![\"Abstract](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/abstract-logo-vol-3-monogram-logo-vol-2-counter-print-768x1024.jpeg\"){kind=logo}
Monogram Logo<\/em> contains an enormous collection of monograms, marks and logos. I love seeing how much can be achieved with very little: two letters, a shape, a rhythm or a proportion. Some examples are historic, others contemporary, and that contrast is what makes the book so interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I find these books far more stimulating than another moodboard filled with the same images circulating everywhere. They place logo design within a much longer history and reveal constructions I might never have encountered otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the same series, I also own Abstract Logo<\/em> from Counter-Print. It takes a different approach, focusing on abstract marks and forms that do not literally describe what a company does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is exactly the kind of reference I like having nearby. It reminds me that an identity does not need to explain everything. A symbol can work through shape, balance and repetition, or simply because people gradually learn to associate it with a brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Viscose is far more closely connected to fashion, which is one reason I love it so much. It is a journal of fashion criticism combining essays, research, photography and art direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you love fashion but are tired of seeing it reduced to this season\u2019s trends, you will probably understand the appeal. It looks at clothing, of course, but also style, imagery, culture and everything surrounding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I love its art direction, but more importantly there is real substance behind the images. It makes me want to develop the fashion side of this blog in a more personal way, through clothes I actually wear, references I genuinely return to and opinions of my own, rather than a stream of new releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Standart is about coffee, so it might initially look slightly out of place among graphic design books. It is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The magazine brings together long-form writing, photography, portraits and stories about caf\u00e9s and cities within a beautifully considered editorial identity. The issue in my photographs is number 43. I particularly love how dramatically the pace can change from one page to the next without the magazine ever losing its character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You know me by now: caf\u00e9s, restaurants, hotels and hospitality are becoming increasingly important in my work. A publication that mixes a practical subject with culture, photography and design quickly finds its way into my references.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upstart! Visual Identities for Start-ups and New Businesses<\/em> is much more directly connected to my work as a web designer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I appreciate is that the book does not present logos in isolation. It shows how an identity continues through print, digital design, packaging and physical spaces. That is where things become genuinely interesting to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A logo can look beautiful on its own and become almost unusable the moment you need to build a website, business card, poster or even place a sentence beside it. I am drawn to projects where an entire visual system has clearly been considered from the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then there is Marc by Sofia<\/em>, perhaps the clearest proof that my favourite books are not all design books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sofia Coppola tells the story of Marc Jacobs through their friendship, his archives, personal photographs and an entire career in fashion. It ticks almost every box for me: fashion, imagery, archives, Marc Jacobs and Sofia Coppola. Difficult to improve on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It inspires me in a completely different way from Monogram Logo. Here, I am drawn to the atmosphere, photographs, clothes, memories and the way a personality is brought to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think books like this are essential in a creative library. If you work in design but only ever look at design books, your references quickly become circular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also spot in the photographs The History of Graphic Design<\/em>, alongside books on Bauhaus, industrial design, graffiti, Abstract Logo<\/em> and several art books I have kept for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am not going to pretend I study my entire library every week with a notebook in hand. Some of these books have been with me for years. Others matter because of one chapter, period or artist, or simply because they push my references a little further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is what I like most. My shelves do not resemble the compulsory reading list from a graphic design course. They look much more like me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, none of these books gives me quite the same thing. Monogram Logo<\/em> and Abstract Logo<\/em> speak more directly to my identity work. Viscose brings me back to fashion and editorial design, Standart to places, imagery and hospitality, and Upstart! to the way an identity moves across different formats. Marc by Sofia reminds me how one photograph, archive or personality can be enough to create an entire world.<\/p>\n\n\nAbstract Logo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Monogram](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/monogram-logo-vol-2-viscose-magazine-design-mode-768x1024.png\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nViscose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Standart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/standart-magazine-43-cafe-design-editorial-tamara-chaudesaigues-768x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"Double-page](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/standart-magazine-londres-past-present-design-editorial-768x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nUpstart!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Cover](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/upstart-visual-identities-startups-livre-design-784x1024.jpeg\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/upstart-livre-direction-artistique-identite-visuelle-822x1024.jpeg\")
Marc by Sofia<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/marc-by-sofia-coppola-marc-jacobs-livre-mode-768x1024.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe rest of my design library<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What these books genuinely bring to my work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/livres-design-graphique-bauhaus-abstract-monogram-logo-tamara-chaudesaigues-768x1024.jpeg\"){kind=logo}
<\/figure>![\"Tamara](\"https:\/\/tamarachaudesaigues.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bibliotheque-design-mode-graphisme-tamara-chaudesaigues-768x1024.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n