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.

title a–z

Design, General

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71 books

Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006–2009 Ai Weiwei On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement Leonard Koren et al. On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Biomimicry Janine M. Benyus On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough Jonathan M. Tisch et al. On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cleopatra’s Nose Daniel J. Boorstin On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Craftsman Richard Sennett On Milton Glaser’s Book List On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On Carola Zwick’s Book List On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creating with Paper Pauline Johnson On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creative Intelligence Bruce Nussbaum On Dan Formosa’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	Design and Truth Robert Grudin On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design fai da te Recession Design, ed. On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design for the Real World Victor Papanek On Tim Brown’s Book List On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On Zoë Ryan’s Book List On Gijs Bakker’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design Now! Peter and Charlotte Fiell On Jens Martin Skibsted’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design Process: Olivetti 1908-1978 Nathan H. Shapira et al. On David Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design Revolution Emily Pilloton On Tom Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Diderot Encyclopedia Denis Diderot On Michael Graves’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Dream Society Rolf Jensen On Freeman Lau’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Elements of Design Gail Greet Hannah On Tucker Viemeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Fantasia Bruno Munari On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	From Atoms to Patterns Lesley Jackson On Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Grammar of Chinese Lattice Daniel Sheets Dye On Ed Ng’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Grammatica della Fantasia (The Grammar of Fantasy) Gianni Rodari On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Heraldry Ottfried Neubecker On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Hidden Dimension Edward T. Hall On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Hot House Andrea Branzi On Anthony Dunne’s Book List Add to My Reading List	How to See George Nelson On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment George Nelson On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	I Seem To Be a Verb R. Buckminster Fuller On Jennifer Morla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Image/Music/Text Roland Barthes On Ellen Lupton’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Praise of Shadows Jun’ichiro Tanizaki On Antoine Predock’s Book List On Akiko Fukai’s Book List On Paul Marantz’s Book List On Tom Kundig’s Book List On David Adjaye’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Craig Dykers’s Book List On Marco Romanelli’s Book List On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Interface Culture Steven A. Johnson On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Kimono Mind Bernard Rudofsky On Tom Geismar’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Kitsch Gillo Dorfles On Inga Sempé’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Language of Vision György Kepes On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Laws of Form G. Spencer-Brown On Neil Denari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Laws of Simplicity John Maeda On Tim Brown’s Book List On list of Books by John Maeda Add to My Reading List	Le système des objets (The System of Objects) Jean Baudrillard On Alberto Alessi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Makers: The New Industrial Revolution Chris Anderson On Daijiro Mizuno’s Notable Books of 2012 list On Massimo Pitis’s Notable Books of 2012 list On Hugh Hardy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Marinetti: Selected Writings F. T. Marinetti On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé Alexander von Solodkoff On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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What is Universal Everything? edited by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook

What is Universal Everything?

Edited by Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook; designed by Spin
Publisher: Unit Editions
Published: June 2019

Matt Pyke, founder and creative director of Universal Everything, calls his studio a “digital art and design collective.” Now, after 15 years of revolutionary work in the digital realm, the studio has its first book. For anyone interested in the future of digital design, the book features a unique cover for each copy of the book (limited to 2,000)—every buyer owns a one-off.

Order from Unit Editions.

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon by Dennis Bernstein and Warren Lehrer

Five Oceans in a Teaspoon

Poems by Dennis Bernstein
Visualizations by Warren Lehrer
Introduction by Steven Heller
Publisher: Paper Crown Press
Published: September 19, 2019

“From a kidnap note for a world held hostage by an A-bomb, to a Holocaust survivor’s tattooed arms where the numbers just don’t add up, Five Oceans in a Teaspoon re-envisions a poetry memoir via a textual kaleidoscope... Bernstein and Lehrer are the Rodgers and Hart of Visual Poetry.” — Bob Holman, poet, poetry activist and chronicler, and founder of the Bowery Poetry Club

Pre-order the book.

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City by Paul Goldberger

Ballpark: Baseball in the American City

By Paul Goldberger
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: May 2019

An illustrated, entirely new look at the history of baseball: told through the stories of the vibrant and ever-changing ballparks where the game was and is staged, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.

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Charleston Fancy by Witold Rybczynski

Charleston Fancy: Little Houses and Big Dreams in the Holy City

By Witold Rybczynski
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: May 2019

Charleston, South Carolina, which boasts America’s first historic district, is known for its palmetto-lined streets and picturesque houses. The Holy City, named for its profusion of churches, exudes an irresistible charm. Award-winning author and cultural critic Witold Rybczynski unfolds a series of stories about a group of youthful architects, builders, and developers based in Charleston: a self-taught home builder, an Air Force pilot, a fledgling architect, and a bluegrass mandolin player.

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Teaching Graphic Design History by Steven Heller

Teaching Graphic Design History

By Steven Heller
Publisher: Allworth Press
Published: June 2019

An examination of the concerted efforts, happy accidents, and key influences of the practice throughout the years, Teaching Graphic Design History is an illuminating resource for students, practitioners, and future teachers of the subject.

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