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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Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman
Love Letter to a Garden
By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025
From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.
The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast by Seymour Chwast; curated by Steven Heller
The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast
By Seymour Chwast, curated by Steven Heller
Publisher: Gestalten
Published: June 2026
Seymour Chwast, legendary co-founder of Push Pin Studios, reinvented how we see and read picture books. The Picture Book Book gathers over 40 of his works, curated by Steven Heller, and offers a rare look at his playful, incisive approach to visual storytelling. From bold graphics to sly wit, Chwast’s books expanded the boundaries of design and children’s literature alike.
Seymour Chwast: The Works, edited by Steven Heller
Seymour Chwast: The Works
Edited by Steven Heller
Publisher: Prestel
Published: October 2026
Seymour Chwast’s work has shaped the look and language of American graphic design for more than seven decades. This expansive and visually rich volume — created in close collaboration with Chwast — presents the most comprehensive account of his life, ideas, and prolific creative output. Features a wealth of previously unpublished images and ephemera and a fold-out dust jacket with a collectible poster printed on the reverse. The book includes an afterword by Paula Scher.
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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Recent Articles
Akiko Fukai
Akiko Fukai is director and chief curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute. She received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in History of Fashion from the National University of Ochanomizu, and studied art history at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), Institut d’Art et Archéologie. She has organized a number of major fashion exhibitions in Japan, Paris, London, and New York, including “Revolution in Fashion 1715–1815” (National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 1988), “Japonisme et Mode” (Musée de la Mode et du Costume, Paris, 1996), “Japonism in Fashion” (Brooklyn Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998), “Fashion in Colors” (Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2005–2006), “Luxury in Fashion Reconsidered” (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, and National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, 2009–2010), and, most recently, “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion.” (2010–2011, Barbican Art Gallery, London).
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a special prize from the Academy of Japonism in Japan (2000), an honorary doctoral degree from the National University of Ochanomizu (2004), and the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs Award, Japan (2008).
Akiko Fukai has been an associate professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto), professor at Shizuoka University of Art and Culture, and a lecturer at the University of Tokyo and Rikkyo University.
Among the many books and exhibition catalogues she has written and edited are Japonism in Fashion (1994); Fashion: The Collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute, A History from the 18th to the 20th Century (2002)—a luxuriously illustrated survey of more than 700 items of clothing in the collection of the Kyoto Costume Institute; The Century of Fashion (2005); Reading Fashion from Pictures (2009); and Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion (2010)—a survey of avant-garde Japanese fashion from 1980 to the present.