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.
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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.
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.”
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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Recent Articles
Alice Rawsthorn
Alice Rawsthorn is an internationally renowned design commentator whose latest book, the critically acclaimed Hello World: Where Design Meets Life, explores design’s impact on our lives: past, present, and future.
A prominent broadcaster and public speaker, Rawsthorn speaks on design at important international events, including the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland. Based in London, she is chair of trustees at the Chisenhale Gallery, as well as a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery and of the contemporary dance group, the Michael Clark Company.
Born in Manchester, Rawsthorn graduated in art and architectural history from Cambridge University. She became an award-winning journalist for the Financial Times, working as a foreign correspondent in Paris and pioneering that newspaper’s coverage of the creative industries. In 2006, Rawsthorn joined the international edition of the New York Times as a columnist, writing a weekly design column syndicated to other media worldwide.
An honorary senior fellow of the Royal College of Art in London, Rawsthorn has served on numerous cultural juries, including the Turner Prize for contemporary art, the Stirling Prize for architecture, the British Council’s selection panel for the Venice Architecture Biennale, the PEN History Book Prize, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Buckminster Fuller Challenge, and the BAFTA film and television awards.
A trustee of Arts Council England from 2007 to 2013, she is a former chair of the British Council’s Design Advisory Group and a former member of the Design Council and the UK government’s advisory panel on the BBC Charter Review. Before joining the Arts Council’s board, Rawsthorn was its lead advisor on the visual arts and chaired the Turning Point review of the contemporary visual arts, which led to a record increase in public funding.
Rawsthorn’s latest book, Hello World: Where Design Meets Life, was published in the UK in March 2013. The U.S. edition of Hello World is to be published by the Overlook Press in February 2014, followed by various foreign-language editions. Her previous books include an acclaimed biography of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.
In addition, Rawsthorn has contributed essays and interviews to a number of books on design and art, including Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec: Bivouac (Hélène Guenin and Laurent Le Bon, eds); Hella Jongerius: Misfit (Louise Schouwenberg, ed); Designing Media (Bill Moggridge); The Infamous Chair: 220º Virus Monobloc (Arnd Friedrichs and Kerstin Finger, eds.); Articulado (Articulado, ed.), AC/DC: Contemporary Art, Contemporary Design (Jean-Pierre Greff, ed.); Rises in the East: A Gallery in Whitechapel (Katrina Schwartz and Hannah Vaughan, eds.); Frieze Projects and Frieze Talks: 2006–2008 (Neville Wakefield and Jennifer Higgie, eds.); Women of Design: Influence and Inspiration (Bryony Gomez-Paladio and Armin Vit eds.); Don’t Buy It If You Don’t Need It (Martí Guixé, ed.); Fashion Theory: A Reader (Malcolm Barnard, ed.); Frieze Projects: Artists Commissions and Talks 2003–2005 (Polly Staple and Melissa Gronlund eds.), and a monograph of the work of the industrial designer Marc Newson.
Contributed Articles
Alice Rawsthorn’s favorite place to buy books (it’s in Cambridge), the best “book as object” she owns (it’s very small), and more answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition.
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