As much as I embrace technology, I still love the tactile nature of books and continue to expand my home library. A few readers have asked why they should invest in books when the internet has an endless stream of inspiration. I use the internet for the majority of my visual research for projects but it’s healthy to break up your routine. Flipping through books and magazines with a pen and paper close by for thumbnail sketches often shifts my mindset and helps me come up with fresh, unique ideas.

I find the design titles by Rockport Books to be especially helpful. I own a few of their books but my personal favorite is Letterhead and Logo Design 11. Unlike the internet where search results can be questionable, when I’m working on a design projects I reach for this book more than any other I own because the featured work is all top-notch.

Featuring more than 400 letterhead and logo designs, I feel like I discover something new each time I flip through it (trust me, it was hard to limit my scans to a handful of pages). The book was compiled by Design Army and they spent over two weeks evaluating over 5,000 entries from all over the globe. Of the results, Design Army says, “Along the way, we confirmed what we already knew: It’s the little thoughts that have the biggest impact. They inspire us to push farther. They work harder. They last longer.”

There’s not so much work jammed into Letterhead and Logo Design 11 that you get overwhelmed; it’s just filtered down the the best of the best. And as designers, isn’t that what we want?