Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Daily Features
November 21, 2022

For this holiday gift-giving season, here is just a sampling of the books published in 2022 written and illustrated by our contributing architects, designers, and design critics. From the delicate drawings of Maira Kalman to the luminous wood constructions of architect Shigeru Ban, we hope they will provide inspiration for you — and ideas for your gift list. More...

Daily Features
By Richard Saul Wurman October 18, 2022

Baseball’s World Series, set to begin later this month, prompts some recollections from Richard Saul Wurman about the game and how it connects to his close relationship with the architect Louis Kahn — and to the nature of architecture and creativity. More...

October 6, 2022

In spite of being almost 100 years old, this book retains the power of its clarity of vision and purity of ideals and intent. How can you disagree with: “beauty being the overplus necessary to the human spirit.” Or with a reference to poetry—which “not only lies in the written word. Objects which signify something and which are arranged with talent and with tact create a poetic fact.”

 

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus September 21, 2022

Rare book expert Peter Kraus explores some milestone moments in the history of infographics and book design. More...

Daily Features
By Stephanie Salomon March 22, 2022

This Women’s History Month, we’re honored to showcase a new book by Debbie Millman, ebullient host of the award-winning podcast “Design Matters“ and a treasured member of our Designers & Books community. The newly released Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People (Harper Collins, 2022) is Millman’s “love letter to creativity.” More...

Daily Features
By Peter Kraus November 9, 2021

The influential modern architect Le Corbusier, whose 135th birthday will be marked next year, authored and designed more than fifty books during his lifetime. Peter Kraus of Ursus Books explores some of the highlights. More...

Daily Features
October 5, 2021

David Feldman, son of the esteemed experimental printer, artist, and co-editor and co-designer of The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn, offers a poignant recollection of his father and the architect Louis Kahn. The essay is part of our continuing celebration of Kahn’s 120th birthday this year, which includes the re-issue of this 1962 book of the architect’s work. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus July 7, 2021

Peter Kraus of Ursus Books looks at Futurist masterpieces, photo-books, and other graphically innovative publications produced in Italy during the first half of the twentieth century. More...

Daily Features
By Simone Withers Swan May 11, 2021

In conjunction with our celebration of Louis Kahn’s 120th birthday this year, we are honored to bring you the following very special recollections of Simone Swan, inaugural executive director of the Menil Foundation in Houston, where she helped coordinate the studies undertaken by Louis I. Kahn for a new structure to house the Menil Collection. She was also Kahn’s last residential client. More...

Rare & Beautiful
By Peter Kraus April 13, 2021

From trade catalogues to children’s stories, Dutch graphic designers during the first half of the 20th century produced a memorable body of work that deserves revisiting. More...