Are branding books worth it?

[saroyy]

Seeing as i'm a beginner when it comes to designing I want to learn and improve, obviously. I've come across some blogs through my own searching and recommendations, but also books have been recommended. Are they worth buying?

Now this could bring up the discussion of digital vs traditional. I'm not interested in that as I already know my preferences which is... both :icon_confused: I just want clarity as to which offers more for what.

Thank you.

 

[Paul Murray]

I don't buy many design 'how to' design books since most design is self-learning through observation anyway. I did buy David Airey's Logo Design Love book a while back, though I wasn't too impressed by it, not because it's not a good book, but because being a brand designer it didn't teach me anything I haven't learnt or been taught already.

I think this is a big problem nowadays as many blogs and articles will tell you the same as what you would find in a book, only the information is available freely and inexpensively. I'm currently reading through 'What they didn't teach you in design school' in order to review it, which claims to educate you on the things that you should know before heading out into the big wide world of the design industry, but I'm actually finding the the author's opinions a bit 'old school', and honestly, a bit elitist.

What I do like about these books in particular though is the snippets from other designers that teach you something they've learnt through making mistakes. That to me is both more interesting and more useful than "You should be doing XYZ." That's not how design works. You are supposed to be solving a problem creatively, so following a set of instructions seems a bit restrictive to me.

 

[saroyy]

I've noticed that myself when I read books as well. So far i've only read Onwards by Howard Schultz, including business aspects, inspiration and learning from mistakes. I was just going through numerous blogs, swiping down pointless articles which will just say the same thing in a different way, just to get to one good post. Can be frustrating.

So how do you keep up with the latest trends? Could you elaborate on when you mentioned observation?