Chris Bangle’s Book List
My Top Ten Books on: 1. Car design: The Nude; The creative process: Poetics of Music; 3. The relationship between Creative and Client: An Essay on Typography; 4. Understanding gender and design: As Long as It’s Pink; 5. Learning how to see the world: A Pattern Language; 6. The arcane minutiae of car design: A Century of Automotive Style; 7. Design insights from an unexpected quarter: Understanding Comics; 8. The historical consequences of design to put it all in perspective: American Design Ethic; 9. Understanding the authority of design: Architectural Ornament; 10. Making you wish you were 1/100th as creative as a true genius: Sentinel. Details below.
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A great read about the history of industrial design in the U. S. Very quotable; fantastic revelations. I finally understand that the American Revolution was really an Intellectual property war set off by the China of the time—the American Colonies!
A fascinating historical read, but with a wonderfully laid-out explanation of the shift in authority in product design, architecture, and art. For car designers, who do not usually find themselves at home in any of these camps, the foundations of our practice and its own authority are clearly there as well.
This is a fantastic book for anyone who doubts the infallibility of modernism, or who harbors a secret admiration for pop and kitsch. I am sure it is too one-sided to make for a good textbook in design schools, but I enjoyed it, learned from it, and really respect Sparke for writing it.
I am eternally indebted to Alec Bernstein from Designworks USA for turning me on to this masterpiece, along with three others on my list—An Essay on Typography, The Nude, and Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons. He’s a smart guy.
Hard to imagine a more thorough study of the history of car design in the U. S. Full of fascinating historical insights into the culture we have inherited the world over. Wish this existed for the carrozzerias of Europe.
This is super-special to me; I recently purchased old copies of this 1931 book, rewrote all of my own notes in the margins, and gave one of them to a client . . . it means so much! Poor Gill writes like a man who knows he is going down on the Titanic because his craftsman-culture is vanishing around him, but the game rules he sets out for a “humane” world are valid today. I am convinced we can save him and our sense of “humanity,” using tools that Gill never dreamed of. But first I suggest everyone read this to find out what it is we are fighting for!
You will never find a better description of what car design is all about than in this book. Just take out the word “nude” and insert the word “car” and it all becomes crystal clear. My copy is incredibly highlighted and written over, full of “Ah-ha!” comments and annotations. Should be the classroom textbook for car designers.
Chuck Jones, former chief of design of Whirlpool, first gave me this to read. After the thinking sinks in, you begin to really see the world in the authors’ organizational manner and realize how much is missing from, for instance, the world of car design regarding insights and relationships. Another must-be-a-textbook for design schools.
Takes a bit of plowing through, but this is another of my well written-over “bibles” on car design. The maestro weaves a great essay on composition, originality, and the fundamental construction of the aesthetic pleasure of music, of course, but it works for cars too.
The guy is the Oscar Wilde of design; just when you think you have thought of something new you discover he has done it (or “said it,” in the case of Wilde) two decades ago. One of the best books to have around to remind you that deep intellectual thought, fantastic artistic skills, and great design abilities really can go together.
Don’t ask, just run out and buy it. I gave away Banksy’s first book last Christmas but this year everyone is getting this one. Great re-think of understanding the visual process and the importance of “what is NOT there” in the artwork. Don't judge by the last chapter though.
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.
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.”
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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