I'm a designer and the two books I always recommend to non-designers and newbies are: Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Ele

I'm a designer and the two books I always recommend to non-designers and newbies are: Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Elements-Graphic-Style-Manual/dp/1592532616/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1253563989&sr=8-1-spell http://www.amazon.com/Design-Elements-Graphic-Style-Manual/d...) and The other is the complementary case studies book "Design Evolution" (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Evolution-Handbook-Principles-Contemporary/dp/1592533876/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1253563989&sr=8-2-spell http://www.amazon.com/Design-Evolution-Handbook-Principles-C...) Also Graphically Speaking is useful if you want to know how a particular style is constructed (artistic, corporate, vintage etc.)and you need to be able to effectively communicate with other designers or clients. (http://www.amazon.com/Graphically-Speaking-Achieving-Designer-Client-Communication/dp/1581802919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253564233&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Graphically-Speaking-Achieving-Designe...)