Designers & Books Blog

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856 blog entries

The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition

Alexandra Lange Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

By Alexandra Lange November 25, 2013

Critic and author Alexandra Lange is a fan of Jane Austen: “In my dreams I wake up one day and write the Pride and Prejudice of the contemporary design world,” she says in one of her answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition. More...

Daily Features

AIGA/NY and Designers & Books Present an In-Studio and Online Book Signing with Stefan Sagmeister

January 16, 2014

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister will sign personalized copies of the latest edition of his book Things I have learned in my life so far at his New York studio on February 6. Can’t be there? You can still get a personally inscribed copy! More...

Daily Features

AGI Open 2013, Report from London

By Zara Arshad October 17, 2013

This year’s AGI Open—easily graphic design’s most high-profile annual international conference—took place in London at the end of September. Organized by Tony Brook (Spin, Unit Editions), Angus Hyland (Pentagram, London), and Adrian Shaughnessy (Unit Editions), and the AGI UK board, sessions covered education, gender, clients with ideas, and the pluses and pitfalls of collaboration. More...

Architecture

Agents of Change: Galia Solomonoff’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter February 14, 2012

Architect Galia Solomonoff: Solomonoff Architecture Studio (SAS) (New York)
Profile Book List
The architect Galia Solomonoff, a native of Argentina, traces her attachment to books to a memorable incident: “In 1975, my parents burned a significant and dear part of our library as Isabel Perón signed a number of decrees empowering the military to ‘annihilate’ the Argentine left. It was a Sunday morning in winter. We were at our suburban house on the Paraná River and I was seven. I passed books to my father in silence; we did a barbecue to cover up the burning of the books.” More...

Book List of the Week

Advice for Would-be Landscape Designers—“Major in Literature, of Any Kind”: Margie Ruddick’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter January 3, 2013

Landscape designer Margie Ruddick: Margie Ruddick Landscape (Philadelphia)
Profile Book List
“Novels and poetry have more power than textbooks to convey landscape ideas,” asserts landscape designer Margie Ruddick, whose work includes New York’s Queens Plaza; which has won awards for promoting a new idea of nature in the city, and the Living Water Park in Chengdu, the first ecological park in China, which cleans polluted river water biologically. More...

The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition

Adrian Shaughnessy Answers The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition

By Adrian Shaughnessy November 14, 2013

As November 14 is the actual 100th anniversary date of the first publication of Swann’s Way—the almost 500-page first book in Proust’s lengthy and leisurely journey into his thoughts—we thought it fitting to post Adrian Shaughnessy’s answers today, the longest and most detailed we’ve received, and as Adrian says about a book in one of his answers, “fatally compelling.” More...

Daily Features

A Year in Design Books: Holiday Gift List 2022

November 21, 2022

For this holiday gift-giving season, here is just a sampling of the books published in 2022 written and illustrated by our contributing architects, designers, and design critics. From the delicate drawings of Maira Kalman to the luminous wood constructions of architect Shigeru Ban, we hope they will provide inspiration for you — and ideas for your gift list. More...

Architecture

A Tool for Understanding Our Relationship with the World Around Us: Books Every Product Designer Should Read—Zoë Ryan

By Steve Kroeter August 23, 2011

Architecture and design curator Zoë Ryan: Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago)
book list
When Zoë Ryan—as of this July, the John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design and Chair of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago—gave us her list of books for product designers, she emphasized that she found it hard to be limited by disciplines or categories and that her view of design was an expansive one. More...

Book List of the Week

A New Way of Looking: Alexa Hampton’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter January 24, 2012

Interior and product designer Alexa Hampton: Mark Hampton LLC (New York)
Profile Book List
As head of the interiors firm founded by her legendary father, Mark Hampton, Alexa Hampton carries the lessons of her Brown University education (class of 1993) into her life as a highly sought-after interior designer and a lifelong student and reader. More...

Interviews

A New Look for Harvard University Press: Q&A with Sagi Haviv and Tim Jones

By Steve Kroeter March 21, 2013

Harvard University Press is 100 years old this year. The venerable publisher, which has issued renowned scholarly series such as the Loeb Classical Library and the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures as well as numerous Pulitzer Prize-winning titles, is marking the anniversary by introducing a new visual identity—one that represents a significant departure from the traditional graphic imagery associated with the Press’s past. For some insights into how this all came about, Designers & Books talked with the designer of the new logo, Sagi Haviv, partner at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and Harvard University Press’s Director of Design and Production, Tim Jones. More...

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

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Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

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Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.