• Envisioning Information
• Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities...
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
BY EDWARD R. TUFTE

The Tufte trilogy is indispensable as both a guide for creating visual presentations and as philosophical framework for thinking about design. Tufte's call to designers is to make the "familiar wonderful and the wonderful familiar." And, as Fatboy Slim says: "If this don't make your booty move, then your booty must be dead."
Related: Author's site; Article we wrote about a Tufte conference

The Design of Everyday Things
BY DONALD A. NORMAN

Norman makes a compelling argument about how we are surrounded by objects that don't work well, and how cognitive psychology is the solution for bad design. Obviously, this a must-read for web and interface designers, but it has plenty of meat for print designers. Ironic that this book is so poorly designed.

Related: Author's site

The Form of the Book:
Essays on the Morality of Good Design
BY JAN TSCHICHOLD

A collection of 23 essays by the revered designer and typographer. The essay on the Golden Section and page proportions is worth the price alone. But his coverage of jackets, title pages, paper, leading and footnotes make this a book not to be missed. Stellar introduction by Bringhurst. Unfortunately, Out of Print.

The Newspaper Designer's Handbook
BY TIM HARROWER

One of the few decent books ever written on newspaper design. Excellent for beginners in this medium, covering every aspect of newspaper design, from basic page layout to complex infographics. Harrower also happens to have been a designer for the beautiful Portland Oregonian, which always adds a bit of credence to the work. Love the spiral-binding. We haven't seem the CD-ROM yet with the latest edition. Download a sample chapter

• Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative
• Comics & Sequential Art
BY WILL EISNER

Will Eisner is universally acknowledged as one of the great masters of comic book art. These companion books, based on his course New York's School of Visual Arts, teaches how to craft stories in a visual medium — comics, tv, film, web, etc.

How to Make Visual Presentations
BY DENNIS MCBRIDE

Written in the days of overhead projectors (Pre-PowerPoint!), and to some, that might make it dated. But it effeciently covers the basics on audience, preparation and scripting, which, sadly, seems to have been forgotten. Only $7.