Best Creative Books for Women
The best books for creative women is a topic that warrants extensive research. With most of these creative industry texts written by men, female creatives often feel left out or alienated from career advice that doesn’t address what they want to know about their field. We hope you discover a new book to inspire your creativity!
Reading about what it takes for a man to succeed in the creative industry might be detrimental to your work because their goals may not align with yours. We’ve made it our mission to cover all of that and more with the best books for creative women, taking psychological research on creativity and advice from authors who have a background in women’s empowerment.
Check out the Ladies Who Design Book List, updated regularly to include diverse and inclusive writers.
Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-Racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers
Authors: Ellen Lupton (Thinking with Type), Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh A. Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, and Valentina Vergara.
Extra Bold offers a platform for lesser heard voices in the design world to share their insights. Along with information on hiring processes, power structures, mentoring, and workplace discrimination Extra Bold seeks to make the designing industry more accessible while highlighting an array of different styles from around the globe. They are written collaboratively by a diverse team of authors, with original, handcrafted illustrations by Jennifer Tobias that bring warmth, happiness, humor, and narrative depth to the book.
Purchase Extra Bold!
Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity
Author: Felicia Day
In Embrace Your Weird, New York Times bestselling author, producer, actress, TV writer, and award-winning web series creator Felicia Day takes readers on a journey to help them unlock their power of self-expression. Whether someone enjoys baking like Day herself does or has yet to uncover what they’re passionate about doing creatively, this book will give you the motivation needed so that you, too, can get creative.
Purchase Embrace Your Weird!
The Big Leap: A Guide to Freelancing for Creatives
Author: Martina Flor
Becoming your boss can be a liberating, fulfilling experience. Martina Flor has created the perfect resource for freelancing for those looking to leap into entrepreneurship and self-employment. The Big Leap covers all aspects of starting your own business, from practical skills like identifying potential clients and pricing projects to important big-picture topics like managing time and finances, diversifying income streams, and taking care of your most important tool — you! Creatives across disciplines will benefit from this thorough and easy-to-follow career guide, including designers, illustrators, photographers, programmers, writers, and editors.
Purchase The Big Leap!
Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History
Editor: Briar Levit
Baseline Shift centers on diverse women across backgrounds whose work has shaped, shifted, and formed graphic design as we know it today. From an interdisciplinary book designer and calligrapher starting in Harlem’s Renaissance to the invisible drafters of Monotype’s drawing office, the women represented here include auteurs, advocates for social justice, and creators ahead of their time. The fifteen essays in this illustrated collection come from contributors with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. Baseline Shift is essential reading for students and practitioners of graphic design and anyone with an interest in women’s history.
Purchase Baseline Shift!
Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic
Author: Lisa Congdon
Find Your Artistic Voice is a guide that helps artists and creatives identify their visual identities. Lisa Congdon teaches readers how to let go of restrictive mindsets for more creative freedom. You also learn to develop your unique artistic style from interviews with established artists, illustrators, and creatives. This book offers everyday strategies, inspirational anecdotes, and practical advice to push through fear and insecurity in your artistic practice. This book is a perfect gift for aspiring artists and creatives, serious hobbyists, art students, makers, teachers, budding creative professionals, and fans of Lisa Congdon.
Purchase Find Your Artistic Voice!
These are just a few books for creative women. Please leave them in the comments below or send us an email if you have additional recommendations. You can also check out the Ladies Who Design Book List, updated regularly to include diverse and inclusive writers.
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