Interviews, Essays, Etc.
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Author Q&As
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Author Q&As
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August 30, 2012
Acclaimed photographer of architecture Judith Turner discusses Seeing Ambiguity, her new book published in April 2012 by Edition Axel Menges.
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August 23, 2012
Kenneth Frampton—Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where he has taught since 1972—talks about Five North American Architects: An Anthology, released in February 2012 by Lars Müller and GSAPP.
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August 14, 2012
Preservation architect Jeffrey M. Chusid talks about his book Saving Wright: The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity (W. W. Norton, December 2011), which chronicles the efforts to preserve the Freeman House—an experimental house in the Hollywood Hills designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1924—and the “the symphonic blast of excitement” the author experienced actually living in the house.
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August 9, 2012
Michael Maharam, CEO of one of the leading suppliers of textiles to architects and interior designers in the U.S., talks about his book, Maharam Agenda, published in November 2011 by Lars Müller.
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July 26, 2012
Couturier Ralph Rucci discusses his book, Autobiography of a Fashion Designer: Ralph Rucci, published in December 2011 by Bauer and Dean and inspired by artist Sol LeWitt’s autobiography told through objects.
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July 5, 2012
Architectural historian Victoria Newhouse talks about some of the remarkable music performance spaces that appear in the pages of her newest book, Site and Sound: The Architecture and Acoustics of New Opera Houses and Concert Halls (The Monacelli Press, April 2012).
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June 21, 2012
John van de Water, a partner in the Dutch firm NEXT Architects, discusses what went into creating his book, You Can’t Change China, China Changes You, an account of five years spent working as a Western architect in China (010 Publishers, February 2012).
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May 3, 2012
Advertising designer and “master communicator” George Lois talks about what his book Damn Good Advice (Phaidon Press, March 2012) offers, why he has been called “the original Mad Man,” and more.
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April 26, 2012
Architect and Yale University School of Architecture professor Mark Foster Gage discusses his book on contemporary architecture and beauty and examines what designers can do to ensure that we “dine in the restaurant of architecture.”
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April 19, 2012
Graphic designer Michael Bierut takes a look at his Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design on the occasion of its release in paperback and discusses typefaces, the “First Things First” manifesto, and what he's thinking of writing next.
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April 12, 2012
Steven Heller talks about 100 graphic design ideas, some of the all-time great graphic designers, and more in his newest book, written with Véronique Vienne, 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design (April 2012, Laurence King Publishing).
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March 29, 2012
Architect and architecture blogger John Hill, of Archidose, discusses his book Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture, published in December 2011 by W. W. Norton, and how he went from “architourist” to author. The book was named a Designers & Books Notable Book of 2011.
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March 22, 2012
Graphic designer Paula Scher talks about her recent book, Maps (Princeton Architectural Press, October 2011), which was named a Designers & Books Notable Book of 2011, how she got interested in cartography, and how she approached the book’s design.
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February 8, 2012
In the first in a series of Author Q&As, Designers & Books asks graphic designers Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, and Sagi Haviv to talk about their new book, Identify (Print Publishing, October 2011), named a Notable Book of 2011 by Designers & Books.
Announcements
If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture by Moshe Safdie
If Walls Could Speak: My Life in Architecture
By Moshe Safdie
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
Published: September 2022
One of the world’s greatest and most thoughtful architects recounts his extraordinary career and the iconic structures he has built—from Habitat in Montreal to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore—and offers a manifesto for the role architecture should play in society.
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.”
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.
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