Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Interviews
By Steve Kroeter December 6, 2011

What happens when a Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic meets up with a MacArthur Fellow architect and the topic of their conversation is books? Shortly before it was announced that Jeanne Gang had been named by the MacArthur Foundation as a recipient of one of its 2011 awards, she and Paul Goldberger had a conversation about the book list that Gang submitted to Designers & Books. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter June 14, 2011

Graphic designer Erik Spiekermann: Edenspiekermann AG (Berlin)
book list
   
When we talk about the waning of print communication and the waxing of digital communication, one element of the dialogue that retains its importance on both sides of the conversation is typography. . . . Type designers who grew up on print but have successfully migrated to the digital world have had the opportunity to have an outsized impact on contemporary commerce and culture in general, as well as on design in particular. Thus it is fitting that the German Design Council recently awarded Germany’s highest design award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, to Erik Spiekermann. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 29, 2012

Product designer Sam Hecht: Industrial Facility (London)
Profile   Book List
“I believe that too many designers have lost the ability to realize that projects are ultimately for people—not the company,” states London-based product designer Sam Hecht in a comment on The World as Design, which is on the book list he recently sent Designers & Books. Hecht’s own work, covering kitchenware for Whirlpool, furniture for Herman Miller and Yamaha, and numerous products like appliances and tableware for Muji, is known for its clarity and is definitely “for people” and the lives they live. Design is important, Hecht says, “as a means of simplifying our lives in an inspirational way.” More...

Product/industrial design
By Steve Kroeter May 7, 2013

Product/industrial designer Fritz Frenkler: f/p design  (Munich, Germany)
Profile     Book List
Fritz Frenkler believes in “universal design”—design for everyone. In fact, he is a founding member of universal design e.V, a Hannover (Germany)-based design think tank and laboratory More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter September 27, 2011

Interior designer Penny Drue Baird: Dessins LLC (New York and Paris)
book list
“I made my first trip to Paris when I was 18,” says Penny Drue Baird. “Unlike what all my friends and clients believe, it most certainly did not result in a coup de foudre. It was when I was there about three years later, when I was crazily ‘in love,’ that I became unquestionably addicted to Paris—and, truth be told, especially to those sauces! That was the true beginning of how the City of Light got to be an ongoing part of who I am and what I value.” More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus June 23, 2020

The Russian-born book designer and publisher who went by the name of Iliazd and worked in Paris from the 1920s to the 1970s occupies a unique place in the history of the illustrated book. More...

Event
November 3, 2013

The modern glass designs of architect Carlo Scarpa (1906–78) for the Venini company.  More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter November 4, 2013

For his (long—22 books) list for Designers & Books, writer, graphic designer, and multimedia artist Warren Lehrer, known as a pioneer in the field of visual literature, or “vis lit,” decided to focus on “books (mostly fiction, some non-fiction, a few hybrids) whose visual composition is an integral part of the writing.” More...

Event
December 5, 2013

NYCDDC + ORO Invite you to a Book Launch of We Build The City More...

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview
June 27, 2014

This June we paid tribute to the late, great graphic designer Massimo Vignelli, and looked at the books he found most inspiring. We also featured curated book lists on a variety of subjects, ranging from art to business, and their intersection with design. Next month brings an interview with Harold Koda, Curator in Charge at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, who talks about the Met’s current exhibition on fashion designer Charles James and the book that accompanies the show. Our Online Book Fair continues to grow, and in July will expand to include rare and out-of-print book dealers. More...