A New Way of Looking: Alexa Hampton’s Book List
By Steve Kroeter January 24, 2012
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| Alexa Hampton |
Interior and product designer Alexa Hampton: Mark Hampton LLC (New York)
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. Brown describes the philosophy of its curriculum as “designed to give you the freedom to explore, the freedom to focus, the freedom to take risks, the freedom to fail, and the freedom to succeed.” It encourages its students to be “the architect of your own course of study,” with the exhortation that “your education at Brown will be the foundation from which you engage the world.”
The list of 70 books that Alexa Hampton sent along to Designers & Books shows her to be a reader interested in “exploring, focusing, and taking risks.” Among her selections are two in social theory by Michel Foucault (Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality); political history by Winston Churchill (The Second World War); a classic psychology text by Freud (Civilization and Its Discontents: “a huge influence on my academic life”); art criticism (Image/Music/Text by Rolande Barthes); and two 19th-century novels (Pride and Prejudice as well as Crime and Punishment—“I love the story and I feel for Raskolnikov”).
Books devoted to the history and theory of art and design are plentiful. Hampton includes Ways of Seeing (also on the lists of five other Designers & Books contributors: Mark Fox, Milton Glaser, Angus Hyland, Jennifer Morla, and Véronique Vienne) by John Berger, about which she says, “I read this book as a freshman and it introduced me to a new way of looking at images.” John Richardson’s three-volume biography of Picasso is on her list. There are survey and reference books of English, French, Italian, and American interior design—as well as books that focus on the work of specific designers (including David Adler, John Soane, Jean-Michel Frank, and Billy Baldwin). In addition, she notes as the “essential book on design” The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman Jr. (which is also on the lists of Dominique Browning, David Easton, and William Georgis).
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| Left to right: Alexa Hampton: The Language of Interior Design by Alexa Hampton, 2010 (Clarkson Potter); Mark Hampton: An American Decorator by Duane Hampton, 2010 (Rizzoli); Legendary Decorators of the Twentieth Century by Mark Hampton, 1992 (Doubleday); and Mark Hampton on Decorating by Mark Hampton, 1989 (Random House). |
Hampton herself comes from a family that not only values books but also writes them. In her first book, Alexa Hampton: The Language of Interior Design (2010, Clarkson Potter), she extends a writing tradition that includes two books by her father (Mark Hampton on Decorating and Legendary Decorators of the Twentieth Century) and one by her mother, Duane Hampton (Mark Hampton: An American Decorator). Whether through the pages of the book she has written or in the comments she’s made about the books on her list—there is always a distinctive yet subtle indication of the literary and artful foundation from which she engages the world.
Announcements
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design edited by Ian Lynam
Total Armageddon: A Slanted Reader on Design
Edited by Ian Lynam
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Published: March 2019
Total Armageddon is about design. And culture. And complexity, notably how we, as a global civilization, deal with science fiction, taste, social media, the cities we live in, aesthetics, PowerPoint, burkas, Big Tech, full-contact sports, and other thorny topics. The book celebrates 15 years of independent publishing and brings together a who’s who of authors and essays from 32 issues of Slanted Magazine.
A Field Guide to Color by Lisa Solomon
A Field Guide to Color: A Watercolor Workbook
By Lisa Solomon
Publisher: Roost Books
Published: August 2019
In this creative workbook you’ll discover fresh ways to connect with color in your art and life. Using watercolors, gouache, or any other water-based medium, explore color theory while playing with paint through a balanced blend of color experiments and loose color meditations. This inspiring workbook will change the way you relate to color
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer
Five Oceans in a Teaspoon
Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019
“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger
Ballpark: Baseball in the American City
By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019
An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.
Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski
Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City
By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019
Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.
Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller
Teaching Graphic Design History
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019
An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.
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