Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Interviews
By Stephanie Salomon January 7, 2014

Designers and Books spent an afternoon with architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown at the suburban Philadelphia home she shares with her husband, architect Robert Venturi, talking with her about what went into making the book Learning from Las Vegas—and the studio class that prompted ither thoughts about the book’s significance today, new writing, and what she’s working on next. More...

Daily Features
By Branden Klayko, Superscript December 5, 2013

From minimal presentation to falling off the shelves, bookstores around the world display books in very different ways. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 13, 2012

Architect Peter Pennoyer: Peter Pennoyer Architects (New York)
Profile    Book List
“My father, who was on the New York City Art Commission and the Building Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” architect and architectural historian Peter Pennoyer tells Designers & Books, “would bring home pamphlets, plans, and even books from hearings and meetings at which the few building projects proposed in the dim days of the late 1960s and early 1970s were under review. I remember in particular the 1971 master plan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo. More...

Daily Features
September 5, 2013

New York Times Op-Ed columnist Maureen Dowd, in her essay “The Mythic Power of the Little Black Dress,” excerpted here from Little Black Dress by André Leon Talley (2013, Rizzoli), muses on a wardrobe staple. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter June 17, 2013

Product/industrial and lighting designer Inga Sempé: Inga Sempé (Paris)
Profile     Book List
French product designer Inga Sempé—known for her pleated paper and pendant lamps, ruched sofas, and other distinctive twists on everyday objects—credits her parents in ways both large and small when it comes to what she reads and how she looks at books. “Almost 95 percent of the books I have read were given to me by my mother,” she admits in the introduction to her list for Designers & Books. More...

Daily Features
By Witold Rybczynski July 13, 2023

What’s on our summer reading list? As design book devotees, we’re turning to The Story of Architecture by Witold Rybczynski.

Recently, Designers & Books had a chance to talk with the author about how he conceived his expansive and engaging history of buildings from the Stone Age to the present day—his 22nd book— and what readers can take away from it. More...

Daily Features
By Anne Quito, Superscript December 13, 2013

Swiss branding designers discuss the challenges of defining an entire country through graphic design. More...

Daily Features
By Steve Kroeter April 25, 2017

We sat down with Mark Fox and Angie Wang—designers and educators specializing in trademarks and typography who work as partners in Design is Play—to talk about their recently published book, Symbols: A Handbook for Seeing (The Monacelli Press, 2016). In the conversation, Mark and Angie gave their thoughts on sharpening sensory awareness by paying attention to the visual signs in the world around us, symbols across various cultures, and a few of their favorite books on the subject. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 18, 2011

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi: Isaac Mizrahi New York (New York)
book list
Isaac Mizrahi sent us a list of books every bit as colorful, compelling, and eclectically inspired as the clothes he designs and the life he lives. While perhaps best known for the clothes and accessories in his many fashion collections, his activities and range of interests include acting in films and on television programs; designing costumes for Broadway shows, the Metropolitan Opera, and ballets; writing—from comic books to style guides; hosting “Watch Isaac,” his daily web series; and appearing regularly on “Isaac Mizrahi Live!” on the QVC Network.

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Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 17, 2011

Car designer Chris Bangle: Chris Bangle Associates (Turin)
book list
As one of the world’s most high-profile and influential car designers of the last two decades (BMW, Mini Cooper, Rolls Royce)—who now runs his own design and design management studio—Chris Bangle is a master of the bold statement. He sent us his book list in “top ten” greatest-hits format. More...