[missmo86]

My mom has always been very interested in graphic design, she is a terrific artist and loves everything art related. She has a birthday coming up and I would love to get her some stuff to get her started or at least pushed in the right direction. Any recommendations on books, programs, tools or anything I can get her to get her started?

Thank you.

[jon.kiparsky]

I usually don't like to get people tools and technical books, because it's very difficult to get the right thing, but this is an amazingly good and beautifully made book on typography.

[modi123_1]

Pretty vague there.. but typography, colors, vector designing... how to be a freelancer.. etc. I am not quite sure where to direct you for her if this is a surprise and she's not actively pursuing it.. but here's some typical favorites.

http://www.amazon.co.../dp/0714834491/
http://www.amazon.co.../dp/1592535879/
http://www.amazon.co...uct/0300082827/
http://www.amazon.co...uct/1568985592/

[Lemur]

jon.kiparsky, on 04 October 2012 - 12:41 PM, said:

I usually don't like to get people tools and technical books, because it's very difficult to get the right thing, but this is an amazingly good and beautifully made book on typography.

That's the defacto typography book, but be warned that it's deep.

[modi123_1]

Heh.. that might not be a great birthday gift. Well unless the recipient has a great love for typography.

[jon.kiparsky]

modi123_1, on 05 October 2012 - 09:14 PM, said:

Heh.. that might not be a great birthday gift. Well unless the recipient has a great love for typography.

Take a look at it some time. There are great books on particular topics - TAOCP or SICP come to mind for the computer crowd - which cover their topic exhaustively and well, but will never move their readers to take an interest in their topic. If you love algorithms enough, you will read Knuth, and you will revel in it, but if you don't love algorithms, Knuth will not change your mind.
Then there are great books that happen to be about one particular topic. Le Tombeau de Marot is about translation, sure, but it's a great book (that happens to be about translation), and anyone reading it will not only know more about translation when they're done with it, but they will care much more about translation than they had previously thought likely. I think Bringhurst's book is at that level - a person with any degree of curiosity and willingness to be moved by great prose will care more about typography when they're done reading it than they might have thought possible before reading it.

So it's one of the few technical books that I can recommend as a gift - even if it's not what they needed, it won't go wrong.

[missmo86]

Thank you everyone. And the information is very helpful.

Thank you everyone. All the information is very helpful.

[IreneThompson]

Your a sweet kid. Your mom's birthday must have already passed but I would like to add some more useful resources. For lessons and tutorials, you might want to have her check this out: http://www.graphicfe...shop-tutorials/ . This one offers interesting sites for inspiration: http://www.graphicfe...cool-inspiring/