Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Themed Book Lists
July 2, 2014

Most popularly known for his Geodesic Dome, visionary, inventor, environmentalist, and prolific author R. Buckminster—“Bucky”— Fuller (1895–1983) was born in July. Here are 10 books by or featuring Fuller that have been chosen by our contributing designers, publishers, and booksellers. More...

Book List of the Week
June 30, 2014

Traveling to hotels and restaurants are among summer’s (or any season’s) pleasures. Here are five major designers of notable hotel and restaurant spaces worldwide who list the books that have been influential for them. The designers include Jeffrey Beers, Ed Ng, Adam Tihany, and George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg. More...

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview
June 27, 2014

This June we paid tribute to the late, great graphic designer Massimo Vignelli, and looked at the books he found most inspiring. We also featured curated book lists on a variety of subjects, ranging from art to business, and their intersection with design. Next month brings an interview with Harold Koda, Curator in Charge at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who talks about the Met’s current exhibition on fashion designer Charles James and the book that accompanies the show. Our Online Book Fair continues to grow, and in July will expand to include rare and out-of-print book dealers. More...

Themed Book Lists
June 25, 2014

From modern houses on Cape Cod to landscaping for coastal areas to the design of surfboards, here are 15 design-related books on beaches and other bodies of water to usher in summer. More...

Book List of the Week
June 23, 2014

From our archive, we’ve brought together 10 prominent American women working in graphic design—as practitioners and authors—and the books that inspire them. Design classics and hidden gems, books on nonfiction subjects from art to food, and novels all make the lists. More...

Themed Book Lists
June 18, 2014

Designers mean business! Here are 25 books at the intersection of design, creativity, and business. Featured are books by Tim Brown, Steven Heller, George Lois, and John Maeda, among others, and a still relevant series of lectures on design management from 1975 that includes a contribution by architect Louis I. Kahn. More...

Book List of the Week
June 16, 2014

This week we spotlight the book lists of four winners of the annual Pritzker Architecture Prize, including the 2014 winner, Shigeru Ban. The architects whose book lists we feature, in addition to Ban, are Norman Foster (1999), Richard Meier (1984), and Robert Venturi (1991). More...

Themed Book Lists
June 11, 2014

Twenty books on furniture design covering topics from classical Chinese dressers to contemporary American office chairs. The list includes books on furniture designed by artists (Donald Judd) and architects (Eero Saarinen) as well systems produced by companies like Knoll and Herman Miller. More...

Book List of the Week
June 9, 2014

Inspired by the recently opened 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, today’s Book List of the Week features the books chosen by seven designers working in Italy. More...

Most Frequently Chosen Books
June 9, 2014

These 10 books are the most frequently chosen by our designers and commentators in non-design areas—including fiction, children’s books, art and cultural history, and reference books. More...