Art & Design Resources: Design
Your guide to resources that can make researching in the visual arts easier. (Originally written by Heather Lowe of the Visual Resource Center.)
Recommended Library Databases
- Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window(CSUSB users only.) Good starting point to find encyclopedia-style entries on artists, regions, styles, and periods.
- Art Index This link opens in a new window(CSUSB users only.) Covers articles from a wide variety of art-related publications.
- Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI) This link opens in a new window(CSUSB users only.) Useful for keyword searching across a broad selection of humanities journal literature.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window(CSUSB users only.) Full text archive that includes many scholarly art-related journals.
Web Resources
- Design Museum's Design LibraryFind examples of works by famous designers and firms as well as interviews and essays.
- The People's Graphic Design ArchiveCrowd-sourced virtual archive of inclusive graphic design history. Includes everything from finished projects to process, photos, correspondence, oral histories, anecdotes, articles, essays, and other supporting material.
- VADS: Visual Art Data ServiceGreat source for historical images of illustration, design, and fashion, predominantly within the U.K.
- Victoria and Albert MuseumThe Victoria and Albert Museum collections include fashion, textiles, and jewelry, as well as decorative objects from Europe 1600-1815.
- Illustrated Letters from the Smithsonian CollectionExhibition of illustrations from the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.
Books
Library books at CSUSB are cataloged with Library of Congress Subject Headings. To explore items catalogued under the subject of design, you may want to use the following subjects in your searches: graphic arts, graphic design (typography), and commercial art.
Though the online catalog is a great tool, sometimes it's helpful to go and browse the resources in the library. If you choose to do this, you might want to start in the following call number ranges: NC845-915 (graphic arts materials), NC950-996 (illustration), NC997-1003 (Commercial and advertising art), NC1800-1896 (various types of print materials), Z242.9-264.5 (practical guides to printing, includes typography).
Meggs' History of Graphic Design, 6th edition by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9781118772058Publication Date: 2016
Graphic Design Discourse: evolving theories, ideologies, and processes of visual communication by Call Number: EbookISBN: 9781616896720Publication Date: 2017
Bookmark worthy blogs
- Design ObserverYes, it’s a blog, but most of the entries you’ll find here will have more than just a cursory glance at a topic. Respected designers who have usually published elsewhere give their take on the intellectual side of design.
- Logo Design LoveWhile a little more informal, this blog does take a look a contemporary logos and how they live in the world.
Selected Journals & Magazines
- Communication ArtsPfau Library online access starts with 2021.
- Print (Magazine)Pfau Library's online access. Production ceased 2017.
- Design IssuesPfau Library's online subscription. 12 month delay in full text access.
Professional Organizations
Tools & Training
- PixlrFree image editing software akin to Photoshop
- InkscapeFree illustrating and design software similar to Illustrator
- PencilFree open-source illustration software
- AvidemuxFree simple video-editing software
- Lynda.comSubscription-based software tutorials (includes many tutorials on the Adobe suites software).
- Tutsplus.comNetwork of design tutorials, most of these are free but access to practice files requires a subscription. You can go straight to program-based tutorials at their sites like vector.tutsplus or psd.tutsplus.