10 Books on Rebelling and Creativity

— McNally Jackson Books art and design book buyer Ames Gerould comments on Can Jokes Bring Down Governments?:

“A worthwhile read for the sake of intellectual freedoms as well as for a greatly needed undermining of conventional corporate identity-design practices.”

— Graphic designer Bob Gill comments on Dada: Art and Anti-Art:

“Richter recreates that boisterous and fantastic movement of Dadaism in wartime Zurich and Paris in the 1920s. This collection, which includes Man Ray, George Grosz, Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, etc., has been a wonderful source of inspiration.”

— Graphic designer Louise Fili comments on Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!):

“When legendary adman George Lois speaks, we all listen.”

— IDEO partner Tom Kelley comments on Design Revolution:

“Emily Pilloton is my design hero. Thirty years from now, people will be calling her a national treasure, and they will point to this book as an early milestone in her journey. The book’s collection of 100 social-innovation/design projects was just the jumping off point for Emily’s subsequent ventures: a cross-country Design Revolution Road Show, a hands-on design thinking curriculum for high school kids, a design-and-build summer camp for tween girls, and a documentary film on the power of design thinking. It’s not just a book. It’s the harbinger of a bright future.”

— Graphic designer (Pentagram) Michael Bierut comments on The Fountainhead:

“The designer as hero.”

— Graphic designer and art director (Knopf) Chip Kidd comments:

“A bit obvious, and more than a little embarrassing, this book nonetheless truly made me reevaluate what it means to be a designer, at a crucial time in my life (late college). It is NOT to be taken as gospel, but more as a cautionary tale of megalomania. Plus, as a soap opera it’s pretty hard to beat.”

— Architect Stanley Tigerman comments:

“I read The Fountainhead when I was 13 years old in 1943, put it down and decided to become an architect. One may question Rand’s politics, even the ideology of the self, but her gripping tale of an architect unapologetically motivated my prepubescent psyche.”

— Brain Pickings founder and editor Maria Popova, called the mini edition of Irma Boom: The Architecture of the Book:

“A micro-manifesto for the printed book at its most alive.”

#1 Design Best Seller at Van Alen Books, New York (January 2014).

— Graphic designer Abbott Miller (Pentagram) comments on The Medium is the Massage:

“A model of design and writing, and an exceptional case study of a partnership between a public intellectual and a great designer.”

— Visual literature pioneer Warren Lehrer comments:

“The book visualized notions of hot versus cool mediums, how technologies from the wheel to the telephone are extensions of our bodies and create a sense of comfort as well as anxiety. Some pages were printed backward and were meant to be read in a mirror; others were left completely blank. This ‘experimental’ paperback published by Bantam became a best seller and helped popularize McLuhan’s ideas.”

— Industrial designer Carola Zwick (Studio 7.5, Berlin) comments:

“This small paperback is the result of a typo at the printing house that McLuhan embraced and used to create a ‘reader’s digest’ version of his ‘The Medium is the Message.’” It uses visual means to support his idea that human artifacts serve as extensions of the human body and brain.”

— Visual culture critic and founding editor of Eye Rick Poynor comments on Mirko Ilić: Fist to Face:

“Substantial monographs about contemporary designers don’t come along that often and this one about Mirko Ilić bursts at the seams with the man’s energy, generosity, loquacity and sense of danger. Yugoslavia—as it was then—was never going to be big enough to contain him and he went on to take New York by storm with op-ed illustrations and design concepts of uncompromising directness, and no inhibiting qualms about good taste. Croatian writer Dejan Kršić does a great job of relating the story and the book is packed with the provocative, high-octane images that make Ilić one of a kind.”

— Gizmodo editor Alissa Walker comments on Steve Jobs:

“There’s plenty to mine when it comes to innovation and branding and product development, yes. But it’s more than that. Jobs spent a lifetime building technology for artists. And designers, as those who have benefited from this process the most, should know the fascinating story behind their tools.”

— Jewelry designer Temple St. Clair comments:

“I found the story of Jobs completely inspiring, especially his defiant refusal to compromise on design and quality.”

— Written by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister.

Among the book’s “maxims” is: “Honesty can solve any problem.”