Start with high-confidence design history books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
Design As Art
Bruno Munari
Designing Interactions
Bill Moggridge
Adhocism, Expanded and Updated Edition
Charles Jencks, Nathan Silver
The Lost Art of Dress
Linda Przybyszewski
Arcade Game Typography
Toshi Omigari
William Morris
Anna Mason
To Forgive Design
Henry Petroski
To Engineer Is Human
Beauty, Neuroscience, and Architecture
Donald H. Ruggles
Junk Type
Bill Rose
John Vassos
Danielle Shapiro
The Bauhaus Ideal Then and Now
William Smock
Dress Codes
Richard Thompson Ford
Vintage Type and Graphics
Steven Heller, Louise Fili
Vintage Graphic Design
Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier
Dan Chavkin, Brian McGuire
Thinking With Type
Ellen Lupton
Fashion History From the 18th to the 20th Century
Akiko Fukai, Kyoto Costume Institute
