Each year the faculty selects a rigorous reading list for first and second year MFA Design students. View the rest of this post for this year's extensive list according to instructor and course.

Ken Carbone: Thesis Consultation
- The World Without Us by Alan Weisman;
- Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart;
- An Incomplete Education: 3,684 Things You Should Have Learned but Probably - Didn't by Judy Jones and William Wilson.

Veronique Vienne: Introduction to Design Criticism
- Ways of seeing by John Berger;
- Techniques of the Observer by Jonathan Grary;
- Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturini
- The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design & Designers by Alan and Isabella Livingstrong;
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White
- Something to be desired by Veronique Vienne;
- In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki;
- The Hand by Frank Wilson.

Allan Chochinov: Design in 3-Dimensions
- In the bubble by John Thackara
- Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling
- By Design by Ralph Caplan
- Design is the Problem by Nathan Shedroff
- Half The Sky: Turning oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl D. Kristof WuDunn
- Design Revolution by Emily Pilloton

Warren Lehrer: Designing and Writing the Experimental Book
- Non-Adhesive Bindings, by Keith Smith Books, Rochester NY
- How to make Books, by Esther K. Smith, Potter Craft
- Bookbinding for Book Artists, by Keith Smith Books, Rochester NY
- Creative Bookbinding, by Pauline Johnson, Washington Books
- Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg, Shambala
- Burning Down the House, by Charles Baxter, Graywolf Press
- Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, Pantheon
- The Elements of Grammar, by Margaret Shertzer, MacMillan
- Poetry as Insurgent Art, by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, New Directions
- Structure of the Visual Book, by Keith Smith Books, Rochester NY
- Text in Book Format, Keith Smith Books, Rochester NY
- A Century of Artists' Books, Johanna Drucker, Granary Books
- The Visible Word, Johanna Drucker, Chicago University Press
- Letter and Image, Massin, Van Nostrand
- The Looking Closer books, Steven Heller, Allworth
- JAB (Journal of Artists' Books) Brad Freeman, Chicago
- A Book of the Book: Some Works & Projections about the Book & Writing Steven Clay, Jerome Rothenberg, Granary Books
- The Book, Spiritual Instrument, Jerome Rothenberg, David M. Guss, Granary