I decided to start a list of reading material after a student asked me what books on type/typography I have been reading lately or which books were most influential to me as a type design student. Of course this is not a complete list, but it is a list full of articles, magazines, books and blogs that have inspired me. If you have any suggestions, please add them in a comment below. Hope you enjoy!
Books
Simon Garfield, Just My Type. Avery, 2010
Ellen Lupton, Thinking With Type. Princeton, 2010
Steven Heller & Louise Fili, Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age. Thames & Hudson, 2012
Steven Heller & Talarico Lita, Typography Sketchbooks. Thames & Hudson, 2012
Steven Heller & Philip B Meggs (eds), Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography. Allworth Press, 2001
Rob Roy Kelly, American Wood Type: 1828–1900. Da Capo, 1977
Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks, 3rd Edition, 2004
Walter Tracey, Letters of Credit. David R Godine, 1987
Gerard Unger, Theory of Type Design. nai010, 2018
Hyphen Press
Robin Kinross, Modern Typography. 2nd Edition. 2005
Gerritt Noordzij, The Stroke: Theory of Writing of the Pen. 2005
Fred Smeijers, Counterpunch: Making Type in the Sixteenth Century; Designing Typefaces Now. 1996
Magazines
Typography Papers (Distributed through Hyphen but the site is down currently)
Eye Magazine and also the Blog – Type Tuesdays is also great
Blogs
John Boardley’s I Love Typography. Definitely read the Type History Series, including The First Roman Fonts, and pay more attention to the designer interviews; start with Seb Lester’s.
Stephen Coles’ Typographica. Great collection of type reviews and articles. Read anything that sounds interesting to you. It's all good!
C.A.S.T Foundry’s Medium. High quality writing here from Riccardo Olocco and company. Definitely read his interview with Gerrard Unger
Peter Bil’ak and Johanna Bil’ak-Balusíková’s Typotheque
James Edmonson’s blog at Oh no Type Co. The “Process” and “Teaching” tabs have some real gems in there.