Inspirations and Reflections of a Flâneur: Ken Carbone’s Book List
By Steve Kroeter July 12, 2012
 |
| Ken Carbone |
Graphic designer Ken Carbone: Carbone Smolan Agency (New York)
“Print is not dead in my life,” writes graphic designer Ken Carbone about his book list for Designers & Books. “I have shelves of books still in their shrink-wrap. I’m a certified book junkie.”
Carbone’s enthusiasm for collecting books is matched by the intensity the designer brings to the act of reading them. Approaching the process as if it were a set of design problems, he incorporates detailed notes and drawings on each book he reads into the pages of his journal. “When I begin a new book I commonly make a reduced color copy of the cover to use as a bookmark,” Carbone explains. “When I finish a book, I glue this into my journal and add notes, comments, and memorable passages as a way of reflecting on what I enjoyed. It’s like reading the book all over again.”
 |
| Ken Carbone’s 2008 journal entry for A World Without Us |
In the spirit of celebrating his relationship to printed matter, Carbone offered Designers & Books a look inside his personal journal, citing two examples that appear on his book list. The first, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, “is a profound book. It makes a convincing case that the planet is not in peril, it’s just waiting for us to go.” David Bayles and Ted Orland’s Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking gives “122 pages of valuable advice” and “is one of the most annotated books that I own.”
 |
| Ken Carbone's 2012 journal entry for Art & Fear |
If reflection can imply an enduring relationship, then perhaps the role of books for Carbone is as lasting as the signage he and co-founder of the Carbone Smolan Agency, Leslie Smolan, designed for the Musée du Louvre 25 years ago. It is still used today. Carbone’s work has earned accolades from AIGA and the New York Art Directors Club as well as many other organizations, and is included in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum’s permanent collection. His wide-ranging career as designer, musician, artist, author, and teacher resonates, not surprisingly, in his equally varied book list, a compilation of titles dedicated to culture, history, and the natural world.
 |
| “Dialog”: What Makes a Great Design Partnership., by Ken Carbone and Leslie Smolan, forthcoming October 2012 (Pointed Leaf Press) |
Among the “fodder for inspiration and entertainment” are Winston Churchill’s out-of-print Painting as a Pastime (“if you find one, consider it a lost treasure”), Kirk Varnedoe’s A Fine Disregard (“it is almost impossible for me to look at a work of modern art or design without reflecting on what I learned from this book”), and Edmund White’s The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris. “‘A flâneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to the history of the place and in a covert search for adventure, aesthetic or erotic.’ That’s White’s definition and I wonder how I can sign up for the job.”
Note: Ken Carbone’s new book, co-authored with Leslie Smolan, “Dialog”: What Makes a Great Design Partnership., will be published this October by Pointed Leaf Press.
View Ken Carbone’s Profile View Ken Carbone’s Book List
See more graphic designers’ book lists
Announcements
Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing
Louis Kahn: The Importance of a Drawing
Edited by Michael Merrill
Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Published: October 2021
The first in-depth study of drawings as primary sources of insight into architect Louis Kahn’s architecture and creative imagination. Based on unprecedented archival research, with over 900 illustrations and written contributions by Michael Benedikt, Michael Cadwell, David Leatherbarrow, Louis Kahn, Nathaniel Kahn, Sue Ann Kahn, Michael J. Lewis, Robert McCarter, Michael Merrill, Marshall Meyers, Jane Murphy, Gina Pollara, Harriet Pattison, Colin Rowe, David Van Zanten, Richard Wesley, and William Whitaker.
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People
By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Forthcoming: February 22, 2022
Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast Design Matters—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy by John Lobell
Louis Kahn: Architecture as Philosophy
By John Lobell
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: June 2020
Noted Louis I.Kahn expert John Lobell explores how Kahn’s focus on structure, respect for materials, clarity of program, and reverence for details come together to manifest an overall philosophy.
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn by Harriet Pattison
Our Days Are Like Full Years: A Memoir with Letters from Louis Kahn
By Harriet Pattison
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: October 2020
An intimate glimpse into the professional and romantic relationship between Harriet Pattison and the renowned architect Louis Kahn. Harriet Pattison, FASLA, is a distinguished landscape architect. She was Louis Kahn’s romantic partner from 1959 to 1974, and his collaborator on the landscapes of the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, and the F.D.R. Memorial/Four Freedoms Park, New York. She is the mother of their son, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn.
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context by David Raizman
Reading Graphic Design History: Image, Text, and Context
By David Raizman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Published: December 2020
An innovative approach to graphic design that uses a series of key artifacts from the history of print culture in light of their specific historical contexts. It encourages the reader to look carefully and critically at print advertising, illustration, posters, magazine art direction, and typography, often addressing issues of class, race, and gender.
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian by Rick Poynor
David King: Designer, Activist, Visual Historian
By Rick Poynor
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: September 2020
A comprehensive overview of the work and legacy of David King (1943–2016), whose fascinating career bridged journalism, graphic design, photography, and collecting. King launched his career at Britain’s Sunday Times Magazine in the 1960s, starting as a designer and later branching out into image-led journalism, blending political activism with his design work.
Recent Articles
