Freeman Lau
Freeman Lau’s Book List
When I was growing up in Hong Kong, books played a vital role in providing a glimpse of what life was like in mainland China. Back then, China was still a closed country and we had no photographs or visual reference points as to what life was like there. History books, for example, were composed of monotonous prose, which made history classes extremely boring. It was through publications like the Wuxia novels (traditional Chinese fiction centered on the martial arts) that we imagined the mountains of China, the scenery, and how people dwelled there. It was immensely fascinating for us.
Later on, I started to understand and appreciate design as a tool for learning. This is how and why I became a designer: the Wuxia novels raised an initial curiosity about Chinese culture, and design is a bridge between culture and creativity—an idea that has influenced me ever since.
I have recently developed an interest in Chinese tea and bamboo culture, which I am learning more about through locally sourced (Chinese and Taiwanese) books. The knowledge gathered from these books will be used to inform my upcoming design projects. Design and books for me, therefore, are intertwined entities.
劉小康的書單
我從小在香港長大，書是我了解中國內地生活的重要途徑。那時中國還未開放，沒有任何圖片或影像可供參考。比如歷史書，充斥着單調的文字敘述，歷史課因此十分枯燥無味。是各種出版物，比如武俠小說，打開了我們的想象，讓我們看到了中國的山水風景，以及人們的生活日常。大家都深深沈迷其中。
後來，我逐漸開始了解設計，欣賞設計，並將其作為學習工具。這就是我成為設計師的原因：武俠小說喚醒了我對中國文化的好奇，而設計是連接文化與創意的橋梁－它自此以後一直深深影響着我。
我最近對中國的茶和竹文化很有興趣，看了很多相關書籍，學到不少。這些領悟都將反映在我未來的設計項目中。設計和書對我來說，相輔相成，密不可分。
Chinese translation by Lynn Zhang.
Nonfiction, Reference
- filter by:
- all genres (0)
Announcements
Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture by Robert A.M. Stern
Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture
By Robert A.M. Stern
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2022
Architect, historian, and educator Robert A. M. Stern presents a personal and candid assessment of contemporary architecture and his fifty years of practice.
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.
.png)
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.
Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York by Steven Heller
Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: October 2022
An entertaining coming-of-age memoir from Steven Heller, award-winning designer, writer, and former senior art director at the New York Times, that takes readers on a visually inspired look back at being at the center of New York’s youth culture in the 1960s and ’70s.
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.”
Women Holding Things by Maira Kalman
Women Holding Things
By Maira Kalman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: October 2022
In the spring of 2021, Maira and Alex Kalman created a small, limited-edition booklet, “Women Holding Things,” which featured select recent paintings by Maira, accompanied by her insightful and deeply personal commentary. The booklet quickly sold out. Now, the Kalmans have expanded that original publication into an extraordinary visual compendium. We see a woman hold a book, hold shears, hold children, hold a grudge, hold up, hold her own. In visually telling their stories, Kalman lays bare the essence of women’s lives—their tenacity, courage, vulnerability, hope, and pain.
Popular NowWeekMonth
- A Year in Design Books: Holiday Gift List 2022
- Baseball, Architecture, Time, and Creativity
- Quote of the Day: Emanuela Frattini Magnusson and Towards a New Architecture
- Imagining Information: Symbols, Isotype, and Book Design
- The Creative Interviewer: Debbie Millman on Why Design Matters
Recent Articles
