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
By Steve Kroeter November 8, 2011

Interior designer David Easton (New York)
Book list
David Easton comes to books the same way he does to interior design—from a richly textured background threaded through with his own inimitable instincts. After earning a degree in architecture from Pratt Institute and then making full-scale furniture drawings for modernist Edward Wormley, Easton worked for the firm of Parish-Hadley (where he was “seduced by decoration”) before establishing his own practice in 1972. As one of the most in-demand interior designers, he became noted for his neoclassical approach to architecture, interior decorating, and furnishings. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter January 17, 2012

Interior Designer Ernest de le Torre: de la Torre Design Studio (New York)
Profile  Book List
It’s been said that one of the most valuable traits of a gifted interior designer is perfection of the power of absorption. If there is truth to this, then Ernest de le Torre is certainly exemplary. He grew up in the Midwest, but from his Cuban parents retained a Latin sensibility. His design influences from his Chicago area upbringing include both the formal traditionalism of David Adler and the spare, modern geometry of Mies van der Rohe. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter December 9, 2013

As a child, host of Design Matters, author, and branding expert Debbie Millman writes in the introduction to her book list: “I ordered as many books as I could afford and when the boxes came in with my name on them, I spent a moment gingerly fingering the corrugated brown carton. I’d sit for a minute or two and imagine what was inside, what the books would be like, and of course how they would look. I have been in love with books ever since.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter January 8, 2013

Product/industrial designer Jeffrey Bernett: CDS/Consultants for Design Strategy (New York)
Profile     Book List
“School only teaches you so much,” says Jeffrey Bernett in his book list introduction for Designers & Books. The designer of acclaimed residential and office furniture, household products, lighting, packaging, and interior architecture for companies such as B&B Italia, Design Within Reach, and Herman Miller recommends reading broadly as not only “a quest to gain knowledge” but also “a thought-provoking journey in its own right.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter July 12, 2011

Product design executive Alberto Alessi: Alessi S.p.A. (Crusinallo, Italy)
book list
Alberto Alessi belongs to the third generation of one of the world’s great family dynasties in design. For over 40 years he has been at the center of managing the business and strategic affairs of Alessi S.p.A.—known for bringing innovative design to housewares—as well as coordinating the company’s product development relationships with notable architects and designers from around the world.  He answered some questions from Designers & Books about his book list and about his life, which has had design at its center.  More...

Book List of the Week
January 26, 2015

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland), first published in 1865, will be 150 years old this year. To honor the anniversary, we’re highlighting the comments of our contributing designers who have been inspired by this childhood classic. More...

Book List of the Week
March 2, 2015

First published in 1939 in Japanese and translated into English in 1977, In Praise of Shadows considers Japanese aesthetics and its emphasis on subtlety and nuance. Ten designers, including architect David Adjaye, fashion design curator Akiko Fukai, and lighting deisgner Paul Marantz, cite the book as an inspiration for their work. More...

Book List of the Week
March 23, 2015

French graphic designer (Robert) Massin’s Letter and Image (La Lettre et l’Image)—a survey of letterforms and type from pre-history to the present—was first published 45 years ago, in 1970. Known for his experimentation with typography and layout, Massin (b. 1925) is also recognized as a scholar of graphic design history. Letter and Image makes the book lists of design critic Rick Poynor, graphic designer Paula Scher, and others. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter January 29, 2013

Graphic designer Massimo Pitis: Studio Pitis (Milan)
Profile     Book List
“My selection of books reflects my interests in history, sociology, design, and education,” Italian graphic designer and art director Massimo Pitis explains in the introduction to his Designers & Books book list. “What I propose here is a dive into the depths of design thinking—a sea where letters and ornaments, thoughts and words, passions and theories fluctuate constantly, producing new ideas and new words.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter October 15, 2013

Design thinker and writer Donald Norman—known for his work that attempts to bridge the gap between the products users want and the products designers create—talks to Designers & Books on the occasion of the newly revised and expanded edition of his book The Design of Everyday Things. More...