Book List of the Week

A Marvelous Repertoire: Ronan Bouroullec’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter September 25, 2012

Ronan Bouroullec

Product designer Ronan Bouroullec: Atelier Bouroullec, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec (Paris)

Partners for over a decade, Ronan Bouroullec together with his brother, Erwan, have created innovative designs for products ranging from furniture, lamps, tableware, and textiles to architectural projects, exhibition catalogues and, recently, an iPad application.

Ronan Bouroullec’s book list for Designers & Books reveals some of the varied ideas and sources of inspiration (art, architecture, Japanese crafts) that inform the Bouroullec brothers’ work. On Ronan’s list is artist Donald Judd’s Raume Spaces, which documents Judd’s transformation of the interiors of his famed workplaces in New York and Marfa, Texas, through his architectural forms and furniture designs. Bouroullec comments, “It was the first art book I ever bought. It has remained the most important one for me especially because of the relationship of Judd’s highly refined pieces to the rustic interiors.” Also on the list is Takeji Iwamiya’s Katachi: A Picture Book of Traditional Japanese Workmanship, which presents a photographic catalogue of objects, including door handles, canoes, musical instruments, and shoes. A further source of visual inspiration is Alexander Girard’s The Magic of a People: Folk Art and Toys from the Collection of the Girard Foundation, a book Ronan Bouroullec regards as “a marvelous repertoire.”

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Works, 2012 (Phaidon Press)

Earlier this year, Phaidon Press published its second monograph of the Bouroullec brothers’ designs. Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Works by Anniina Koivu and Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. The book is a comprehensive guide to the Bouroullecs’ portfolio of objects, which find a unique balance between experimentation, handcrafted qualities, and practicality. The brothers’ designs have been produced for major companies such as Kartell, Vitra, Ligne Roset, Kvadrat, Cappellini, Flos, Alessi, Magis, and Hans Grohe, as well as in limited-edition pieces, such as those created for Galerie Kreo in Paris.

This balancing act also surfaces in another title on Ronan Bouroullec’s book list—Sori Yanagi Design, which documents the work of one of the major Japanese designers of the postwar era, who combined Western industrial designs with organic forms and Japan’s artisanal traditions. Bouroullec recalls in his book list comment about the Yanagi monograph, designed by Yanagi himself: “Over the past 15 years, I have looked at this book almost once a month, but it was not until recently that discovered that there were some translations from Japanese into English. The book is so clear and precise that I never required any further explanation beyond the images to understand the meaning of his work.”

Clouds, textile wall system designed by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kvadrat, 2009. From Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Works, 2012. Courtesy of Phaidon Press

Erwan (left) and Ronan Bouroullec, 2009. Photo © Ola Rindal

Note: An exhibition of the Bouroullec brothers’ work, “Ronan and Erwan Bouroullac: Bivouac,” opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA), October 20, 2012. Initiated by the Centre Pompidou-Metz (France) earlier this year, the MCA exhibition will be on view through January 20, 2013. The catalogue of the exhibition was designed by the Bouroullecs.

View Ronan Bouroullec’s Profile View Ronan Bouroullec’s Book List

See more product designers’ book lists

comments powered by Disqus

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast by Seymour Chwast; curated by Steven Heller

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast

By Seymour Chwast, curated by Steven Heller
Publisher: Gestalten
Published: June 2026

Seymour Chwast, legendary co-founder of Push Pin Studios, reinvented how we see and read picture books. The Picture Book Book gathers over 40 of his works, curated by Steven Heller, and offers a rare look at his playful, incisive approach to visual storytelling. From bold graphics to sly wit, Chwast’s books expanded the boundaries of design and children’s literature alike.

Order the book.

Seymour Chwast: The Works, edited by Steven Heller

Seymour Chwast: The Works

Edited by Steven Heller
Publisher: Prestel
Published: October 2026

Seymour Chwast’s work has shaped the look and language of American graphic design for more than seven decades. This expansive and visually rich volume — created in close collaboration with Chwast — presents the most comprehensive account of his life, ideas, and prolific creative output. Features a wealth of previously unpublished images and ephemera and a fold-out dust jacket with a collectible poster printed on the reverse. The book includes an afterword by Paula Scher.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.