Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: January 3
January 3, 2014
Bridging an old year and a new one, this week brought highlights from our 99 Notable Books of 2013 and from the 29 sets of answers we received to the Designers & Books version of The Proust Questionnaire—the Book Edition. We celebrated the 135th anniversary of the birth of modernist designer Eileen Gray and we announced the winners of the six signed copies of Learning from Las Vegas (from six continents). Next week features our extended interview with architect, urban planner, and Learning from Las Vegas co-author Denise Scott Brown, as well as a book list from jewelry designer Temple St. Clair. Remember, you can shop for many of the books on our site at the ongoing Online Design Book Fair!
Weekly Wrap-Up
To ring out 2013, we recap our 99 Notable Design Books of the year, reviewed by our Book Board members.
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We showcase highlights from among the many memorable answers in the 29 Proust Questionnaires we published during November and December.
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Congratulations to the six winners (from six different continents) of our most recent Design Books to Win Drawing. Each winner will receive a copy of of Learning from Las Vegas (2nd edition) signed by authors Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Our interview with Denise Scott Brown publishes next Tuesday, January 7.
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August 9, 2014: Designer Eileen Gray’s (1878–1976) birthday is August 9. A post from our archive to celebrate the “Emily Dickinson of design.”
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A former student of Italian literature and art history and an inveterate traveler, Temple St. Clair discovered jewelry design by collaborating with master artisans in Italy to create unique pieces featuring precious metals and gemstones. These strands weave among the books St. Clair—a 2011 recipient of the Hall of Fame award from the Accessories Council for Excellence, recognized for her rock-crystal amulets and use of colored gems —chose for her Designers & Books list.
Designers and Books spent an afternoon with architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown at the suburban Philadelphia home she shares with her husband, architect Robert Venturi, talking with her about what went into making the book Learning from Las Vegas—and the studio class that prompted it—her thoughts about the book’s significance today, new writing, and what she’s working on next.
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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.
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.
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.”
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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