Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: February 7
February 7, 2014This week, we published our fourth book list in collaboration with the breakfast lecture series CreativeMornings, inspired by the series’ February theme of “Rebel.” Together with AIGA/NY, we hosted our first-ever “live online” book signing, with a designer always willing to try something new—Stefan Sagmeister. We’ll have photos next week to show you what went on. Next week also brings a book list from frog design founder Hartmut Esslinger and we announce the winner of the Designers & Books first annual Design Book of the Year Award.
Weekly Wrap-Up

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister answers a few questions about the updated edition of Things I have learned in my life so far (2013, Abrams), its online offshoot, and a little bit about what he’s learned (so far). We also reprise his popular book list for Designers & Books—now updated with some new commentary.
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A sampling of what we saw and heard at Irma Boom’s conversation with Debbie Millman on January 29, co-presented by AIGA/NY and Designers & Books. Copies of the mini edition of Irma Boom: The Architecture of the Book are still available for purchase via AIGA/NY.
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Our fourth book list developed in collaboration with CreativeMornings, a breakfast lecture series for the creative community, each with a monthly theme, is based on February’s theme: “Rebel.”
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To celebrate the publication of the updated edition of his book Things I have learned in my life so far (Abrams), internationally renowned graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister hosted a book signing and student-led interview at his studio and online on February 6. Presented by AIGA/NY and Designers & Books. Watch for our photo wrap-up coming soon.
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The founder of frog design, the company that worked with Apple in the 1980s to develop some of its most well-known products, Hartmut Esslinger has told the story of his years with Apple and Steve Jobs in two recent books: Design Forward and Keep It Simple.

Designers & Books is presenting its first annual Design Book of the Year Award.
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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.
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.
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.
Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Milton Glaser: POP
By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023
This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022
Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”
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.
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