Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Book List of the Week
July 7, 2014

America’s birthday celebration has just passed and this week we celebrate six major names in American fashion design—Stephen Burrows, Reed Krakoff, Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, Ralph Rucci, and Anna Sui—and the books that inspire them. More...

Themed Book Lists
July 2, 2014

Most popularly known for his Geodesic Dome, visionary, inventor, environmentalist, and prolific author R. Buckminster—“Bucky”— Fuller (1895–1983) was born in July. Here are 10 books by or featuring Fuller that have been chosen by our contributing designers, publishers, and booksellers. More...

Book List of the Week
June 30, 2014

Traveling to hotels and restaurants are among summer’s (or any season’s) pleasures. Here are five major designers of notable hotel and restaurant spaces worldwide who list the books that have been influential for them. The designers include Jeffrey Beers, Ed Ng, Adam Tihany, and George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg. More...

By Adam Tihany June 30, 2014

Our relationship with objects—an intelligent eye-opener.

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview
June 27, 2014

This June we paid tribute to the late, great graphic designer Massimo Vignelli, and looked at the books he found most inspiring. We also featured curated book lists on a variety of subjects, ranging from art to business, and their intersection with design. Next month brings an interview with Harold Koda, Curator in Charge at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who talks about the Met’s current exhibition on fashion designer Charles James and the book that accompanies the show. Our Online Book Fair continues to grow, and in July will expand to include rare and out-of-print book dealers. More...

Themed Book Lists
June 25, 2014

From modern houses on Cape Cod to landscaping for coastal areas to the design of surfboards, here are 15 design-related books on beaches and other bodies of water to usher in summer. More...

By Ellen Lupton June 23, 2014

In his crisp, smart narrative, Hollis follows the profession from the late 19th century to the close of the 20th. His book is small enough to fit in your purse and rich enough to account for the basic history of our profession.

Book List of the Week
June 23, 2014

From our archive, we’ve brought together 10 prominent American women working in graphic design—as practitioners and authors—and the books that inspire them. Design classics and hidden gems, books on nonfiction subjects from art to food, and novels all make the lists. More...

Themed Book Lists
June 18, 2014

Designers mean business! Here are 25 books at the intersection of design, creativity, and business. Featured are books by Tim Brown, Steven Heller, George Lois, and John Maeda, among others, and a still relevant series of lectures on design management from 1975 that includes a contribution by architect Louis I. Kahn. More...

Book List of the Week
June 16, 2014

This week we spotlight the book lists of four winners of the annual Pritzker Architecture Prize, including the 2014 winner, Shigeru Ban. The architects whose book lists we feature, in addition to Ban, are Norman Foster (1999), Richard Meier (1984), and Robert Venturi (1991). More...