Books Every Designer Should Own - Modernism 101

Books every designer should own, recommended by Modernism 101.

Italy: The New Domestic Landscape Add to My Reading List

Emilio Ambasz Editor

Subtitled “Achievements and Problems of Italian Design,” this 1972 exhibition catalogue from The Museum of Modern Art and the Centro Di, Florence, was published with five cut-outs of furniture and objects inserted into the translucent glassine dust jacket.

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The New Graphic Art Add to My Reading List

Karl Gerstner
Markus Kutter

Association copies don't get much better than this: warmly inscribed by Gerstner to Piet Zwart. A book with the stated intention ". . . a pictorial survey [that] takes modern graphic art from its origins through present-day achievements and concludes with a look into the future" that embodies via association the origins and the future of graphic art in the 20th century. Form and content indeed.

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Bauhaus 1919-1928 Add to My Reading List

Editor
Walter Gropius Editor
Ise Gropius Editor

One of the most important art books of the twentieth century. “It may be considered as much a work of the Bauhaus as it is a work about it; even the typography and layout for the volume were designed by a former Bauhaus master.”

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Organic Design in Home Furnishings Add to My Reading List

Eliot Noyes

Eliot Noyes defined Organic Design as “. . . harmonious organization of the parts within the whole, according to structure, material, and purpose . . . “ 1940 MoMA catalogue that introduced the furniture designs of Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen to the world.

Thoughts on Design Add to My Reading List

Paul Rand

One of the most desirable graphic design books ever published. After a decade of establishing himself as the wunderkind of graphic design, Paul Rand sat down to codify his beliefs and working methodology into a single volume. Here is the result—an exceptional copy of the 1947 first edition. $400.

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Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age Add to My Reading List

Deborah Rothschild
Ellen Lupton
Darra Goldstein

Selections from Merrill C. Berman’s spectacular private collection of twentieth-century posters, ads, photomontages, and graphic ephemera. All schools of early design are well represented here: the Russian Constructivists, the Bauhaus, DaDa, American Depression Moderne, Surrealism, etc. Essential.

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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.

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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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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.

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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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