Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
By Deborah Berke December 26, 2013

A great exhortation to all of us to be questioning observers.

By Deborah Berke October 23, 2013

This book includes some of Susan Sontag’s best-known essays. My favorite, “Against Interpretation,” has this to say: “Our task is not to find the maximum amount of content in a work of art, much less to squeeze more content out of the work than is already there. Our task is to cut back content so that we can see the thing at all.”

By Jeffrey Beers December 4, 2013

A portrait of a city discovering itself through design.

By Jeffrey Beers November 22, 2013

I loved this book for its view of hope and confidence concerning our future. The series of vignettes are inspiring and spiritual.

By Jeffrey Beers August 26, 2013

I was lucky to work with Oscar Niemeyer at the beginning of my career. He was a remarkable man and an inspiration to me, opening my eyes to the world of color and form.

Archives & Libraries
By Erinn Batykefer June 14, 2012

Library as Incubator Project, an organization whose mission is to encourage artists and designers of all types to work with libraries in ways that inspire increased creativity, explores graphic designer Paul Rand’s (1914–96) personal library, now held by Yale University, where Rand taught design for 35 years. More...

You Are What You Read
By Barbara Barry June 20, 2017

In our second installment of You Are What You Read, Los Angeles-based interior and product designer Barbara Barry talks about beauty, American design, and her favorite book. In this series, Designers & Books asks prominent designers to describe — in words and images — a book they have found to be particularly inspiring. Barbara selected A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century by Witold Rybczynski. More...

The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition
By Marian Bantjes November 12, 2013

The book that graphic designer and typographer Marian Bantjes finds “abominably bad,” why she can't choose a favorite book character, and many more of her answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition. More...

By Chris Bangle August 18, 2014

You will never find a better description of what car design is all about than in this book. Just take out the word “nude” and insert the word “car” and it all becomes crystal clear. My copy is incredibly highlighted and written over, full of “Ah-ha!” comments and annotations.

By Chris Bangle August 27, 2013

This is super-special to me; I recently purchased old copies of this 1931 book, rewrote all of my own notes in the margins, and gave one of them to a client . . . it means so much!