Michael Maharam

Writer; Executive / Product Design / United States / Maharam

Michael Maharam’s Book List

If you really want to read about theory in the applied arts, Panofsky or Rudofsky will do.

If you want to read and look at pictures, it’s the Vision + Value series by György Kepes.

If you just want to look at pictures (like the rest of us) that tell the story, here’s my very short list that could have included many other titles. Have no shame—in my view, these books embody the best of composition, form, material, technique, utility, fashion, and, most of all, style.

And scattered among them are a few classics in case you need a change of scenery.

11 books
Toos van Kooten

A master of composition and restraint.

Marco Ferreri Editor

The splendor of variation.

Torbjörn Lenskog

The beauty of anonymous design.

Donald Judd
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen

Art or design or design or art—is there really a difference?

Jens Bernsen

A man with a beautiful imagination.

Gert Bekaert

Elemental style and a career cut short.

Hans Brockhage
Reinhold Lindner
Foreword by Alberto Alessi

A specialist.

François Burkhardt
Juli Cappella
Francesca Picchi

Humor infused with intellect will never go out of style.

Gaspare Barbiellini Amidei
Aldo Lorenzi

Classicism meets utility in traditional materials at the luxury shop Lorenzi, on Milan’s Via Montenapoleone.

comments powered by Disqus