It takes more than simple talent to succeed as a graphic designer, so find graphic design publications that provide you with information, inspiration and tools to succeed in a competitive environment.

In your career, you require creativity, inspiration and talent, and graphic designer publications can provide all that for you. As current reference materials or reference materials you'll rely on for years, graphic design and media publications can answer questions that pester you, inspire new ideas for design and give you a more thorough understanding of all aspects of graphic design, giving you a leg up on your competition. As you research different publications for the ones that will best serve your needs, consider the following sources:

1. Buy graphic designer books to help propel your career.

2. Subscribe to a graphic design online magazine or print magazine.

3. Take advantage of other graphic design professional publications.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Purchase books on graphic design for your library collection

A graphic design book makes a great reference tool that you can pull off the shelf and thumb through any time.

I recommend: If you're new to the graphic design world or need a creativity jump start, buy the Graphic Design Cookbook at DeepDiscount.com and add it to your book collection. The paperback book provides loads of effective examples of design devices, type treatments, spatial solutions and pictorial presentations. You won't pay shipping charges when you buy the book from DeepDiscount.com. Order Graphic Design: The New Basics, by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips from Barnes & Noble. Published in March 2008, the hardcover book speaks to professionals and students through visual demonstrations and commentary about building interest and complexity around simple relationships. Go to Buy.com to purchase the paperback Grids: Creative Solutions for Graphic Design. A great graphic design publication and reference book, it demonstrates different ways to use space, type and images, and it explores creative ideas for navigational devices and information design.

Subscribe to online or print graphic design trade magazines

Graphic design magazines will help you make old ideas new, update you on current trends and information and inspire you to head in new directions.

I recommend: Bookmark the homepage or subscribe to Print, a bimonthly magazine that explores design in social, political and historical contexts. The magazine boasts receipt of the American Society of Magazine Editors' National Magazine Award for General Excellence three times. Make Graphic Design USA, the web companion to its free monthly news and information magazine, one of your favorite websites. With GD USA, you can keep their current issue, past issues, contests, education, free stuff and E-newsletters right at your fingertips. Choose whether you want to subscribe to the PDF or Print version of Before & After, a magazine that concentrates on a practical approach to graphic design. The magazine started up in 1990 and publishes one article at a time; the print version binds together eight articles before distributing to subscribers.

Locate other graphic design trade publications for more information

Use journals on graphic design, newsletters, blogs and other publications to get either quick news or in-depth articles pertaining to the graphic design industry.

I recommend: Bookmark Gain: AIGA Journal of Business and Design at the American Institute of Graphic Arts website. This graphic design journal dedicates its issues to promoting thinking about the intersection of business and design. Subscribe to the Design Tools newsletter, an executive summary of graphic design news. The monthly newsletter includes tips and bug fixes, news, software updates and font news.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Create a new folder titled Online Graphic Design Publications and place it on your desktop. You can place several of the titles from this guide in the folder for immediate easy access, in addition to other useful links to graphic design trade publications.