Here are just some of the books i always have in hand. I highly recommend them, I've bought hundreds of books but these are the ones that I always have close by.
How To Design Cars Like a Pro
This book I've probably have read over a hundred times. It has a great chapter on the daily life of a Industrial Designer, and I really have to say, Ive had countless nights going through this book and just imagining myself living that life.The essays on what is good design by greats like J Mays and Henrik Fisker are insightful and a great read. This is by far the best motivation for those sleepless nights
Learning Design with Alias StudioTools: A Hands-on Guide to Modeling and Visualization in 3D (Official Alias Training Guide)
This book has honestly taught me way more than any class I ever took at the Academy of Art. This book and all the tutorials you can find online is more than enough to get started using Alias and making your design in 3d space. I always go back to this book when i forget some basics.
If your barely starting using Alias I highly suggest this book. I consider myself an advanced modeler but I always go back to this book. If you go section by section and do every single exercise, by the end you wont feel over whelmed by the lack of user friendliness, and find that, after hours of use, is actually the best modeling software
H-Point: The Fundamentals of Car Design & Packaging
. This book is so good, that when the author showed up at the Academy, the books weren't on sale yet, but my Dean had a copy. I went up and after begging him and promising i was only gonna take it to make copies for an hour, went downstairs and copied about half the book before my credits ran out. Shortly after I ordered the full book, and if your considering a career in Transportation Design, this book will definitely be in you supply list at any school you go to, and if its not, I highly suggest you get it anyways to get that unfair advantage. Its a great read and if you ever are actually doing a full design project, a great tool in every step of the process. This one i have to say is a no brainer, buy it.
Design Sketching
. This book is like a summary of any design sketching class you'll take. It is a great reference book, to figure out how to render certain materials. It teaches you perspective, shading, mirroring, shadows, rendering. Alot of classmates found this book to be close to the bible, it was always on hand and you would always see it propped up in someones desk with its pages open. Its a really good book, for me another no brainer.
Sketching 5th print: Drawing Techniques for Product Designers
. This book is definitely a must, and I mean a must for product designers, you need to have this book. If you haven't even heard of this book, that means you've never flipped through its pages, so get ready to find the holy grail of product design books. I know it seems like I say it with every book, but please, do yourself a favor, and find this book. Read the reviews, everybody loves this book, its pricier than design sketching but its about three times thicker, and 99 percent of the sketches and renderings here are top quality. Transportation Design, I still highly suggest you get it, your going to be designing millions of things that are not shiny cars, this is the king of reference books. Product Design, If you don't already have this book, you are seriously missing out.
Cosmic Motors: Spaceships, Cars and Pilots of Another Galaxy (English and German Edition)
This book is a really great book, its not in the same category of must haves, like the books before, but it's still a really great book. I especially like it because you see a lot of the design sketches and also the great detailed Alias Models, Its a good way to kind of, decipher the picture and see how detailed and complex Alias models can get. If you need some inspiration or just love admiring great futuristic works of art and design, get this book.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
. This book is about time management. It's great for people who are always stressed about huge projects. It shows you how to manage your life, so that all the things that you need to get done are contained in their respective places, set up so that you know exactly what needs to get done. Honestly if you follow the directions, you'll be living a much more responsible life and knowing exactly what you need to do, without stressing if your forgetting something makes your life so much easier to handle.
