Quote of the Day

author a-z

183 blog entries

Quote of the Day: Phil Patton & The Afterlife of Emerson Tang

By Phil Patton April 23, 2014

Ultimately, the book is a story about hope and regret, grief, and self-expression, wrapped around an old-fashioned mystery. Champa writes. “What is a vehicle but a private capsule? One in which the mundane errands and memorable adventures of a life are accomplished. By some alchemy, through this constant association, a mingling, a transmutation, can occur.”

Quote of the Day: Harry Pearce & The Unknown Craftsman

By Harry Pearce July 31, 2013

A Japanese insight into the nature of beauty, full of wonderful observations on culture, design, and — ultimately — humanity.

Quote of the Day: Guo Pei & Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute

By Guo Pei September 8, 2014

I am especially interested in books that focus on fashion history because they reveal how we appreciated beauty in the past. ...This is also the book that has pushed me to want to build China’s first fashion museum. I have two dreams in life: to build a fashion museum, and to create a fashion library to inspire future generations.

Quote of the Day: David Piscuskas & Carlo Scarpa: The Complete Works

By David Piscuskas October 30, 2013

Scarpa’s work highly respects the inherent qualities of materials and explores unanticipated uses and forms.

Quote of the Day: Maria Popova & Radioactive

By Maria Popova February 12, 2015

Artist Lauren Redniss tells the story of Marie Curie through the two invisible but immensely powerful forces that guided her life: radioactivity and romance. It’s also a remarkable feat of thoughtful design and creative vision.

Quote of the Day: Maria Popova on 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design

By Maria Popova August 28, 2013

Heller and Vienne provide an astute lens not only on what design is and does, but also on what it should be and do.

Quote of the Day: Rick Poynor & Barnbrook Bible

By Rick Poynor November 6, 2013

Jonathan Barnbrook is well known for visually complex designs that express deeply held and sometimes controversial political views, and his “bible” takes this kind of self-authorship to spectacular extremes.

Quote of the Day: Glenn Pushelberg & Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees

By Glenn Pushelberg December 3, 2013

A good guide for any creative mind to read and digest—and can help hone one’s creative process by focusing attention on the approach itself. We have several copies in the studio and I encourage everyone in our office to read this book.

Quote of the Day: Fiona Raby & Positron

By Fiona Raby January 12, 2015

The use of satire and the careful handling of the absurd is something Tony (Dunne) and I continue to pursue in our own work. How to make something sharp and knowing, layered and complex, and also, what to leave out. How to deliver a “lightness of touch,” which this book does beautifully.

Quote of the Day: Fiona Raby & Codex Seraphinianus

By Fiona Raby April 7, 2014

Written in a strange language, coming from another place entirely, the idea that the material world could be shaped by and embody a very different set of values than the ones surrounding us today. The inventive and wondrous visual creativity in this book has fueled Dunne & Raby’s current fascination with a kind of imaginative speculative anthropology.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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