Design Magazines/Publications

Neatly packaged list for you guys! Hope you find this useful! There’s no better way to find out which publications are worth reading than asking the best professor in the RISD Graphic Design department, Doug Scott, who has taught at RISD since 1980, in addition to a really long list of other places like Yale and Northeastern. Basically he knows everything about everything. So here’s his list of Design Publications that someday when I have my own studio, I’ll be able to afford subscriptions to most of these or track down old copies at used bookstores or online :) I made the ones Doug calls “really good” bold for you. The list is quite international too, because design is not isolated in a box, it’s global!

2+3D (Polish Graphic and Industrial Design)

Baseline International TypoGraphics Magazine

Typo a Czech publication for graphic design and visual communication

Graphis still one of the best publications, first published in Zurich in 1944

Novum (originally published as Gebrauchs Graphik in 1924)

IDEA a Japanese magazine, though they are so beautiful, it doesn’t matter that I can’t read most of it since it’s in Japanese

Graphic Design aka GDUSA

Typographica no longer in print, a British Publication edited by Herbert Spencer. If I could get my hands on a few of these precious relics I would be eternally happy (just kidding, it takes more than antique design publications to make me reach nirvana haha)

Étapes design et culture visuelle, a French publication

Eye Magazine The international Review of Graphic Design, which used to be a lot better, but is still a well respected, worthy magazine

Grafik a publication out of London, UK

Slanted a German graphic design publication

Print Magazine is one of the better American publications about, obviously, print design

Communication Arts is also a great American publication

Applied Arts Canada’s visual communications magazine

I tried to track down a digital link for Critique The Magazine Of Graphic Design Thinking, but it’s not in print anymore and the only web presence they have is libraries with pdf downloads, which defeats the purpose of a printed magazine.

Emigre Magazine I’m sure you’ve heard of Emigre’s type foundry! They also published this magazine between 1984 and 2005, but you can probably track down a few on ebay or amazon

ID Pure don’t be fooled by the name, it’s not about industrial design, it’s a Swiss magazine of visual creation, graphic design, and typography

Domus an Italian publication covering art, design, and architecture

FUKT a German magazine for contemporary drawing, which is nicely designed and has some great illustration in it

Well that’s all for now! Enjoy! Let me know if you know any others I’m missing out on!

(Image courtesy of Grain Edit)