Interviews, Essays, Etc.

Author Q&As

• Author Q&A with John van de Water: You Can’t Change China, China Changes You
  John van de Water
  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).

• Author Q&A with Judith Turner: Seeing Ambiguity
  Judith Turner
  August 30, 2012

  Acclaimed photographer of architecture Judith Turner discusses Seeing Ambiguity, her new book published in April 2012 by Edition Axel Menges.

• Author Q&A with Paula Scher: Maps
  Paula Scher
  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.

• Author Q&A with Ralph Rucci: Autobiography of a Fashion Designer
  Ralph Rucci
  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.

• Author Q&A with Victoria Newhouse: Site and Sound
  Victoria Newhouse
  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).

• Author Q&A with George Lois: Damn Good Advice
  George Lois
  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.

• Author Q&A with John Hill: Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture
  John Hill
  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.

• Author Q&A with Steven Heller: 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design
  Steven Heller

  Véronique Vienne
  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).

• Author Q&A with Mark Foster Gage: Aesthetic Theory
  Mark Foster Gage
  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.”

• Author Q&A with Kenneth Frampton: Five North American Architects
  Kenneth Frampton
  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.

• Author Q&A with Jeffrey M. Chusid: Saving Wright
  Jeffrey M. Chusid
  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.

• Author Q&A with Ivan Chermayeff, Tom Geismar, and Sagi Haviv: Identify
  Ivan Chermayeff

  Tom Geismar

  Sagi Haviv
  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.

• Author Q&A with Michael Bierut: Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
  Michael Bierut
  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.

• Author Q&A with Michael Maharam: Maharam Agenda
  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.