as requested and suggested by a few loyal Design Sojourn readers, I have compiled what I think are the essential books that Industrial Designers should either own or read.

Now I have one disclaimer, and that is I have intentionally left out the design yearbooks or the ever popular coffee table picture book collections. Simply put, these books don’t do much for you except provide visual eye candy. In fact I would go as far as advising you to dump them!

The reason is that if you are looking at such books for inspiration, you will likely be recreating the same looks in one form or another. Not only that, because it is a publication, it takes time to get printed and out there. So by the time you are reading it, it is already outdated.

So going forward, I have divided the books into 3 categories, namely Thinking, Process and Designer Skills. So without further adieu here is the list, in no particular order of importance, for you to enjoy!