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Coming across this book as a child introduced me to the concept of fantasy, which informs my art to this day.
The great virtue of this book is that it dissects how we’ve been trained to view life and reality in a way that both exposes the fault lines and empowers you to think anew. I aspire to be that daring when it comes to thinking independently.
The author manages to sum up and articulate the complexities of a hero with a clarity that is absolutely astonishing. The book is something for me to look to when it comes to my own initiative as a designer of logos to encapsulate great complexities in something incredibly simple and iconic.
So much art seems arbitrary—nothing comes together. In this book the whole meaning of the name of the book, and thus the book itself, is withheld until the last paragraph. This approach is a great example of the kind of coming together and catharsis I want to experience with any form of art.
Growing up in Israel, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict was the most complex issue of my childhood. This book affirmed my view that it’s okay not to know who is right and who is wrong in this conflict, which by extension questions the very notion of a universal right and wrong.
A look into the mind of the leading pioneer of abstract art. It’s amazing to see the discipline and patience it takes to think in a new way and create works of art that are completely outside of the current paradigm. It’s easy to look at someone like Mondrian through history’s retroactive approval and think it was easy. But it couldn’t be, because being a trailblazer is always hell when you’re actually doing it.
The author sails above common “spirituality” and delivers an existential view of life that is both heads and shoulders above average high-minded notions on the topic and utterly liberating and delicious to consider on a personal level.
The play is a harsh critique of the paralyzing effect religion can have on people’s lives. But Beckett disguises the subject of his critique so brilliantly and yet so minimally that no one could attack him for it.
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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