Weekly Wrap-Up & Preview: November 8
November 8, 2013Highlights of this week include November reviews of Notable Design Books of 2013 and answers to our Proust Questionnaire—Book Edition from Tony Brook, Rick Poynor, Peter Eisenman, and Coralie Bickford-Smith. We’ll be publishing more answers daily throughout November. We also featured a Bauhaus reading list and a “hotel” that’s just the place to do that reading. We talked with the designer of the new book on filmmaker Wes Anderson and also with rare book dealer Randall Ross of Modernism 101 about logo designer Clarence Hornung. Next week, fashion designer Anna Sui tells us about the books that inspire her, we visit a library built out of books, and we explore some surprising history behind common typographical marks.
Weekly Wrap-Up

Our November reviews highlight the design of an ancient hanging garden, some of the world’s most spectacular opera houses, the lost art of architectural drawing drawing by hand, and a guide to the iconic figures of graphic design.
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The Bauhaus-Dessau has opened its former student dormitory for overnight stays. Here's a reading list of books by the institution's famous alumni.
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A new book, The Wes Anderson Collection, pays tribute to the evolution of the filmmaker who has delighted audiences for decades with his unique artistry and idiosyncratic characters.
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A selected list of guides to to the Bauhaus movement, founded April 1, 1919 in Weimar (moving to Dessau in 1925) by German architect Walter Gropius, and highlights of some of its major figures.
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Rediscovering the work of American graphic design pioneer Clarence Hornung with rare modern book dealer Randall Ross.
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For his (long—22 books) list for Designers & Books, writer, graphic designer, and multimedia artist Warren Lehrer, known as a pioneer in the field of visual literature, or “vis lit,” decided to focus on “books (mostly fiction, some non-fiction, a few hybrids) whose visual composition is an integral part of the writing.”
More...Next Week's Preview

“Everything I’m currently obsessed with can serve as inspiration for my work: films, exhibitions, music, travel, flea markets. And books!” fashion designer Ann Sui proclaims. ”I love doing the research, learning about something new.”

Ikon.5 Architects has delivered a library and civic space in Delaware inspired by a pile of books.

Who knew that Twitter staples like the octothorpe—or as the masses have come to call it, the hashtag (#)—originated from ancient Rome or that the @ symbol owes its fame to a computer engineer working on the government-sponsored project in 1971?
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.
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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