Newest Posts and Book Lists
29 blog entries
Steve Kroeter
May 14, 2013 0 comments

Textile design firm executive Michael Maharam: Maharam (New York)
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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.

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Steve Kroeter
May 7, 2013 1 comment

Product/industrial designer Fritz Frenkler: f/p design  (Munich, Germany)
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Fritz Frenkler believes in “universal design”—design for everyone. In fact, he is a founding member of universal design e.V, a Hannover (Germany)-based design think tank and laboratory

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Steve Kroeter
Apr 30, 2013 0 comments

Jewelry and watch design editor Marion Fasel: InStyle (New York)
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“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.”

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Steve Kroeter
Apr 9, 2013 0 comments

Product/industrial designer Jens Martin Skibsted: KiBiSi and Biomega (Copenhagen)
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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.

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Steve Kroeter
Apr 2, 2013 0 comments

Design curator Aric Chen: M+ (Hong Kong)
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Design writer Zara Arshad: Design China (Beijing)
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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.

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Steve Kroeter
Mar 26, 2013 0 comments

Product/industrial designer Carl Magnusson: CGM Design LLC (New York)
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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.

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Steve Kroeter
Mar 12, 2013 0 comments

Product and graphic designer Freeman Lau: Kan & Lau Design Consultants (Hong Kong)
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Design writer Zara Arshad: Design China (Beijing)
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Internationally renowned product and graphic designer Freeman Lau (Lau Siu-Hong), with more than 300 awards to his name, has designed everything from posters and books to prize-winning water bottle packaging and a series of intertwining chairs and stools. He is also recognized for his work as an educator and curator, and in 2011 was a curator of the Beijing International Design Triennial. Lau’s book CMYK (2012) was just released in Hong Kong and Beijing this past December. Design China’s Zara Arshad, in an interview for Designers & Books, sat down with Freeman Lau recently to talk about reading, writing, designing, and publishing books in Hong Kong and mainland China.

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Steve Kroeter
Mar 5, 2013 0 comments

Product/Industrial designer David Weeks: David Weeks Studio (New York)
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Why do fiction and narrative hold such a great appeal for designers? One well-put answer comes from product designer David Weeks. “Whether it's a minor character in The World According to Garp who has halitosis and is described as ‘dying from the inside out‘ or Sartre’s description of finding his hand on a doorknob in Nausea, the fleeting imagery created from reading a well-written sentence is an act of design in itself.”

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Steve Kroeter
Feb 19, 2013 0 comments

Design magazine editor Amanda Dameron: Dwell (New York)
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What books does the editor of a high-profile modern home design magazine read? Designers & Books went to Amanda Dameron, editor in chief of Dwell, to find out. “Last year I moved from the West Coast to New York, and I barely brought any furniture or clothes with me. What I did bring was 50 boxes of books and vintage magazines,” says Dameron.

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Steve Kroeter
Jan 22, 2013 0 comments

Product/Industrial and Interaction Designer Carola Zwick: Studio 7.5 (Berlin)
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“As a designer you are concerned with observing and understanding change and solving emerging needs and problems. In addition, your concepts and ideas as well as the change you hope to trigger with your design intervention need to be communicated clearly,” says Carola Zwick, who along with Burkhard Schmitz and Claudia Plikat co-founded the Berlin-based industrial design firm Studio 7.5.

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