Book List of the Week

The Book List of the Week highlights the list of books provided by invited designers (including architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, interior designers, landscape architects, product designers, urban designers, and other design professionals) who have chosen books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.
189 blog entries
Book List of the Week
June 9, 2014

Inspired by the recently opened 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, today’s Book List of the Week features the books chosen by seven designers working in Italy. More...

Book List of the Week
May 19, 2014

Books that illuminate! To mark longer, lighter days and the spring calendar of high-profile design events in May around the world, including New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), which showcases product design in 11 different categories, and London’s Clerkenwell Design Week, we feature the books that inspire five designers of lamps and lighting. More...

Book List of the Week
May 12, 2014

Designers from the Netherlands and the books that have influenced them are the subject of today’s Book List of the Week. The contributing designers are Droog founder Gijs Bakker, product designer Aldo Bakker, graphic designer Wim Crouwel, architect Mels Crouwel, and architect and founder of MVRDV Nathalie de Vries. More...

Book List of the Week
May 5, 2014

This week we highlight five book lists chosen by British graphic designers and critics (some are authors of their own major books on graphic design), from Penguin book cover designer Coralie Bickford-Smith to Eye magazine founding editor and visual culture critic Rick Poynor. Our complete list of graphic designers includes 46 contributors. More...

Book List of the Week
April 14, 2014

Our contributing designers find inspiration and recall formative moments in reading children’s books. Here are five book lists from our archive that have included books written for children, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Harry Potter. More...

Book List of the Week
March 31, 2014

From Our Archive: April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. In honor, we take a look at five designers’ book lists from our archive that have included books of poetry—by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Mark Strand—as design inspiration. More...

Book List of the Week
March 17, 2014

Our celebration of the three-year anniversary of Designers & Books, launched in February 2011, continues. Following our round-up of five vintage book lists on March 3, we’ve brought together five additional book lists from our archive of more than 300 lists of books that have inspired designers and design commentators. More...

Book List of the Week
March 3, 2014

To celebrate the three-year anniversary of Designers & Books, launched in February 2011, we’ve brought together five book lists from our archive of more than 300 lists of books that have inspired designers and design commentators. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter July 22, 2019

Cesar Pelli (d. July 19, 2019) has been recognized for a lifetime of distinguished achievement in architecture. He designed some of the contemporary world’s most famous buildings, notably the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1997), the globe’s tallest buildings until 2004. Take a look at the books that inspired Pelli. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter July 11, 2019

This week we honor the life and work of Philip Freelon (1953–2019), chief architect of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., by re-publishing the list of books that inspired him. More...