Gail Anderson’s Book List
Online design research is helpful and I do love my audio books when I’m driving, but regular old hardcovers and paperbacks will always rule. Books have memories attached to them, the occasional forgotten slips of paper, and sometimes even an earnest childhood signature. My list is comprised of design books I can’t function without, titles that have had lasting meaning for me, and some that overlap both categories.
Nonfiction, Graphic Design
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A 400-plus-page book that’s a steal and essential for any graphic designer’s bookshelf (along with In the Groove and Blue Note).
The first of many oversized softcovers on album cover design (and still the best).
Everyone’s got a copy of this from a high school or college class, right? I still refer to it when writing, and of course, had to buy the illustrated Maira Kalman version, too.
Completely digestible bits of graphic design history in one manageable book. I find myself referring to it more than any other design book I own, and I’ve got shelves full.
In the Groove serves as a wonderfully concise introduction to Alex Steinweiss, Jim Flora, and Erik Nitsche—and who can resist a Desi Arnaz album cover?
Design doesn’t get any more smarty-pants than Paula Scher. And you might as well pick up her map book while you’re at it. I actually read Make It Bigger—meaning I didn’t just look at the pretty pictures, and scan the captions. That’s how smarty-pants it is.
If you can dig up a used copy, it’s worth the investment. There are lots of books about wood type, Victorian design, and printing techniques, but the reissue of Lewis’s 1962 Printed Ephemera sets the standard.
I first saw this beautiful brick of a book when I was a young designer at Rolling Stone. A friend had a tattered copy—typesetters and designers often cut letters and dingbats out as needed—and I knew that I had to acquire my own. Of course, this was back in the dark ages before the Internet, so finding one meant scouring book fairs and flea markets. If you can score a 1923 ATF, do not hesitate to make the purchase. It will teach you everything you need to know about classic typography and good design.
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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