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

Crossing the BLVD: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America Warren Lehrer et al. On list of Books by Warren Lehrer Add to My Reading List	Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant On Ralph Rucci’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Critique of Judgment Immanuel Kant On Michael Sorkin’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Critical Path R. Buckminster Fuller On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Critic Writes: Essays by Reyner Banham Reyner Banham On Deborah Berke’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky On Norman Foster’s Book List On Sagi Haviv’s Book List On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List On George Yabu’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creative Intelligence Bruce Nussbaum On Dan Formosa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creation is a Patient Search (L’atelier de la recherche patiente) Le Corbusier On Steven Holl’s Book List On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Creating with Paper Pauline Johnson On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Crash J. G. Ballard On Karim Rashid’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Craftsman Richard Sennett On Milton Glaser’s Book List On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On Carola Zwick’s Book List On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things William McDonough et al. On Zoë Ryan’s Book List On Philip Freelon’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cover to Cover Michael Snow On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Country Houses of David Adler Stephen Salny On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas On Penny Drue Baird’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Costume Patterns and Designs Max Tilke On Claire Wilcox’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Cosmos of Light Henry Plummer On John Hill’s Notable Books of 2013 list Add to My Reading List	The Corrections Jonathan Franzen On Stefan Sagmeister’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List On Michael Rock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Contempt Alberto Moravia On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Consumer Society Jean Baudrillard On Stefano Giovannoni’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Constant’s New Babylon Mark Wigley On Carlo Ratti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Constantin Brancusi Friedrich Teja Bach On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Consider the Lobster David Foster Wallace On Stefan Sagmeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Conscience of Words Elias Canetti On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Confronting Silence Toru Takemitsu On Sou Fujimoto’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Conformismo e Trasgressione Annamaria Andreoli On Isaac Mizrahi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Confieso que he vivido: Memorias (Memoirs) Pablo Neruda On Enrique Norten’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man Thomas Mann On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Confessions of a Radical Industrialist Ray C. Anderson et al. On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Conditions Snøhetta, ed. On list of Books by Craig Dykers Add to My Reading List	Concrete Island J. G. Ballard On Neil Denari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Concrete Dragon Thomas J. Campanella On Nathalie de Vries’s Book List On Julie Iovine’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Concise Townscape Gordon Cullen On Norman Foster’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Computer Perspective Charles Eames, Ray Eames; Glen Fleck, ed. On Jonathan Olivares’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	The Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard J. G. Ballard et al. On Angus Hyland’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Complete Illuminated Books William Blake On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Complete Fables of Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine On Dominique Browning’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Complete Costume History Auguste Racinet On Guo Pei’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Comparison of Package Designs in Japan and Europe Japan Package Design Association On Kit Hinrichs’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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