Book List of the Week

Fun and Playful and Joyful: Jonathan Adler’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter December 20, 2011

Jonathan Adler

Product and interior designer Jonathan Adler: Jonathan Adler Enterprises (New York)

Designers & Books is always intrigued by designers’ manifestos. Not only do they offer a window onto a designer’s work, but they also often provide insights into the choices included on the designer’s book list. Those familiar with Jonathan Adler’s work—products and accessories for the home, interior design, and international retailing—will recognize right away the ideas stated in his manifesto. What does he believe about color? “We believe that colors can’t clash.” Is he more in the camp of “less is more” or “less is a bore”? “We believe minimalism is a bummer.” What does he believe is the feeling that residential interior design should conjure up? “We believe that your home should make you happy.”

Adler’s manifesto also identifies his muses. Named are Bonnie Cashin, Hans Coper, Gio Ponti, LeRoy Neiman, Yves Saint Laurent, Madonna—as well as Alexander Girard, David Hicks, and Andy Warhol. These last three names also appear on Adler’s book list for Designers & Books.

The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, by Warhol, is on Adler’s list—with the comment, “Read it as a teen and knew that Andy Warhol was my hero.” Also on Adler’s list is the new book on Alexander Girard by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee. Adler calls it “the most inspiring book I’ve ever seen” (a comment that Wendy Goodman in her Designers & Books video book review agrees with). Adler goes on to say: “Alexander Girard was a genius. Everything he did was beautiful and original and idiosyncratic. I love him. But I don’t love how bloody prolific he was—makes me feel like a total slacker.” We find it easy to agree with all of what Adler says (except the last part about being a “total slacker”).

Adler has also chosen David Hicks: A Life of Design, written by Hicks’s son, Ashley. In a book that David Hicks himself wrote, David Hicks on Living—with Taste, he said that one of his greatest contributions as an interior designer was “to show people how to use bold color mixtures.” Perhaps this shared devotion to color partially explains Adler’s attraction to Hicks. But Adler explains his interest in Hicks more fully by saying, “What I really love about his work is that it’s not just chic—it’s fun and playful and joyful, all the things I believe good design should be.”

Left to right: My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living, 2010 (Sterling Innovation), Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Accessorizing, 2010 (Sterling Innovation), and Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Colors, 2005 (Harper Design).

In addition to the books that have inspired him, we note that Adler has written three books of his own, with titles that reflect his belief in the fun, playfulness, and joy of design: My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living, Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Accessorizing, and Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic Colors.

comments powered by Disqus

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.

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.”

Order the book.

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.

Order the book.