Designers & Books Blog

 

856 blog entries
Architecture
By Steve Kroeter February 5, 2013

Architect Victoria Meyers: Hanrahan Meyers Architects (New York)
Profile     Book List
“I selected my books for many reasons,” Victoria Meyers writes in the introduction to her list for Designers & Books. “Some books have followed me around for a very long time (I started reading Frank Lloyd Wright’s writings when I was seven or eight). Some books on the list were given to me by relatives whom I was close to (The Poetry of Robert Frost, given to me by my aunt). Complete Poems and Selected Letters of Michelangelo catalogues a life that I can relate to—suffering because of the design process! More...

Interviews
By Steve Kroeter April 30, 2014

Designers & Books talks with Dan Saffer, a Creative Director at Smart Design and author of four books on design, including, most recently, Microinteractions: Designing with Details, on importance of designing the “small stuff” from phone settings to smoke detector alarms. More...

The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition
By Monica Förster November 15, 2013

Swedish product designer Monica Förster will stay up all night to finish a really good book, is looking for a book “about the scientific discovery that finally explains the connection of everything in the universe,” and gives more of her answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition. More...

Daily Features
By Alissa Walker February 16, 2012

Guest blogger: Alissa Walker (Los Angeles)
Profile   Notable Books of 2011
Guest blogger Alissa Walker—design and urbanism journalist, critic, and author—talks about why the era of coffee table books bigger than coffee tables is over. More...

Daily Features
By Stela Razzaque, Superscript November 19, 2013

The World Monuments Fund has listed the most threatened cultural heritage sites across the world, and five of them are in the United States. More...

Booksellers
By Steve Kroeter March 8, 2011

We sent out our second monthly newsletter last week—which meant that some people hit reply and thoughtfully sent us return notes. We got one from Linda Golant, whom we are always particularly happy to hear from, since she owns The Fashion Bookstore in Los Angeles—a Designers & Books affiliated bookseller. More...

Book List of the Week
By Steve Kroeter November 22, 2011

Graphic designer Bob Gill (New York)
Book List

On a recent late Friday afternoon, Designers & Books visited Bob Gill in his studio on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Gill, a founder of Pentagram's forerunner—Fletcher/Forbes/Gill—was seated in an Eames lounge chair next to a floor-to-ceiling wall of books. Scattered about were all the tools of the graphic design trade—of both the analog and digital variety: a Mac and trays of pencils and markers, a scanner as well as straightedges. The conversation with Gill covered 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. More...

Daily Features
By Anne Quito, Superscript September 4, 2013

As more and more countries are turning to designers and architects to reimagine their global image, Hunter Tura discusses Bruce Mau Design’s proposal to update Canada’s identity for the 21st century. More...

Architecture
By Steve Kroeter September 18, 2012

Architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen: Jacobsen Architecture (Washington, D.C.)
Profile     Book List
In his more than 50 years of practice, architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen has been recognized for his eloquent modern residential work (20 awards from Architectural Record alone) that draws inspiration from vernacular American forms and local sites. “I endeavor to design buildings that belong, make the site look better and, hopefully, never shout,” he writes in his “Design Philosophy.” More...

The Proust Questionnaire — Book Edition
By Nicholas Blechman November 13, 2013

Where New York Times Book Review art director Nicholas Blechman likes to buy books, the last book he bought, and 22 other answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition. More...