Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 10, 2011

Graphic design critic Rick Poynor: Design Observer (London)
book list
Rick Poynor is a writer and critic specializing in design, media, and visual culture—and also founding editor of Eye and a co-founder of Design Observer. He answered some questions from Designers & Books about his book list and also about books and graphic design in general. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 10, 2011

Graphic designer Angus Hyland: Pentagram (London)
book list
Angus Hyland is a partner in Pentagram’s London office and also consultant creative director to Laurence King Publishing. He agreed to answer some questions from us about books—those on his list (which he describes as “divided in half by the needs of work and pleasure”), those he’s written, and those he’s about to read. More...

Architecture
By Steve Kroeter May 3, 2011

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger (New York)
book list
What is the first role of books about architecture? “To interpret and explain: to be, in effect, the label on the museum wall, or the note in the concert program.” So writes architecture critic Paul Goldberger in a new essay for Designers & Books. But that’s only the beginning. He goes on to say, “The greatest buildings, like art and music and literature, can be interpreted in multiple ways. As there is no end to what can be said about Beethoven and Mozart, there is no end to what can be said about the work of Michelangelo and Palladio and Borromini and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 26, 2011

Interior design editor and writer Dominique Browning (New York and Rhode Island)
book list
Visitors entering Dominique Browning’s home for the first time frequently have the same reaction: “I’ve never seen so many books!” Her love of books, plus her many years of experience at the forefront of the journalistic side of the style and interior design worlds, made us eager to invite her to submit a book list—and happy when she agreed. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 18, 2011

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi: Isaac Mizrahi New York (New York)
book list
Isaac Mizrahi sent us a list of books every bit as colorful, compelling, and eclectically inspired as the clothes he designs and the life he lives. While perhaps best known for the clothes and accessories in his many fashion collections, his activities and range of interests include acting in films and on television programs; designing costumes for Broadway shows, the Metropolitan Opera, and ballets; writing—from comic books to style guides; hosting “Watch Isaac,” his daily web series; and appearing regularly on “Isaac Mizrahi Live!” on the QVC Network.

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Rare & Beautiful
By Steve Kroeter April 12, 2011

Thought by many to be the premier rare book event in the world, the 51st New York Antiquarian Book Fair took place this past weekend in New York. The event attracted more than 200 booksellers from 15 countries. With one of the booksellers listed on Designers & Books as our guide, another as an exhibitor, and two others letting us know they would be attending the opening, we made a point of dropping by. More...

Interviews
By Steve Kroeter April 5, 2011

Graphic designer, educator, and writer Jessica Helfand agreed to share with Designers & Books how she selected the titles for her book list and speaks about books as constant companions in her life. An avid reader (“three or four things at once”), she gravitates toward the “unusual” and the “unorthodox,” admits to a level of absurdity “that is absolutely at the core of my personality,” and readily acknowledges the theatricality in the way she approaches books (“I started out as an actress!”). 

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Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 29, 2011

To get a feel for the remarkably varied and ever-present role that light plays in our lives, there is no better place to look than the work of the firm founded by lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz. Over the course of the more than 40 years that they have worked together, their combined projects reveal the full spectrum of light as a constant social, cultural, and commercial force.

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Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 22, 2011

If The Divine Comedy isn’t on Seymour Chwast’s book list, it isn’t because he’s unfamiliar with it. In keeping with his stated interest in “visual language referencing culture and literature,” Chwast—the founder of the legendary Push Pin Studios,* along with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel—is the latest in a long line of noted artists to have provided a personal interpretation of Dante’s 14th-century epic poem More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 15, 2011

Among the books chosen by Akiko Fukai, Director and Chief Curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) in Kyoto, is Issey Miyake: East Meets West. The title provides a symbolic link to the books selected by Claire Wilcox, Senior Curator of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. More...