Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: January 3

January 3, 2014

Bridging an old year and a new one, this week brought highlights from our 99 Notable Books of 2013 and from the 29 sets of answers we received to the Designers & Books version of The Proust Questionnaire—the Book Edition. We celebrated the 135th anniversary of the birth of modernist designer Eileen Gray and we announced the winners of the six signed copies of Learning from Las Vegas (from six continents). Next week features our extended interview with architect, urban planner, and Learning from Las Vegas co-author Denise Scott Brown, as well as a book list from jewelry designer Temple St. Clair. Remember, you can shop for many of the books on our site at the ongoing Online Design Book Fair!

Weekly Wrap-Up

Daily Features 99 Notable Design Books of 2013

To ring out 2013, we recap our 99 Notable Design Books of the year, reviewed by our Book Board members.

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The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition Highlights from The Proust Questionnaire—The Book Edition

We showcase highlights from among the many memorable answers in the 29 Proust Questionnaires we published during November and December.

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Design Books to Win Six Winners of Signed Copies of Learning from Las Vegas Announced

Congratulations to the six winners (from six different continents) of our most recent Design Books to Win Drawing. Each winner will receive a copy of of Learning from Las Vegas (2nd edition) signed by authors Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown. Our interview with Denise Scott Brown publishes next Tuesday, January 7.

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Daily Features Eileen Gray Turns 135

August 9, 2014: Designer Eileen Gray’s (1878–1976) birthday is August 9. A post from our archive to celebrate the “Emily Dickinson of design.”

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Next Week's Preview

Book List of the Week Book List of the Week: Temple St. Clair

A former student of Italian literature and art history and an inveterate traveler, Temple St. Clair discovered jewelry design by collaborating with master artisans in Italy to create unique pieces featuring precious metals and gemstones. These strands weave among the books St. Clair—a 2011 recipient of the Hall of Fame award from the Accessories Council for Excellence, recognized for her rock-crystal amulets and use of colored gems —chose for her Designers & Books list.

Interviews Still Learning from Denise Scott Brown

Designers and Books spent an afternoon with architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown at the suburban Philadelphia home she shares with her husband, architect Robert Venturi, talking with her about what went into making the book Learning from Las Vegas—and the studio class that prompted it—her thoughts about the book’s significance today, new writing, and what she’s working on next.

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: December 27

Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: December 20

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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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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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