Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: November 22
November 21, 2013
This week we asked the founder of the Architecture & Design Film Festival to pick his top 10 all-time favorite films, stopped in at five of our favorite most out-of-the ordinary bookstores in the U. S., and visited five threatened cultural heritage sites—all accompanied by reading recommendations. We dissected the cover design of a book about the covers of one of the 20th century’s most famous novels, and we posted new answers to our “book edition” of the Proust Questionnaire, from Michael Bierut, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Debbie Millman, Harry Pearce, and Inga Sempé. Next week, we look at book picks from custom bicycle builder and master craftsman Richard Sachs, go to some rare book auctions, and reveal our holiday gift guides to design books.
Weekly Wrap-Up
Kyle Bergman, founder of the Architecture & Design Film Festival, offers his insider picks for the best design movies of all time.
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Architect James Wines, a 2013 recipient of the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, discusses his unique approach.
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Bookstores can be magical places that transport us to a different time and place. In celebration of the written word, here are five of our favorite unconventional bookstores from across the country.
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What Prisoners of Childhood explains about him, why he likes the design of the first edition of Learning from Las Vegas (even though it’s harder to read), and more answers to The Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition from Michael Bierut.
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“Encountering knowledge is like encountering love,” writes Milan-based architect Cino Zucchi in the introduction to his book list. “The books that have been meaningful to us are more often ‘found’ than searched for.”
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Our second installment of “Cover Stories” considers how the classic 20th-century novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov continues to inspire countless cover designs, 80 of which are collected in a new book.
More...Next Week's Preview
At a time when the return to handcraftsmanship is often in the news and the community of design “makers” continues to grow, the custom bicycles built by Richard Sachs—and the attentiveness he brings to building them—are still a rare ideal. This same attentiveness is just as evident in what he calls the “pile“ of books he “built” for his list.
Each fall, the world's preeminent auction houses offer up a collection of rare and unique books. Here are five of the most exciting.
Design books make great gifts! Our special series of gift guides.
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.
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.
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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.
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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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