The Shape of Design
From the Publisher. The Shape of Design is a book about design as a method to plan and create change. It documents the hidden steps, methods, and thoughts of the creative process to produce a field guide for the emerging skillset: improvising, creating frameworks, storytelling, and delighting audiences. It’s a handbook that explores the qualities that make for great design so we may dream big, apply the lessons to our processes, then go get our hands dirty to shape this world.
I first wrote about Frank Chimero's book over a year ago, when he mounted an incredible Kickstarter campaign to fund it. Chimero raised over $112,000, funding his project in four hours, then going on to almost triple his goal. The book gets so many things right before you even get to the words: it's a beautifully designed, hardback, self-published (in the U.S.!) entrepreneurial success, which made me want to buy it just so I could see the result. But the actual writing is also fantastic. Chimero offers intelligent meditations on the motivation for designing, and looks far outside of the design world for examples, drawing anecdotes from musicians and chefs, and illustrating theories with references ranging from 18th-century haiku masters to Wall-E. Chimero writes a lot about the connections between design and jazz, and that's what his writing reminds me of most: it’s lyrical, rhythmic, soulful. It was a book that I didn't want to end.
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Announcements
Design Books to Win, December 18, 2014: Winners of Five Books by Pentagram Designers Announced
The winners of five books designed by Pentagram have been announced. The three winners are Joy Weeeng, Tyler Wilson, and Tim Zissou — congratulations!
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Our new giveaways begin again in 2015. Happy Holidays!
New Book Release, December 31, 2014: What If...?: The Architecture and Design of David Rockwell
Widely admired for his sophistication, creativity and exuberance, David Rockwell is one of the leading architects, interiors architects, and set designers working today. For over 30 years, he has explored his desire to imagine new worlds, to tell stories and to engage with others. This interest is rooted in his sense of play and possibility—an endless curiosity that continually drives him to ask, “What if?”
Edited by Chee Pearlman; texts by David Rockwell, et al.
Published by Metropolis Books
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New Book Release, August 5, 2014: Cover
Designer Peter Mendelsund’s completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative method, including jacket sketches, interior art and editorial illustrations, and scores of rejected drafts. These images are punctuated by Mendelsund’s reflections on his work and his process, as well as by texts from writers with whom he has worked and designed.
By Peter Mendelsund
Published by powerHouse Books
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New Book Release, August 25, 2014: Hello, I am Erik
A visual biography of graphic designer Erik Spiekermann that explores Spiekermann’s over 30-year career and body of work.
Johannes Erler, editor
Published by Gestalten
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New Book Release, September 16, 2014: Designing Here/Now
An ambitious global compendium of the most thoughtful and innovative design objects (over 500) invented or produced in the past five years, compiled by experts at the online industrial design magazine Core 77.
Edited by Allan Chochinov and Eric Ludlum
Published by Thames & Hudson
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