Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Daily Features
October 24, 2023

Renowned graphic designer and Designers & Books contributor Stefan Sagmeister brings us exactly the book we need now.

Titled Now is Better, this visual exploration of human progress over the past several centuries takes a long view that gives us cause for hope in the face of much of the current news. More...

Book List of the Week
November 17, 2014

Ten notable women working as architects have sent us lists of books that have had an influence on what they do and think and how they create. The architects are: Deborah Berke, Denise Scott Brown, Nathalie de Vries, Jeanne Gang, Margaret McCurry, Victoria Meyers, Farshid Moussavi, Galia Solomonoff, Ada Tolla, and Billie Tsien. More...

Book List of the Week
October 13, 2014

We highlight five designers from Finland and Scandinavia this week. These are: architect Craig Dykers of the Norwegian-U.S. firm Snøhetta, Finnish architect Mikko Heikkinen (Heikkinen + Komonen), architect Jens Holm (HAO, Demanrk/U.S.), Juhani Pallasmaa (former dean of the School of Architecture at Helsinki University of Technology), and Danish product designer Jens Martin Skibsted (KiBiSi/Biomega). More...

Book List of the Week
December 8, 2014

Five members of the over 40-year-old design consultancy Pentagram, whose work includes branding, publications, exhibitions, and much more, have shared with us the books that have been meaningful to them. The designers are Michael Bierut (New York), Angus Hyland (London), Abbott Miller (New York), Harry Pearce (London), and Paula Scher (New York). More...

Book List of the Week
August 11, 2014

From sculptor and designer Wendell Castle’s stack-laminated wood tables to the ceramics that are household names created by the late Eva Zeisel, the evidence of the designer’s signature style in creating is showcased in the work of five product/industrial designers and builders. Along with Wendell Castle and Eva Zeisel, here are British product designer Jasper Morrison (Basel chair, Glo-ball lamp), custom bicycle builder Richard Sachs, and Jeffrey Bernett (Flight Recliner, Tulip armchair) and the books that inspire them. More...

Book List of the Week
October 27, 2014

This year’s DesignThinkers conference, Canada’s largest conference for visual communicators, hosted by the Canadian Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) conference on November 6 and 7, 2014, features five graphic designers who have sent us book lists: Ellen Lupton, Abbott Miller, Debbie Millman, Paula Scher, and Erik Spiekermann. More...

Book List of the Week
August 31, 2016

Back to school in September? Here are four “dean’s lists” of books selected by Deborah Berke, Yale School of Architecture’s dean; Mohsen Mostafavi, who headed Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design through Spring 2019; Kent Kleinman, former dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (now provost of the Rhode Island  School of Design); and Alan Balfour, former dean of the College of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Updated September 4, 2019. More...

Book List of the Week
September 8, 2014

Happy Year of the Pig! Revisit these four designers from China and Hong—each from a different area of design. They include product and graphic designer Freeman Lau, interior designer Ed Ng, fashion designer Guo Pei, and architect Rocco Yim. Also see our list of 15 Books on China and Design. More...

Book List of the Week
November 10, 2014

Among the many prominent architects and designers who have collaborated on products with the American design firm Knoll are four who have sent us the books that have had an impact on their lives and careers. This week we spotlight the book lists of architects David Adjaye and Maya Lin, architect and industrial designer Emanuela Frattini Magnusson, and graphic design studio 2x4 and one of its founders, Michael Rock. More...

Book List of the Week
December 15, 2014

This week we’re highlighting the books that inspire three architects working in California and the Pacific Northwest: Neil Denari (Los Angeles), Craig Hodgetts (Los Angeles), and Tom Kundig (Seattle). More...