is for the entire school staff to be on the same page:  literacy coaches/ reading specialists, librarians/media specialists, other staff specialists and classroom teachers, along with administration.  You may have heard of a "problem solving model" for RTI.   Is that happening where you are? How is it working?  What problems have you encountered in getting the end results you want?

Another way schools can insure proper implementation of RTI is to include parent education as part of the solution. There is a great resource to share with parents from NH's Parent Information Center which explains  RTI in a family-friendly format.   It may be that this helps you understand RTI better too.

When I talk about involving parents, I don't mean lecturing to parents about what they "ought to do".  That's counterproductive.  Instead I mean a genuine respect for what they can bring to the table in terms of authentic "in the real world" applications to what is being taught in the classroom. After all, what motivation will we give students of any sort to succeed and learn if they do not see any meaning for their lives?  That is nowhere more important than in the area of literacy.

Parent involvement as a part of RTI also means giving families information in a format that is friendly to them.  For some of you, that will be during parent/teacher conferences, for others through a website posting or email blast.  Think about your parent base at your school before you plan how to make them a part of RTI.  Your job of eva