Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

title a–z

Nonfiction, Art and Cultural History

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240 books

About 2 Squares + More About 2 Squares El Lissitzky On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	About Looking John Berger On Milton Glaser’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Affect/Marcel Marcel Duchamp et al. On Harry Pearce’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006–2009 Ai Weiwei On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Air Guitar Dave Hickey On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life Carrie Barratt et al. On Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	American Visions Robert Hughes On Richard Meier’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ant Farm Felicity Scott On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Anti-Aesthetic Hal Foster, ed. On Deborah Berke’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin On Akiko Fukai’s Book List On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Farshid Moussavi’s Book List On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Are Clothes Modern? Bernard Rudofsky On George Tscherny’s Book List On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Art & Fear David Bayles et al. On Ken Carbone’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Art and Politics in the Weimar Period John Willett On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Art and Visual Perception Rudolf Arnheim On Milton Glaser’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Art of Florence Glenn M. Andres et al. On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Art of the Natural World Robert Rosenblum On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Arte Povera 2011 Gemano Celant On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Artists at Work: Inside the Studios of Today’s Most Celebrated Artists David Seidner On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Artist’s Library Erinn Batykefer et al. On list of Books by Laura Damon-Moore On list of Books by Erinn Batykefer Add to My Reading List	The Artist’s Reality: Philosophies of Art Mark Rothko et al. On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Arts & Architecture: The Entenza Years Barbara Goldstein, ed. On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List	At the Edge of History William Irwin Thompson On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini Benvenuto Cellini On Gijs Bakker’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Bart van der Leck Toos van Kooten On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Basquiat Marc Mayer, ed. On Bob Gill’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Bauhaus Reassessed: Sources and Design Theory Gillian Naylor On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings Gary Garrels, et al. On David Piscuskas’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even Marcel Duchamp et al. On Tom Coward’s Book List On Daisy Froud’s Book List On Vincent Lacovara’s Book List On Geoff Shearcroft’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Brunelleschi (Masters of Italian Art) Peter Gartner On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi: Best of Friends Shoji Sadao On Hugh Hardy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon Harvey Kubernik Add to My Reading List	Cent ans d’histoire de France Emmanuel Berl On Christian Lacroix’s Book List Add to My Reading List
China Diary David Hockney et al. On Alexander Cooper’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Churches in Rock Georg Gerster On Michael Maharam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cindy Sherman: The Complete Untitled Film Stills Cindy Sherman On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cinema 1: The Movement-Image Gilles Deleuze On Steven Holl’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cinema 2: The Time-Image Gilles Deleuze On Steven Holl’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Classic Frank Kermode On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Cleopatra’s Nose Daniel J. Boorstin On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Clock Christian Marclay On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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.

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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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