Design for a Software Guy?
Gibbon: 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/d...)andThe other is the complementary case studies book "Design Evolution" (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-Designe...)