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Design Books Within Reach

Designers & Books Begins a New Collaboration with Design Within Reach

By The Editors, Designers & Books November 12, 2013

Designers & Books is so used to asking designers and design writers for their book lists that it took Editor in Chief Steve Kroeter by surprise when someone asked him for the books he found most inspiring. That someone was the renowned company Design Within Reach, whose mission is to make authentic modern design furnishings accessible. The result was a unique collaboration.

Designers & Books Editor in Chief Steve Kroeter among his many books at home, some of which are displayed in a Sapien bookcase (right), designed by Bruno Rainaldi (Milan), in 2003 and produced by Design Within Reach.

Design Within Reach, “The Gift of Know-How” (Fall 2013)

Beginning this October, Design Within Reach launched “The Gift of Know-How” (#dwrknowhow), asking several “aficionados”* of style, drinks, books, and food to share their expertise with online readers. Participants are Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo (Of a Kind), Joaquín Simó (Pouring Ribbons), Karen Mordechai (Sunday Suppers), and Steve Kroeter—featured this week.

To get his thoughts on books, Design Within Reach followed Steve around New York, including to his book-filled (naturally) home, with a video camera. You can watch the entire video below and also view the list of books that have inspired him.

Among Steve’s book selections are design titles such as The Decorative Designs of Frank Lloyd Wright by David H. Hanks and fiction including George Eliot’s Middlemarch and Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun.

The Gift of Know-How from Design Within Reach | Books from Design Within Reach on Vimeo.

There is also the counter-culture classic The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe and the entire first series of the Paris Review interviews, Writers at Work.

A selection of the books on Steve Kroeter’s book list for “The Gift of Know-How” from Design Within Reach

The literary connection extends to 10 Design Within Reach designers who have contributed book lists to Designers & Books. These are Jeffrey Bernett, Milton Glaser, Jasper Morrison, Karim Rashid, Jens Martin Skibsted, Erik Spiekermann, David Weeks, Massimo Vignelli, and the late Niels Diffrient and Eva Zeisel. View the list of 10 Book Lists from Design Within Reach Designers.

*As part of its DWR aficionado showcase, Design Within Reach also offers a chance to win an Eames® Hang-It-All from DWR and a $500 gift certificate from emerging retailer Of a Kind.

You can also win a Sapien Bookcase by tweeting your favorite design book and using #dwrknowhow. Winners will be announced next week—the week of November 18.

Design, Marketing, Business, Life: Jeffrey Bernett’s Book List

The Well-Written Sentence as an Act of Design: David Weeks’s Book List

Bikes, Branding, and Philosophy: Jens Martin Skibsted’s Book List

10 Book Lists from Design Within Reach Designers

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