Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

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2000 books

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace On Stefan Sagmeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Savile Row Story Richard Walker On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Human Use of the Earth Philip L. Wagner On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Turning Point of Building Konrad Wachsmann On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Allure Diana Vreeland et al. On Ralph Rucci’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Blue Guitar Kenneth Vose On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut On Ellen Lupton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten et al. On David Rockwell’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Gerrit Rietveld Ida von Ziji On Stanley Abercrombie’s Notable Books of 2011 list On Gijs Bakker’s Book List Add to My Reading List	August Sander John von Hartz et al. On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Italian Journey Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; et al. On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Animal Architecture Karl von Frisch On Jeanne Gang’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Gravures Militaires Alberto von Escher On Guo Pei’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Fritz Kahn: Man Machine Uta and Thilo von Debschitz On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imperial Delhi Andreas Volwahsen On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imperial William T. Vollmann On Alan Balfour’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Vitruvius: The Ten Books on Architecture Vitruvius Pollio On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Fashion Zeitgeist Barbara Vinken On Valerie Steele’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Unexpurgated Beaton Hugo Vickers, ed. On Claire Wilcox’s Book List Add to My Reading List	French Jewelry of the Nineteenth Century Henri Vever On Marion Fasel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation Dalibor Vesely On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Exactitudes Ari Versluis et al. On Nathalie de Vries’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Patronen = Patterns Bob Verhelst et al. On Claire Wilcox’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Little Novels of Sicily Giovanni Verga On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Collected Works of Jules Verne: 36 Novels and Short Stories Jules Verene On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Learning from Las Vegas Robert Venturi et al. On Michael Bierut’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On R. Craig Miller’s Book List On Zoë Ryan’s Book List On Ellen Lupton’s Book List On list of Books by Denise Scott Brown On list of Books by Robert Venturi On Rudy VanderLans’s Book List On Nathalie de Vries’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture Robert Venturi On Tom Coward’s Book List On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List On Daisy Froud’s Book List On Michael Graves’s Book List On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List On Terence Riley’s Book List On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List On Witold Rybczynski’s Book List On R. Craig Miller’s Book List On Paul Goldberger’s Book List On Alberto Alessi’s Book List On Cesar Pelli’s Book List On list of Books by Robert Venturi On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	La Maison de Verre: Pierre Chareau’s Modernist Masterwork Dominique Vellay On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Earth in Upheaval Immanuel Velikovsky On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Worlds in Collision Immanuel Velikovsky On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Theory of the Leisure Class Thorstein Veblen On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List
A Fine Disregard Kirk Varnedoe On Ken Carbone’s Book List On Wendell Castle’s Book List Add to My Reading List	High & Low Kirk Varnedoe et al. On Paula Scher’s Book List On George Tscherny’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Charlottesville Tapes Various authors; Transcript of the Conference at the University of Virginia, November 12 and 13, 1982 On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa On Alexander Cooper’s Book List Add to My Reading List	At Home by the Sea Brian Vanden Brink et al. On Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Bart van der Leck Toos van Kooten On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Architectonic Space Dom Hans van der Laan On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci Paul Valéry On Cino Zucchi’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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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.

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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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The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast by Seymour Chwast; curated by Steven Heller

The Picture Book Book: The Art of Seymour Chwast

By Seymour Chwast, curated by Steven Heller
Publisher: Gestalten
Published: June 2026

Seymour Chwast, legendary co-founder of Push Pin Studios, reinvented how we see and read picture books. The Picture Book Book gathers over 40 of his works, curated by Steven Heller, and offers a rare look at his playful, incisive approach to visual storytelling. From bold graphics to sly wit, Chwast’s books expanded the boundaries of design and children’s literature alike.

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Seymour Chwast: The Works, edited by Steven Heller

Seymour Chwast: The Works

Edited by Steven Heller
Publisher: Prestel
Published: October 2026

Seymour Chwast’s work has shaped the look and language of American graphic design for more than seven decades. This expansive and visually rich volume — created in close collaboration with Chwast — presents the most comprehensive account of his life, ideas, and prolific creative output. Features a wealth of previously unpublished images and ephemera and a fold-out dust jacket with a collectible poster printed on the reverse. The book includes an afterword by Paula Scher.

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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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