Book List of the Week

The Book List of the Week highlights the list of books provided by invited designers (including architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, interior designers, landscape architects, product designers, urban designers, and other design professionals) who have chosen books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.
189 blog entries
Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter June 4, 2013

Architecture critic Julie Iovine: The Wall Street Journal (New York)
Profile     Book List
“I look to books for everything imaginable, and unimaginable. They shape my outlook, but also throw open spaces I could never have found on my own. The chance to consider an essential list is wonderfully engrossing, and also a bit of a nasty parlor trick. Must I commit?” is how Wall Street Journal architecture critic Julie Iovine begins her book list for Designers & Books. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 28, 2013

In honor of the remarkable career of architect Hugh Hardy (1932–March 17, 2017), a look back at our interview with Hardy and a list of the books that inspired him, which he describes as “a mixed bag of gifts and explanations: history, architecture, urban affairs, and theater.” We caught up with Hardy, known for his design of some of New York's most celebrated theaters—from Broadway houses to Radio City to Lincoln Center—on the occasion of the release of his book Theater of Architecture (2013, Princeton Architectural Press). More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 21, 2013

Architect, interior and product/industrial designer Matteo Thun: Matteo Thun & Partners (Milan)
Profile     Book List
Matteo Thun needed something that functions like “a phone book” * to show the varied work for which he has become known over the course of his career. That work includes co-founding (with Ettore Sottsass) Memphis—the industrial design collective that defined Italian design in the 1970s and 1980s—and also the hotels, private residences, housewares, and lighting designed by his own firm, Matteo Thun & Partners. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 14, 2013

Textile design firm executive Michael Maharam: Maharam (New York)
Profile     Book List
As CEO of his family’s over 110-year-old textile firm, Michael Maharam has introduced the work of modern and contemporary graphic, fashion, and industrial designers to the company’s commercial fabric lines. Hella Jongerius, Maira Kalman, Abbott Miller, and Paul Smith, among many others, have all designed for Maharam, which has become known for the progressive design and engineering of its textiles for architects and interior designers. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 30, 2013

Jewelry and watch design editor Marion Fasel: InStyle (New York)
Profile     Book List
“To be a jewelry designer is a calling,” says Marion Fasel, InStyle’s jewelry editor since 1996, the year she launched the magazine’s award-winning coverage of the field. “You have to actively seek an education,” Fasel continues, “and books are one of the best resources.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 23, 2013

Architect Craig Dykers: Snøhetta (New York and Oslo)
Profile     Book List
“What gets me up in the morning,” says architect Craig Dykers in the introduction to the list of 21 books he sent us, is “knowing . . . that the places where we live are not bound by catalogues of definitions—they are so much more.” Dykers is the co-founder of the New York and Oslo-based firm Snøhetta, More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 16, 2013

Graphic designer and curator Prem Krishnamurthy: Project Projects and P! (New York)
Profile     Book List
A founding principal of the New York studio Project Projects, graphic designer Prem Krishnamurthy has made text and the written word a major focus of what he does. The studio’s artists’ books and exhibition catalogues, along with its work in a range of media—from websites to exhibition design, signage, and visual identities with clients including the Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and SALT Istanbul—have been widely acclaimed for their progressive approach to visual form. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 9, 2013

Product/industrial designer Jens Martin Skibsted: KiBiSi and Biomega (Copenhagen)
Profile     Book List
Jens Martin Skibsted designs ahead-of-the curve bicycles for Biomega, a company he founded, and electronics, household products, and furnishings for the top Scandinavian industrial design studio KiBiSi, another firm he founded—along with Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and Lars Larsen (Kilo Design). He has been named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader for his design thinking and runs Skibsted Ideation, a design and branding agency. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 2, 2013

Design curator Aric Chen: M+ (Hong Kong)
Profile     Book List
Design writer Zara Arshad: Design China (Beijing)
Profile
The recently appointed Curator of Design and Architecture at M+, the new museum for visual culture that will be a centerpiece of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, Aric Chen looks forward to developing a design and architecture permanent collection, including a library, for the museum. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 25, 2013

Product/industrial designer Carl Magnusson: CGM Design LLC (New York)
Profile     Book List
Design, believes Carl Magnusson, “must evoke an experience physically and culturally beyond its core function.” The eminent industrial designer—the winner of Contract magazine’s 2012 Legend Award for lifetime achievement—was talking about the “central message that stuck” from Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s Experiencing Architecture, on his book list for Designers and Books, but he was really talking about all of design. More...