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

Homage to Catalonia George Orwell On Steven Heller’s Book List On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Holy Holocaust Moss Herbert On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Holy Bible, King James Version American Bible Society On Stanley Tigerman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hollywood Charles Bukowski On Bruce Hannah’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hold Everything Dear John Berger On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Hokusai Sketchbooks James A. Michener On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hitch-22: A Memoir Christopher Hitchens On Carl Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The History of the Future Christophe Canto et al. On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The History of Sexuality Michel Foucault On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Private Life Philippe Ariès et al. On Julie Iovine’s Book List Add to My Reading List	History of Modern Architecture (Storia dell’Architettura Moderna ) Leonardo Benevolo On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Garden Art Marie Luise Gothein On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	History of Beauty Umberto Eco On Ken Carbone’s Book List On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals Spiro Kostof On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method Banister Fletcher On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Architecture Sir Banister Fletcher On Hugh Newell Jacobsen’s Book List Add to My Reading List
History Builds the Town Arthur Korn On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Histories Herodotus On Temple St. Clair’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Historical Color Guide: Primitive to Modern Times with Thirty Plates in Color Elizabeth Burris-Meyer On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Historian as Detective Robert W. Winks, ed. On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Histoire du costume en occident François Boucher On Christian Lacroix’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Histoire du costume Henny Harald Hansen On Christian Lacroix’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hirschfeld: Art and Recollections from Eight Decades Al Hirschfeld On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Highway and the City Lewis Mumford On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List
High-tech Joan Kron et al. On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	High-Rise J. G. Ballard On Michael Sorkin’s Book List Add to My Reading List	High Fidelity Nick Hornby On Alexa Hampton’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 Hidden Order of Art Anton Ehrenzweig On Juhani Pallasmaa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Hidden Injuries of Class Richard Sennett et al. On Milton Glaser’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hidden Forms Franco Clivio On Fritz Frenkler’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Hidden Dimension Edward T. Hall On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Herzog Saul Bellow On Cleto Munari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Here is New York E. B. White On David Piscuskas’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Here Comes Everybody Clay Shirky On John Maeda’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Heraldry Ottfried Neubecker On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Henri’s Walk to Paris Leonore Klein et al. Add to My Reading List	Heavenly Mansions and Other Essays on Architecture John Summerson On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List On Paul Goldberger’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Hats: An Anthology Stephen Jones et al. On Claire Wilcox’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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