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

Scritto di notte (Written at Night) Ettore Sottsass On Alberto Alessi’s Book List On Cleto Munari’s Current Reading list On Marco Romanelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Sciences of the Artificial Herbert A. Simon On Niels Diffrient’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Science of God Gerhard L. Schroeder On Rocco Yim’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Schriftenatlas Ludwig Petzendorfer On Louise Fili’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Schiff nach Europa Markus Kutter On Wim Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Schellen-Ursli: A Bell for Ursli Selina Chönz et al. On Alexander Haldemann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Scenes in America Deserta Reyner Banham On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Scarp Nick Papdimitriou On Alan Balfour’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne On Margaret McCurry’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Sayings of Lao Zi Lao Zi On Eric Owen Moss’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 Savage Mind Claude Lévi-Strauss On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Saul Steinberg Harold Rosenberg On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sarum Edward Rutherfurd On Craig Dykers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Sand County Almanac Aldo Leopold On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List On Jeanne Gang’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass Bruno Schulz On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List
SANAA: Spiel der Gegensätze/The Play of Opposites Kazuyo Sejima et al. On Fritz Frenkler’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sakhalin Island Anton Chekhov On Mikko Heikkinen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Saka no ue no kumo (Clouds on the Slope) Ryotaro Shiba On Shigeru Ban’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Saarinen’s Quest: A Memoir Richard Knight et al. On Jonathan Olivares’s Book List Add to My Reading List	S, M, L, XL Rem Koolhaas et al. On Terence Riley’s Book List On Farshid Moussavi’s Book List On Florian Idenburg’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ryoma ga Yuku (Ryoma Goes) Ryotaro Shiba On Shigeru Ban’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Russian Furniture: The Golden Age 1780–1840 Antoine Chenevière On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Russian Decorative Arts 1917-1937 Vladimir Tolstoy On Lisa Jenks’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910–1934 Margit Rowell et al. On Paula Scher’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rupert Bear Annual 1973 Daily Express Publications On Tom Coward’s Book List On Daisy Froud’s Book List On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Running in the Family Michael Ondaatje On Temple St. Clair’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rules of the Game Diagram Group On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rudo Spemann (1905-1947) Friends of the Klingspor-Museum On Alice Koeth’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rudi Gernreich—Fashion Will Go Out of Fashion Brigitte Felderer On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Royal Game Stefan Zweig On Jean-Marie Massaud’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Round Buildings, Square Buildings, and Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish Philip M. Isaacson On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Rosa Jonathan Rabb On Adam Tihany’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Roots of Modern Design Herwin Schaefer On Jasper Morrison’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Roots of Contemporary American Architecture Lewis Mumford On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rookledge’s International Typefinder Christopher Perfect et al. On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ronchamp Le Corbusier On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec Ronan Bouroullec On list of Books by Ronan Bouroullec Add to My Reading List	Ron Mueck: A Girl Ron Mueck On Aldo Bakker’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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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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