you could look it up

Well-Thumbed

If it's not on the shelves where it belongs it's probably on Bryan's desk or in Susan's bag or maybe in the kitchen under a pizza box or something. These are books we simply can't work without. Divided by design, writing, and code references.

on design

Paul Rand by Steven Heller
Paul Rand changed everything. And then he changed it again. Heller's book outlines his single-minded devotion to "good work" and examines all the major projects. A love-letter. Of course= we're assuming you already have Rand's From Lascaux to Brooklyn and A Designers's Art on your shelves.

The Russian Avant Garde Book
A smart and attractive anthology of the work of Aleksandr Rodchenko, Kazimir Malevich and others, we've found this book to be a powerful design stimulant. By MoMA Print and Illustrated Books Curator, Deborha Wye.

Marks of Excellence
The history, beauty and logic of trademarks always inspires. Per Mollerup's big black book follows me home and then back to work, over and over. It's probably time to get a second copy.

The Typographic Grid
Hans Rudolf Bosshard's beautiful book takes the essentials of organizing type and presents them clearly and conversationally.

FontBook: Digital Typeface Compendium
The yellow one.

The Work of Edward Tufte
Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative and The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Good advice, solid reasoning and spectacularly beautiful bookmaking. Sigh.

Grid Systems in Graphic Design
An understanding of Josef Muller-Brockmann's Opus is not optional.

Pantone Color Guides
Never, ever on the shelf. Always on someone's desk, most of the time open. Nuff said. Also very helpful, The Process Color Manual.

on writing

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace
Two really important things.

On Writing Well
If you're a journalist, a businessperson, or the occasional author of letters, memos, blog entries, and emails, William K. Zinsser's On Writing Well is a book you should reread every year. The essential work on clear and interesting non-fiction writing.

The Chicago Manual of Style
The Bible for preparing and editing manuscripts for publication. The 15th edition is now available.

Roget's International Thesaurus
Seasoned newspaper men and elementary English teachers might call it a crutch. But when you get right down to it, a thesaurus is a reference tool like any other: it can be used effectively or poorly. This is the one we turn to when we're looking to pin the perfect shade of meaning on the paper.

Elements of Style
If your education was worth anything, you were assigned Strunk and White's Elements of Style for a class. If you're anything like us, you've misplaced and repurchased it a number of times since.

Webster Third New International Dictionary
Someday we'll own the complete OED. Until then, this unabridged monster will do just fine.

on code

HTTP: The Definitive Guide
Comprehensive and surprisingly easy to read. David Gourley and Brian Totty's volume contains the answers to all those questions about how the web works you shouldn't need to ask.

The PHP Bible
God there are a lot of ugly, thick books in this section of the bookstore, and this might be the ugliest of them all. But Tim Converse and Joyce Park have written the clearest and easiest to navigate primer on PHP. Runner-up in the ugly-but-effective category goes to Core PHP Programming by Leon Atkinson.

Cascading Style Sheets
Eric Meyer's Definitive CSS Guide is the O'Reilly book with the salmon on the cover. No-nonsense tutorials with a well-worn index. There are recently a lot of other titles in this category. You may ignore them without worry. This is it.

Designing With Web Standards
We could have redone our site using CSS without ever looking at this lovely orange book. We could have developed our own workarounds and reinvented the proper structure for a style-sheet. We probably could have even deciphered the frustrating inconsistencies of "The Box Model" on our own. Thank God we didn't have to.

Managing and Using MySQL
Kingfisher on the cover. Clear, precise explanations inside.

Reading at CP

Field Tested Books, a suitcase full of reviews of books read on location, edited by DR.

How To Explain The Rules of Cricket by KG.

Perfect by JC.

the CP Holiday Rock-and-Roll Pop Quiz by KG.

Beaten Up and Stepped On by Rosecrans Baldwin.

A Thing We Made:
Field Notes

Field Notes Brand memo Books and more. "I'm not writing it down to remember it later. I'm writing it down to remember it now." A CP/DDC joint.

Some Other Things We Made:

We hated the options available for custom packaging DVDs and CDs so we created a brand that gives creative professionals and hobbyists the tools to make great stuff. Here's a bit from the latest Jewelboxing weblog entry:

"Clients are always stunned at the result, almost to the point of being speechless, shocked that their faces are so artfully placed on a professional DVD cover. I couldn't be happier with Jewelboxing and I think I can say the same thing for my clients as well." Read the entire post.

Pinsetter: Spell with buttons.

The Deck Network. Interested in getting your product or service in front of millions of savvy, curious remarkably good-looking people? Give a shout.