Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

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2000 books

Demons Fyodor Dostoyevsky On Cleto Munari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville On Margaret McCurry’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Demian Herman Hesse On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Delirious New York Rem Koolhaas On Terence Riley’s Book List On Adam Tihany’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Jeanne Gang’s Book List On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list On Aric Chen’s Book List On Michael Rock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Decoration of Houses Edith Wharton et al. On William Georgis’s Book List On Dominique Browning’s Book List On David Easton’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Decisive Moment Henri Cartier-Bresson On George Tscherny’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio On Temple St. Clair’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Debt David Graeber On David Adjaye’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Death in Venice Thomas Mann On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Death in the Afternoon Ernest Hemingway On Hartmut Esslinger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs On Norman Foster’s Book List On Zack McKown’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Paul Goldberger’s Book List On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Dead End Gene Pool Wendy Burden On Lisa Jenks’s Book List Add to My Reading List	De Kooning: An American Master Mark Stevens et al. On Jessica Helfand’s Book List On Matteo Thun’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Daybook: The Journey of an Artist Ann Truitt On Jessica Helfand’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Day with Picasso Billy Klüver On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Day Khrushchev Panicked George B. Mair On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	David Hicks: A Life of Design Ashley Hicks On Jonathan Adler’s Book List Add to My Reading List	David Hicks on Decoration—with Fabrics David Hicks On Dominique Browning’s Book List Add to My Reading List	David Adler: The Architect and His Work Richard Pratt On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Das Kapital (Capital) Karl Marx On Aric Chen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Daring Greatly Brene Brown On David Kelley’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Dans ma chambre (In My Room) Guillaume Dustan On Christian Lacroix’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm Ellen Moers On Valerie Steele’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!) George Lois On list of Books by George Lois On Louise Fili’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Dada: Art and Anti-Art Hans Richter On Bob Gill’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Dada Laurent Le Bon On Paula Scher’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cyclops Albert Watson On Carin Goldberg’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cy Twombly: Zeichnungen 1953–1973 Cy Twombly et al. On Ivan Chermayeff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Cut-Outs of Henri Matisse John Elderfield On Ivan Chermayeff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Curves of Time Oscar Niemeyer On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Curious George Rides a Bike H. A. Rey On Aric Chen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Curious George H. A. Rey On Gail Anderson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Cure for Serpents Alberto Denti di Piranjo On Jasper Morrison’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Culture of the Copy Hillel Schwartz On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Culture of Cities Lewis Mumford On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	CULTURE Stefan Sagmeister On Thomas Girst’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Cruel Radiance Susie Linfield On Jessica Helfand’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Crowds and Power Elias Canetti On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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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.

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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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