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 October 6, 2014

Architect Daniel Libeskind, one of our original book list contributors, was the keynote speaker Thursday, October 9, at the first-ever Dwell on Design New York, a “festival of modern design” organized by Dwell magazine October 9–11. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter December 22, 2014

We received a list of a dozen books that have inspired David Rockwell—the acclaimed architect of restaurants such as New York’s famed Nobu Fifty Seven and hotels like the W, and the set designer of Oscar ceremonies and award-winning Broadway productions including Hairspray and the currently running Kinky Boots. More...

Book List of the Week
By Stephanie Salomon August 25, 2014

We salute graphic designer Deborah Sussman (1931–2014), who passed away last week, with a look at the books that inspired the colorful designer of the colorful and distinctive environmental graphics that became synonymous with Los Angeles and the California New Wave movement. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter January 27, 2014

Recently named Global Head Design for Bloomberg LP, the Milan-born architect and industrial designer Emanuela Frattini Magnusson has been creating award-winning products for over 25 years: as founder of her own firm, EFM Design; for Tibor Kalman; and for many leading international manufacturers. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 7, 2014

“My book list is like album tracks that take me back to a moment in time,” says Fiona Raby, a partner (with Anthony Dunne) in the industrial design research studio Dunne & Raby. The partners’ work encompasses “speculative everything,” to use the title of Dunne and Raby’s latest book, which sees design as a tool for speculating on how things might be and to imagine possible futures. More...

Book List of the Week
May 5, 2014

This week we highlight five book lists chosen by British graphic designers and critics (some are authors of their own major books on graphic design), from Penguin book cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith to Eye magazine founding editor and visual culture critic Rick Poynor. Our complete list of graphic designers includes 46 contributors. More...

Book List of the Week
April 14, 2014

Our contributing designers find inspiration and recall formative moments in reading children’s books. Here are five book lists from our archive that have included books written for children, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Harry Potter. More...

Book List of the Week
March 31, 2014

From Our Archive: April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. In honor, we take a look at five designers’ book lists from our archive that have included books of poetry—by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Mark Strand—as design inspiration. More...

Book List of the Week
May 12, 2014

Designers from the Netherlands and the books that have influenced them are the subject of today’s Book List of the Week. The contributing designers are Droog founder Gijs Bakker, product designer Aldo Bakker, graphic designer Wim Crouwel, architect Mels Crouwel, and architect and founder of MVRDV Nathalie de Vries. 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...