Book List of the Week

The Book List of the Week highlights the list of books provided by invited designers (including architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, interior designers, landscape architects, product designers, urban designers, and other design professionals) who have chosen books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.
189 blog entries
Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter May 10, 2011

Graphic designer Angus Hyland: Pentagram (London)
book list
Angus Hyland is a partner in Pentagram’s London office and also consultant creative director to Laurence King Publishing. He agreed to answer some questions from us about books—those on his list (which he describes as “divided in half by the needs of work and pleasure”), those he’s written, and those he’s about to read. More...

Architecture
By Steve Kroeter May 3, 2011

Architecture critic Paul Goldberger (New York)
book list
What is the first role of books about architecture? “To interpret and explain: to be, in effect, the label on the museum wall, or the note in the concert program.” So writes architecture critic Paul Goldberger in a new essay for Designers & Books. But that’s only the beginning. He goes on to say, “The greatest buildings, like art and music and literature, can be interpreted in multiple ways. As there is no end to what can be said about Beethoven and Mozart, there is no end to what can be said about the work of Michelangelo and Palladio and Borromini and Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Kahn.” More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 26, 2011

Interior design editor and writer Dominique Browning (New York and Rhode Island)
book list
Visitors entering Dominique Browning’s home for the first time frequently have the same reaction: “I’ve never seen so many books!” Her love of books, plus her many years of experience at the forefront of the journalistic side of the style and interior design worlds, made us eager to invite her to submit a book list—and happy when she agreed. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter April 18, 2011

Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi: Isaac Mizrahi New York (New York)
book list
Isaac Mizrahi sent us a list of books every bit as colorful, compelling, and eclectically inspired as the clothes he designs and the life he lives. While perhaps best known for the clothes and accessories in his many fashion collections, his activities and range of interests include acting in films and on television programs; designing costumes for Broadway shows, the Metropolitan Opera, and ballets; writing—from comic books to style guides; hosting “Watch Isaac,” his daily web series; and appearing regularly on “Isaac Mizrahi Live!” on the QVC Network.

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Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 29, 2011

To get a feel for the remarkably varied and ever-present role that light plays in our lives, there is no better place to look than the work of the firm founded by lighting designers Jules Fisher and Paul Marantz. Over the course of the more than 40 years that they have worked together, their combined projects reveal the full spectrum of light as a constant social, cultural, and commercial force.

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Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 22, 2011

If The Divine Comedy isn’t on Seymour Chwast’s book list, it isn’t because he’s unfamiliar with it. In keeping with his stated interest in “visual language referencing culture and literature,” Chwast—the founder of the legendary Push Pin Studios,* along with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel—is the latest in a long line of noted artists to have provided a personal interpretation of Dante’s 14th-century epic poem More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 15, 2011

Among the books chosen by Akiko Fukai, Director and Chief Curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute (KCI) in Kyoto, is Issey Miyake: East Meets West. The title provides a symbolic link to the books selected by Claire Wilcox, Senior Curator of Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter March 1, 2011

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar have been working together for more than 50 years to create visual identities and brand personalities for their clients. The portfolio of their work together—including their partner, Sagi Haviv, who joined the firm in 2003—encompasses many of the world’s most recognizable logos and trademarks, from the Chase octagon to the NBC peacock. More...

Architecture
By Steve Kroeter February 22, 2011

The architects Steven Holl and Juhani Pallasmaa have a history of connections. Holl (an American) and Pallasmaa (a Finn) have important ties to each other’s home country. One of Holl’s best-known buildings is in Helsinki (the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, for which Pallasmaa was the local architect). Pallasmaa, who has held visiting professorships at four American universities, is an honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter February 15, 2011

From Cynthia Rowley’s intriguing book list you get that she gets art. There are books about artists (John Currin and Rachel Feinstein); books about the lives of artists (by Calvin Tomkins); and also a book about the migration of minimalism from art and architecture to the sartorial arts (by Elyssa Dimant). Also, her business activities extend beyond fashion into the art arena: she is co-founder of Exhibition A, a website that sells exclusive editions of artwork by contemporary artists. More...