
R. Craig Miller
Books Every Product Designer Should Read
In our global information age, we are besieged with a host of new media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, not to mention the ubiquitous e-mail. Books are thus, at least for me, very much an antidote. They are beautiful. They are sensuous. They are filled with new discoveries. Perhaps most important, they are a transcendental respite, wherein one may think new thoughts and quietly reflect on one’s position in relation to the present as well as the past.
A thoughtful curator—and designer, for that matter—must intrinsically know the history of design: the artists, manufacturers, institutions, and museums that have created and shaped the field in which we work. Books are among the most important entrees into that larger world.
This book list is by no means meant as a comprehensive bibliography. Rather, it is a personal annotation that reflects my aesthetic viewpoint and development as a museum curator, one that has, quite naturally, something of an American perspective.
I have divided the works into the following groups:
Treatises—These publications presented a new intellectual perspective that dramatically changed the larger design field, for architects are often among the most important protagonists in advancing radical movements.
They include Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture; Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture; Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour’s Learning from Las Vegas; and Barbara Radice’s Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design.
Historical Books—These publications helped identify and define important periods and developments in the history of modern design, as I grew and evolved as a museum curator and design historian.
They include Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of the Modern Movement (later republished as Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius); Erik Zahle’s A Treasury of Scandinavian Design; Robert J. Clark's Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925–1950; and Kathryn Hiesinger’s Design Since 1945.
I hope I may be forgiven for mentioning here two publications—USDesign, 1975–2000 and European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century—which could not have been completed without the collaboration of a group of distinguished colleagues. These two shows and catalogues were significant projects, for they were among the first attempts to assess the evolution of American and European design over a quarter century. In the process, the Denver Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art became important critical centers, as well as amassing extraordinary collections of contemporary American and European design, respectively.
Museum Books—These publications chronicle and exemplify the different conceptual approaches taken by important museums toward design, which can have a profound effect on the field. They also demonstrate how “the field of gravity” can shift with each generation of curators.
The books include Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson’s The International Style; Edgar Kaufmann Jr.’s What Is Modern Design?; Emilio Ambasz’s Italy: The New Domestic Landscape; Yvonne Brunhammer’s Les Années “25”; Hans Wichmann’s Industrial Design Unikate Serienerzeugnisse: Ein neuer Museumstyp des 20. Jahrhunderts; and Martin Eidelberg’s Design 1935–1965: What Modern Was; as well as my own Modern Design in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1890–1990, which is, in some respects, a sequel to Kaufmann’s seminal publication written almost a half century earlier, but one that sought to offer a more inclusive definition of what constituted modern design. This last-mentioned book also documented the Metropolitan’s highly important—but largely forgotten—role in shaping modern design in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.
Theoretical Books—There is no “one truth,” and these publications offer new theoretical, social, or cultural perspectives for examining the design arts, expanding our intellectual framework for critical judgments.
They include Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration; Reyner Banham’s Theory and Design in the First Machine Age; and Penny Sparke’s An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century.
Nonfiction, Architecture
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Perhaps the last epochal design show and catalogue to be produced by MoMA. The exhibition not only anointed Italy as the leader in design in the second half of the 20th century, but it also christened a pantheon of Italian designers and manufacturers who would ultimately lead contemporary design in a multitude of new directions.
Banham was a provocative writer who constantly questioned the “myths” of modern design, offering challenging new interpretations. This ability to question and rethink is an intellectual task that each generation must address, to be able to move forward, linking the present to the past from fresh perspectives.
Like Nikolaus Pevsner, Hitchcock was one of the most influential historians of his generation. It was not only what he wrote but how he thought that was so important to students. Certainly one of Hitchcock’s finest attributes was his catholic taste: he had the discerning ability to see what was equally significant in “conservative” as well as “avant-garde” work, an important lesson aptly illustrated for a young designer or historian in this early publication.
One of the most influential exhibitions and catalogues of the 20th century, The International Style not only introduced modernism to an American audience, but it also established modernism as the “holy grail” for The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, a conceptual approach that the institution has embraced for almost three-quarters of a century.
In many respects, Kaufmann personified the role of a modern design curator in American museums in the 20th century, one who was highly visible and influential in shaping public taste. His advocacy of the concept of “good design” profoundly shaped MoMA and the ideals of modern design at mid-century.
In the 1920s, Corbu broke with the Beaux-Arts tradition and helped to shape a new modernist style. He also reinvigorated the architectural treatise, once again, as a powerful manifesto that could change every aspect of the design arts.
This iconic book chronicles the formative development of modern design from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century. While it is now easy to criticize or dismiss Pevsner as a historian, he was one of the “gods” who helped create and define modern design. One of his most important achievements was that he was not only able to discern what was important in contemporary design, but he also had the exceptional and rare ability to simultaneously put it into a larger historical context, a feat to which many aspire but at which few succeed.
Fifty years after Le Corbusier wrote Towards a New Architecture, Venturi likewise turned the design field on its head, arguing that modernism and modern were not synonymous. He offered a new, more encompassing vision of modern design that would bestir the field for almost a half century.
With his two colleagues, Venturi reasserted the importance of the vernacular and showed that the ordinary can be transformed into the extraordinary, again pushing the boundaries of modern design.
Announcements
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Forthcoming: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
Louis I. Kahn: The Nordic Latitudes
By Per Olaf Fjeld and Emily Randall Fjeld
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Published: October 4, 2019
A new and personal reading of the architecture, teachings, and legacy of Louis I. Kahn from Per Olaf Fjeld’s perspective as a former student. The book explores Kahn’s life and work, offering a unique take on one of the twentieth century’s most important architects. Kahn’s Nordic and European ties are emphasized in this study that also covers his early childhood in Estonia, his travels, and his relationships with other architects, including the Norwegian architect Arne Korsmo.
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context
By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020
An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
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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