Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: December 6
December 6, 2013
This week brought a bounty of December reviews of Notable Design Books of 2013, a gift list with graphic design enthusiasts in mind, and a look at some unusual bookstore displays. We are also excited to announce the opening of our third Design Books to Win drawing: six copies of the second edition of the seminal architecture book Learning from Las Vegas signed by authors Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown will be given away by Designers & Books. Next week, Debbie Millman gives us her book list and we investigate how Switzerland brands itself. Be sure to shop at our Online Design Book Fair. We continue to add new features, and books (among them, Stefan Sagmeister’s latest), and this weekend we’re highlighting a new video trailer of Debbie Millman talking about her most recent book. Princeton Architectural Press has also joined the Fair, where it is offering a 40% discount on its titles.
Weekly Wrap-Up
Our December reviews cover architecture from suburbs to staircases, and graphic design from Swiss magazines to the work of Dutch book designer Irma Boom. We look at a new book on the product designs of Eva Zeisel, the interiors of Mario Buatta, and also Moroccan carpets—and even a book from the minds at IDEO on how to achieve “creative confidence.”
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Six copies of the second edition of the seminal architecture book Learning from Las Vegas (1977; originally published 1972) by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour—signed by Venturi and Scott Brown—will be given away in a drawing. This rare opportunity honors the 45th anniversary of the groundbreaking 1968 Yale studio course that prompted the book. Details on how to enter the drawing, which closes Saturday, December 21.
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From minimal presentation to falling off the shelves, bookstores around the world display books in very different ways.
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Our second book list developed in collaboration with CreativeMornings, a breakfast lecture series for the creative community, each with a monthly theme, is based on December’s theme: “Make.”
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The award-winning Toronto and New York-based interior designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg share a love of books as well as a creative life together.
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The second of our holiday gift guides offers a sampling of books published in 2013 selected with every graphic design enthusiast on your gift list in mind. Included are books on type, on advice from the pros for graphic design students, a graphic design book for children (that adults will want, too), and a look at the book as art.
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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.”
Swiss branding designers discuss the challenges of defining an entire country through graphic design.
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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.
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