Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: December 1
December 1, 2014Design books make great gifts! In November we were pleased to introduce our Online Book Fair 2014 Holiday Gift Guide, featuring more than 20 design book publishers and rare and out of print book dealers. The Gift Guide’s many sort and filter options—by price, subject, time period, and more—along with gift suggestions for everyone from kids to cooks, up to 50% discounts on some titles, and the fact that it is continually updated, creates a place tailored to all of your design book shopping needs (and wishes), starting from this Cyber Monday through December 31.
Last month we also brought you the book lists of 10 prominent women in architecture, a list of books on toy design, and articles on new children’s design and architecture books and on vintage design book finds.
In December our “Design Books to Win“ drawings will give you the chance to win two new photography books and we’ll be highlighting the best in new photography titles from a range of publishers.
Weekly Wrap-Up

Among the many prominent architects and designers who have collaborated on products with the American design firm Knoll are four who have sent us the books that have had an impact on their lives and careers. This week we spotlight the book lists of architects David Adjaye and Maya Lin, architect and industrial designer Emanuela Frattini Magnusson, and graphic design studio 2x4 and one of its founders, Michael Rock.
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Our first Online Book Fair Holiday Gift Guide now includes new additions such as Room (Phaidon Press), Melting Away (Princeton Architectural Press), and Lella and Massimo Vignelli: Two Lives, One Vision—all offered at special discounts through December 31. Featuring over 145 new and newly selected books in architecture, design, art, and photography, the Holiday Gift Guide is designed to make this year’s holiday shopping for design and book lovers easy, informative, affordable—and fun.
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A look at recent highlights in books for children about architecture and design from AMMO Books, Gestalten, Paintbox Press, Princeton Architectural Press, and Schiffer Publishing.
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Ten books on the history of toy design and designing toys for children—from classic wooden toys to Lego and more.
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To uncover some rare and out of print design book finds, we asked four book dealers—F. A. Bernett, Carnegie Hill Books, Modernism 101, and Optos Books—featured on the Designers & Books Online Book Fair, for a few highlights of their vintage gems in all price ranges. (All books are available for purchase as of November 25, 2014, and to celebrate the winter holidays Optos Books is offering 15% off on all Online Book Fair titles and Modernism 101 is offering 10% off through December 31)
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Ten notable women working as architects have sent us lists of books that have had an influence on what they do and think and how they create. The architects are: Deborah Berke, Denise Scott Brown, Nathalie de Vries, Jeanne Gang, Margaret McCurry, Victoria Meyers, Farshid Moussavi, Galia Solomonoff, Ada Tolla, and Billie Tsien.
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— Coming in December. Architects and designers have had a long and intense relationship with photography—and photography books. We highlight some 2014 additions to the genre, including Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography by Elias Redstone, from Phaidon Press.

Win two new books on digital photography. Five winners will each receive copies of David Hume Kennerly on the iPhone: Secrets and Tips from a Pulitzer Prize-winning Photographer, from GOFF Books, and The Instagram Book, from AMMO Books. Enter to win until Tuesday, December 9, 11:59 PM (EST).
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Announcements
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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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