Quote of the Day

chronological

183 blog entries

Quote of the Day: Massimo Vignelli & Language of Vision

By Massimo Vignelli June 2, 2014

Kepes opened my eyes and made the world relevant.

Quote of the Day: Dominique Browning & David Hicks on Decoration—with Fabrics

By Dominique Browning May 27, 2014

I happen to love all of Hicks’s books. . . But the fabric book, written in 1971, pushes the envelope—as he did with his bold, idiosyncratic decorating style—and remains a useful eye-opener today.

Quote of the Day: Jules Fisher & In the Light of Italy: Corot and Early Open-Air Painting

By Jules Fisher May 19, 2014

How do you bottle light? Corot does not give an answer but captures atmosphere so effortlessly you will not give up the quest.

Quote of the Day: Wim Crouwel & Pioneers of Modern Typography

By Wim Crouwel May 12, 2014

Makes clear that modern typography does not have its origins in the conventional printing industry but is entwined with 20th-century painting, poetry, and architecture.

Quote of the Day: Coralie Bickford-Smith & Pattern Design

By Coralie Bickford-Smith May 5, 2014

I return to this book time and again to get to grips with designing patterns from this incredible wealth of technical information.

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: Dan Formosa & Creative Intelligence: Harnessing the Power to Create, Connect, and Inspire

By Dan Formosa April 21, 2014

An insightful look into creativity both within and outside the corporation. I’ve referred many people to it.

Quote of the Day: Stanley Abercrombie & The Library

By Stanley Abercrombie April 16, 2014

In his preface the author asks “[W]ill this study serve merely as a memorial to a defunct building type?” The book’s final words answer that “… humankind has created an extraordinary variety of spaces in which to read, to think, to dream and to celebrate knowledge. As long as humankind continues to value these activities, it will continue to build places to house them. Whether they will involve books or will still be called libraries, only time will tell.” If indeed what we now know as the library disappears, this book will be the perfect reminder of all that we will have lost.

Quote of the Day: Margie Ruddick & Beyond the Pawpaw Trees

By Margie Ruddick April 14, 2014

I must have read this book several hundred times as a child—a pure escape from, and then restoration to, urban life; a mix of love and loss and landscape.

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.

Order the book.

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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