Themed Book Lists

Our themed book lists are compiled from the books that appear on Designers & Books and focus on special subjects. For a complete listing, see List of Lists.
75 blog entries
Themed Book Lists
July 30, 2014

Good design can make you healthier. From titles focusing on the design of health-care facilities, gyms, playgrounds, and spas to products for increased well-being, to classics on creating walkable. livable communities, to visions for our future as human beings, here are 15 books on health and design. More...

Themed Book Lists
February 12, 2015

Our annual Valentine’s Day book list for designers from our contributors, updated. More...

Themed Book Lists
May 7, 2014

Photographers have long influenced the work and thinking of designers. This selection of 15 books have been chosen or written by our contributing designers and design writers, including Seymour Chwast, Jasper Morrison, Maira Kalman, and Rudy VanderLans. More...

Themed Book Lists
November 5, 2013

A selected list of guides to to the Bauhaus movement, founded April 1, 1919 in Weimar (moving to Dessau in 1925) by German architect Walter Gropius, and highlights of some of its major figures. More...

Themed Book Lists
January 21, 2014

This May, designated Mental Health Awareness Month, we are pleased to share this list of books from our archive on the intersection of psychology and design, drawn from our contributors, featured publishers, and booksellers. More...

Themed Book Lists
October 7, 2014

Here are 15 books on urban design and planning from our contributors. We’ll be giving away copies of one of these books in a drawing opening this Wednesday, October 8. Be sure to check back! More...

Themed Book Lists
September 2, 2015

Fifteen-plus books that look at the book as designed object as well as valuable reading—from our contributors Irma Boom, John HillWarren Lehrer, Peter Mendelsund, Ed Ruscha, and more.—Updated July 26, 2022 More...

Books on Cities
December 16, 2014

We revisit our original list of books—now with 10 additional titles—about the city of Los Angeles and its design, past, present, and future. New additions to the list include L.A. [Ten]: Interviews on Los Angeles Architecture, 1970s–1990s by Stephen Phillips, 2013 (Lars Müller Publishers); Sense of Place: Elements of California Modernism, 2014 by Michael Webb and Kovac Architects (ORO Editions); and Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936–1986 by Louise Sandhaus, 2014 (Metropolis Books). More...

Themed Book Lists
March 31, 2015

We’ve updated our list of books of design manifestos, which includes the recently published compilation After the Manifesto (Columbia University GSAPP Books/T6 Ediciones, 2015). In an exciting development for us, Designers & Books is planning to help bring back in print this year another book on this list: Ladislav Sutnar: Visual Design in Action, a 1961 “monograph-cum-manifesto,” in the words of Steven Heller, featuring the work and ideas of the Czech forerunner of information design, Ladislav Sutnar (1897–1976). Watch for details! More...

Themed Book Lists
July 14, 2015

Here are 20 books on painters, sculptors, and other artists—from Leonardo da Vinci to Andy Warhol—that designers and architects have found inspirational. See the complete list of more than 200 books on art and artists chosen by designers. More...