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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 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 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 George Lois: Damn Good Advice

By Steve Kroeter May 3, 2012

Graphic designer George Lois: Good Karma Creative (New York)
Profile Book List
Award-winning advertising designer and “master communicator” George Lois talks about his latest book,Damn Good Advice (Phaidon Press, March 2012). More...

Interviews

Art Cars: A Conversation with BMW’s Thomas Girst

By Steve Kroeter August 19, 2014

BMW’s Head of Cultural Engagement, Thomas Girst, talks about the company’s almost 40-year tradition of producing unique cars designed by artists—now collected into a book. BMW Art Cars, edited by Girst and published by Hatje Cantz, showcases the 17 artists invited to re-envision the look of some of the world’s most famous racecars. More...

Interviews

Anything About Madness: Jessica Helfand’s Book List

By Steve Kroeter April 5, 2011

Graphic designer, educator, and writer Jessica Helfand agreed to share with Designers & Books how she selected the titles for her book list and speaks about books as constant companions in her life. An avid reader (“three or four things at once”), she gravitates toward the “unusual” and the “unorthodox,” admits to a level of absurdity “that is absolutely at the core of my personality,” and readily acknowledges the theatricality in the way she approaches books (“I started out as an actress!”).

More...

Book List of the Week

André Leon Talley’s Book List: Books Are a Man’s Best Friend

By Steve Kroeter September 10, 2013

Fashion editor, author, and icon André Leon Talley (1948–January 18, 2022) talked to Designers & Books in 2013 about the books that inspired him, and the books he wrote, including Little Black Dress (2013, Skira/Rizzoli). His most recent book was his memoir The Chiffon Trenches (2020, Ballantine Books). More...

Book List of the Week

An Intellectual Affiliation: Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List—Interview by Nicolai Ouroussoff

By Steve Kroeter March 27, 2012

Architecture school dean and architect Mohsen Mostafavi: Harvard Graduate School of Design (Cambridge, MA) Profile Book List
Architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff (New York)
(New York) Profile
The venerable Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) celebrates its 75th anniversary during the 2011–2012 academic year. Earlier in the year, critic and author Nicolai Ouroussoff had the opportunity to meet GSD Dean Mohsen Mostafavi in his office to talk about books. The specific books in question were those on a list that Dean Mostafavi compiled for Designers & Books—books that have particular resonance for him not only because of their intellectual content but also through their very personal connection to him. More...

Interviews

A New Look for Harvard University Press: Q&A with Sagi Haviv and Tim Jones

By Steve Kroeter March 21, 2013

Harvard University Press is 100 years old this year. The venerable publisher, which has issued renowned scholarly series such as the Loeb Classical Library and the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures as well as numerous Pulitzer Prize-winning titles, is marking the anniversary by introducing a new visual identity—one that represents a significant departure from the traditional graphic imagery associated with the Press’s past. For some insights into how this all came about, Designers & Books talked with the designer of the new logo, Sagi Haviv, partner at Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv, and Harvard University Press’s Director of Design and Production, Tim Jones. More...

Interviews

30 Years of Designing an Archive

By Wes Del Val April 21, 2020

Wes Del Val interviews Art Books & Ephemera’s Richard Caldicott about the artist's online archive of almost 5,000 thought-provoking art, architecture, and design titles. 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.

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.