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.

author a–z

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

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103 books


Eileen Gray	Adam, Peter	Comments:
The World as Design	Aicher, Otl
Italy: The New Domestic Landscape	Ambasz, Emilio
Makers: The New Industrial Revolution	Anderson, Chris
Enzo Mari—Sixty Paperweights: The Intellectual Work	Ascari, Alessio et al.
Design by Choice	Banham, Reyner et al.
That Shop in Via Montenapoleone	Barbiellini Amidei, Gaspare et al.
The Furniture of Gerrit Thomas Rietveld	Baroni, Daniele
Purdey’s	Beaumont, Richard
Maarten van Severen	Bekaert, Gert
Hans J. Wegner	Bernsen, Jens
KGID	Bohm, Florian
Jean Puiforcat	Bonneville, Françoise de
Irma Boom: Biography in Books	Boom, Irma
Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec	Bouroullec, Ronan et al.
Wiener Werkstätte, Design in Vienna 1903-1932	Brandstätter, Christian
La Crisi della Qualità (The Quality Crisis)	Branzi, Andrea
Marianne Brandt	Brockhage, Hans et al.
Eliot Noyes	Bruce, Gordon
Les Années “25”	Brunhammer, Yvonne
Perché un libro su Enzo Mari (Why Write a Book on Enzo Mari)	Burkhardt, François et al.
By Design	Caplan, Ralph
Jean-Michel Frank	Chanaux, Adolphe et al.
Emotionally Durable Design	Chapman, Jonathan
Russian Furniture: The Golden Age 1780–1840	Chenevière, Antoine
Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925–1950	Clark, Robert J.
Hidden Forms	Clivio, Franco et al.
One Gear	Cossu, Matteo
Richard Sachs: Bicycle Maker	Czerula, Nick et al.
Eureka!	de Bono, Edward
Designing for People	Dreyfuss, Henry
Art Nouveau and Art Deco Bookbinding	Duncan, Alastair et al.
Phaidon Design Classics	Editors of Phaidon Press,
Design 1935–1965: What Modern Was	Eidelberg, Martin
A Fine Line	Esslinger, Hartmut
Bookmarks (Georgetti, Le Mostre)	Ferreri, Marco
Design Activism	Fuad-Luke, Alastair
Super Normal	Fukasawa, Naoto et al.
The Magic of a People	Girard, Alexander
Designing Design	Hara, Kenya
Toothpicks and Logos	Heskett, John
Design Since 1945	Hiesinger, Kathryn
In Praise of Slowness	Honoré, Carl
Katachi	Iwamiya, Takeji
20th Century Pattern Design: Textile and Wallpaper Pioneers	Jackson, Lesley
Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft	Jackson, Paul A.
Furniture from British India and Ceylon	Jaffer, Amin
Kelly	Johnson, Clarence L. "Kelly"
Donald Judd: Raume Spaces	Judd, Donald et al.
Charles and Ray Eames	Kirkham, Pat
Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000	Kirkham, Pat
The Shape of Time	Kubler, George
A Century of Automotive Style	Lamm, Michael et al.
Enfolding Life (生活與承載)	Lau, Freeman
Designer: No Name	Lenskog, Torbjörn
The Box	Levinson, Marc
Disegno industriale: Un riesame (Industrial Design: A Review)	Maldonado, Tomás
The Violin Maker	Marchese, John
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things	McDonough, William et al.
The Survival of the Bark Canoe	McPhee, John
Sentinel	Mead, Syd
Designing Interactions	Moggridge, Bill
Jean Royère	Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris,
Donald Judd Furniture: Retrospective	Judd, Donald et al.
Alec Issigonis	Nahum, Andrew
The Soul of a Tree	Nakashima, George
Problems of Design	Nelson, George
Eames Design	Neuhart, John et al.
Josef Hoffmann Designs	Noever, Peter
The Design of Everyday Things	Norman, Donald
Enzo Mari	Mari, Enzo et al.
The Art of Papercraft	Ogawa, Kiroshi
Alexander Girard	Oldham, Todd et al.
Mackintosh to Mollino	Ostergard, Derek E.
Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius	Pevsner, Nikolaus
Dunbar: Fine Furniture of the 1950s	Piña, Leslie
An Illustrated History of Furnishing	Praz, Mario
American Design Ethic	Pulos, Arthur J.
Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design	Radice, Barbara
Art Deco Jewelry	Raulet, Sylvie
Antonio de Torres: Guitar Maker—His Life & Work	Romanillos, Jose L.
Archtop Guitars	Pensa, Rudy
Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi: Best of Friends	Sadao, Shoji et al.
100 Best Bikes	Sardar, Zahid
The Roots of Modern Design	Schaefer, Herwin
Acquired of the Angels	Schmidt, Paul William
The Furniture of Poul Kjaerholm	Sheridan, Michael
Scritto di notte (Written at Night)	Sottsass, Ettore
An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century	Sparke, Penny
As Long as It’s Pink	Sparke, Penny
Clapton’s Guitar	St. John, Allen
Shaping Things	Sterling, Bruce
The Language of Things	Sudjic, Deyan
Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams	Suntory Museum,
Les Créateurs du temps	Takahashi, Kazuyuki
Design After Modernism: Beyond the Object	Thackara, John
Russian Decorative Arts 1917-1937	Tolstoy, Vladimir
Bart van der Leck	van Kooten, Toos
Industrial Design, Unikate, Serienerzeugnisse	Wichmann, Hans
Modernism: Designing a New World, 1914–1939	Wilk, Christopher
Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago	Wingler, Hans
Sori Yanagi Design	Yanagi, Sori (Munemichi)
A Treasury of Scandinavian Design	Zahle, Erik

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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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Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman

Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People

By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022

Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.

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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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