Interviews, Essays, Etc.
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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.
Interviews
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June 26, 2012
Indefatigable designer, writer, and reader Todd Oldham talks to design editor Wendy Goodman of New York magazine in an interview for Designers & Books—about what (and how) he reads and writes. Authors Dorothy Parker and Amy and David Sedaris, artists Cindy Sherman and Tim Hawkinson, film director Sidney Lumet, and designers Roberto Burle Marx, Tony Duquette, Charley Harper, and Alexander Girard are all part of the mix.
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March 27, 2012
During the academic year celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Dean Mohsen Mostafavi met with critic and author Nicolai Ouroussoff to talk about the books on Dean Mostafavi’s Designers & Books list—books that have particular resonance for him not only because of their intellectual content but also through their very personal connection to him.
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February 21, 2012
Interior designer Jeffrey Bilhuber sits down with Designers & Books for a conversation that ranges from an unusual fiction choice on the book list he sent us to why he is getting his preschool son a subscription to National Geographic magazine to what his own library looks like and the thinking behind his latest book, The Way Home.
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December 6, 2011
Architect Jeanne Gang talks to architecture critic Paul Goldberger about books and authors from Benjamin Franklin to Eileen Gray as well as how her idea of “turning off reality and letting yourself imagine” applies both to the design development process of a building and the interior monologue that goes on when you are reading a book.
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November 22, 2011
Graphic designer Bob Gill talks to Designers & Books about his favorite books, the fact that he is not an avid reader, and comments about the many books he’s written, including his latest—Bob Gill, so far.
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October 25, 2011
Graphic designer, curator, author, and commentator Ellen Lupton weighs in on reading and writing for practicing designers and design students.
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October 11, 2011
Graphic designer, author, and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about the books she reads and writes—and what her answer for everything is.
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August 16, 2011
Dutch typographer and graphic designer Wim Crouwel talks to Designers & Books about his library, his bookcases, and books whose design he admires.
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July 12, 2011
Alberto Alessi, head of the eponymous company recognized for bringing high design to housewares, talks about the poetry of design in a special interview with Designers & Books.
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June 28, 2011
Book cover designer and novelist Chip Kidd talks about his second novel, comic strips, advertising, and more in an interview with Véronique Vienne for Designers & Books.
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May 10, 2011
Rick Poynor talks about everything you need as a thinking, principled, committed designer—and also about books and graphic design in general.
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May 10, 2011
Angus Hyland answers questions about books—those on his Designers & Books list, those he’s written, and those he’s about to read.
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April 5, 2011
Jessica Helfand is a graphic designer, educator, writer, and an avid reader. In this interview with Designers & Books she talks about books as constant companions in her life—and why the titles on the book list she submitted are not about design.
Essays
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December 13, 2011
Susan S. Szenasy talks about books that have, or should have, influenced our culture and the design community from her perspective as editor in chief of Metropolis, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2011.
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June 7, 2011
Juhani Pallasmaa, former dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Helsinki University, lists 40 books that during his tenure he asked every new architecture student to read over the summer.
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May 3, 2011
Paul Goldberger reflects on books that deepen our encounters with architecture.
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February 1, 2011
Margaret McCurry writes about authors, subject matter, and literary styles that have influenced her—and how a client once referred to her as “the Jane Austen of architects.”
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February 1, 2011
Steven Heller is the author, co-author, and/or editor of more than 100 books. In this essay he writes about why he writes—and why he writes mostly about design.
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February 1, 2011
Maryanne Wolf writes about how the design dynamics of the human brain enable books to have an impact on us far beyond what we might imagine.
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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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.
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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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