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Alexander, C. (1979). The Timeless Way of Building. New York: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., and Silverstein, M. (1977). A Pattern Language. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bonnici, P. (1999). Visual Language:  The Hidden Medium of Communication.  New York: RottoVision SA.

Carter, E. (2000). Creating Logo Families. New York: HarperCollins. Amazon

In a design family, a number of individuals appear to come from the same class. The class might be a company name, as in Yahoo, and the individuals might be sections of Yahoo, as in Yahoo Autos. To create feelings of interest, Google adorns its Logo with current, popular themes. For a gallery of examples, see Google logos. This idea of specializations of top-level classes comes up over and over again in all sorts of design situations, from navigation devices, to reusable code, to urban landscape design. The book Creating Logo Families shows a huge range of examples where graphic design is used to create corporate identities.

Dreyfuss, H. (1955). Designing for People. New York: Viking Press.

The design challenge is not new. Henry Dreyfuss describes the values and habits that lead to products of utility and personal appeal.

Flinchum, R. (1997). Henry Dreyfuss, industrial designer: The man in the brown suite. New York: Rizzoli. Amazon

Was Henry Dreyfuss the first user advocate? He pioneered many techniques for user-centered design. This book documents many very familiar objects that Dreyfuss was responsible for.

Frascara, J. (1997). User-Centered Graphic Design:  Mass Communication and Social Change. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Visual communication, like any design problem, is problem solving for an audience.

Kelley, T. (2001). The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, American's Leading Design Firm . New York: Random House.

Good practices, habits, workspaces, and organization lead to superb design solutions.