Notable Design Books of 2013
Also see Notable Books: Reviews, Notable Design Books of 2012 and Notable Design Books of 2011.
Encounters 2
Juhani Pallasmaa et al.
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Architecture of Santiniketan
Samit Das
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The Images of Architects
Valerio Olgiati, ed.
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Everything Loose Will Land
Sylvia Lavin et al.
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The Light Pavilion
Christoph a. Kumpusch, ed.
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Go: A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design
Chip Kidd
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Lolita—The Story of a Cover Girl: Vladimir Nabokov’s Novel in Art and Design
John Bertram et al.
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Hall of Femmes: Lella Vignelli
Samira Boubana et al.
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Hall of Femmes: Tomoko Miho
Samira Boubana et al.
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Mapping Manhattan
Becky Cooper
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All the Buildings in New York *That I’ve Drawn So Far
James Gulliver Hancock
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The Afterlife of Emerson Tang
Paula Champa
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How Architecture Works
Witold Rybczynski
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Architecture on the Carpet
Brenda Vale et al.
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Creative Confidence
Tom Kelley et al.
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The Metropolitan Revolution
Bruce Katz et al.
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A Country of Cities
Vishaan Chakrabarti
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The Invention of Craft
Glenn Adamson
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City of Ambition
Mason B. Williams
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Hello World
Alice Rawsthorn
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The Design Book: 1000 New Designs for the Home and Where to Find Them
Jennifer Hudson
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Eileen Gray: Objects and Furniture Design
Carmen Espegel, introduction; et al.
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Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas
Denis Wood
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Handbook of California Design, 1930-1965
Bobbye Tigerman, ed.
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The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon
Stephanie Dalley
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Multiple Signatures
Michael Rock
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Interviewing Users
Steve Portigal
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Various Small Books: Referencing Various Small Books of Ed Ruscha
Jeff Brouws et al.
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Experiments with Life Itself
Francisco González de Canales
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Formica Forever
Text by Alexandra Lange, Phil Patton, and Peter York
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Design Forward
Hartmut Esslinger
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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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