Designers & Books Blog

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856 blog entries

Author Q&As

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

By Steve Kroeter February 8, 2012

Graphic designer Ivan Chermayeff: Chermayeff & Geismar
(New York)   Profile  Book List
Graphic designer Tom Geismar: Chermayeff & Geismar
(New York)   Profile   Book List
Graphic designer Sagi Haviv: Chermayeff & Geismar
(New York)   Profile   Book List

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. More...

Interviews

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

By Steve Kroeter August 14, 2012

Preservation architect and historic preservation professor Jeffrey M. Chusid: Cornell University (Ithaca, New York)
Profile
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. More...

Interviews

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

By Steve Kroeter March 29, 2012

Architect and Architecture blogger John Hill: Archidose (New York)
Profile Notable Books of 2011
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. The book was named a Designers & Books Notable Book of 2011 by Justin Davidson. More...

Interviews

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

By Steve Kroeter June 21, 2012

Architect John van de Water: NEXT Architects (Amsterdam and Beijing)
Profile
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). More...

Interviews

Author Q&A with Judith Turner: Seeing Ambiguity

By Steve Kroeter August 30, 2012

Photographer Judith Turner (New York)
Profile
Acclaimed photographer of architecture Judith Turner discusses Seeing Ambiguity, her new book published in April 2012 by Edition Axel Menges. More...

Interviews

Author Q&A with Kate Stohr: Design Like You Give a Damn [2]

By Steve Kroeter September 20, 2012

Kate Stohr, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity (AfH)—a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing design solutions to humanitarian crises and challenges worldwide, including needs for housing, education, healthcare, clean water, and renewable energy—discusses the new follow-up edition to AfH’s enormously successful first book. Published in May 2012 by Abrams, Design Like You Give a Damn [2] profiles more than 100 projects for reimagining community and improving lives across the globe, from a skate park in war-torn Afghanistan to innovative materials such as smog-eating concrete. More...

Architecture

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

By Steve Kroeter August 23, 2012

Architecture professor and architect Kenneth Frampton: Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (New York)
Profile
In honor of his 80th birthday, Kenneth Frampton—Ware Professor of Architecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), where he has taught since 1972—was invited by the dean of the School, Mark Wigley, to “curate an event.” Frampton chose to structure the event, a symposium, as an “occasion to present something of the current state of architecture as a North American practice,” focusing on the U.S. and Canada. More...

Architecture

Author Q&A with Mark Foster Gage: Aesthetic Theory

By Steve Kroeter April 26, 2012

Architect and Architecture Professor Mark Foster Gage: Gage/Clemenceau Architects (New York) and Yale University School of Architecture (New Haven)
Profile
Architect and Yale University School of Architecture professor Mark Foster Gage discusses the recent collection of writings he edited that explore contemporary architecture and beauty, Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design (W. W. Norton, October 2011). More...

Interviews

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

By Steve Kroeter April 19, 2012

Graphic designer Michael Bierut: Pentagram (New York)
Profile Book List
Graphic designer Michael Bierut takes a look at his Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design on the occasion of its release in paperback by Princeton Architectural Press (March 2012). The book was originally published in hardcover in 2007. More...

Interviews

Author Q&A with Michael C. Kathrens: American Splendor

By Steve Kroeter September 26, 2012

Architectural and interior design historian Michael C. Kathrens discusses the newly revised edition of his book American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer (April 2012, Acanthus Press; originally published 2002), which brings the work of one of America’s most influential residential architects of the Country House era—from the late 19th century to 1930—to a new audience. More...

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.

Order the book.

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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