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R. Craig Miller
Books Every Product Designer Should Read
In our global information age, we are besieged with a host of new media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, not to mention the ubiquitous e-mail. Books are thus, at least for me, very much an antidote. They are beautiful. They are sensuous. They are filled with new discoveries. Perhaps most important, they are a transcendental respite, wherein one may think new thoughts and quietly reflect on one’s position in relation to the present as well as the past.
A thoughtful curator—and designer, for that matter—must intrinsically know the history of design: the artists, manufacturers, institutions, and museums that have created and shaped the field in which we work. Books are among the most important entrees into that larger world.
This book list is by no means meant as a comprehensive bibliography. Rather, it is a personal annotation that reflects my aesthetic viewpoint and development as a museum curator, one that has, quite naturally, something of an American perspective.
I have divided the works into the following groups:
Treatises—These publications presented a new intellectual perspective that dramatically changed the larger design field, for architects are often among the most important protagonists in advancing radical movements.
They include Le Corbusier’s Towards a New Architecture; Robert Venturi’s Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture; Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour’s Learning from Las Vegas; and Barbara Radice’s Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design.
Historical Books—These publications helped identify and define important periods and developments in the history of modern design, as I grew and evolved as a museum curator and design historian.
They include Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of the Modern Movement (later republished as Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius); Erik Zahle’s A Treasury of Scandinavian Design; Robert J. Clark's Design in America: The Cranbrook Vision, 1925–1950; and Kathryn Hiesinger’s Design Since 1945.
I hope I may be forgiven for mentioning here two publications—USDesign, 1975–2000 and European Design Since 1985: Shaping the New Century—which could not have been completed without the collaboration of a group of distinguished colleagues. These two shows and catalogues were significant projects, for they were among the first attempts to assess the evolution of American and European design over a quarter century. In the process, the Denver Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art became important critical centers, as well as amassing extraordinary collections of contemporary American and European design, respectively.
Museum Books—These publications chronicle and exemplify the different conceptual approaches taken by important museums toward design, which can have a profound effect on the field. They also demonstrate how “the field of gravity” can shift with each generation of curators.
The books include Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson’s The International Style; Edgar Kaufmann Jr.’s What Is Modern Design?; Emilio Ambasz’s Italy: The New Domestic Landscape; Yvonne Brunhammer’s Les Années “25”; Hans Wichmann’s Industrial Design Unikate Serienerzeugnisse: Ein neuer Museumstyp des 20. Jahrhunderts; and Martin Eidelberg’s Design 1935–1965: What Modern Was; as well as my own Modern Design in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1890–1990, which is, in some respects, a sequel to Kaufmann’s seminal publication written almost a half century earlier, but one that sought to offer a more inclusive definition of what constituted modern design. This last-mentioned book also documented the Metropolitan’s highly important—but largely forgotten—role in shaping modern design in the United States during the first half of the 20th century.
Theoretical Books—There is no “one truth,” and these publications offer new theoretical, social, or cultural perspectives for examining the design arts, expanding our intellectual framework for critical judgments.
They include Henry-Russell Hitchcock’s Modern Architecture: Romanticism and Reintegration; Reyner Banham’s Theory and Design in the First Machine Age; and Penny Sparke’s An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century.
Nonfiction, Urban Design
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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.
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People
By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022
Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
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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