Chosen Books

Invited designers and commentators have chosen these as the books that inspire them and that have shaped their worldview or their ideas about design.

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Design, General

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71 books

Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006–2009 Ai Weiwei On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia Anthony M. Townsend On Carlo Ratti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough Jonathan M. Tisch et al. On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Praise of Shadows Jun’ichiro Tanizaki On Antoine Predock’s Book List On Akiko Fukai’s Book List On Paul Marantz’s Book List On Tom Kundig’s Book List On David Adjaye’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Craig Dykers’s Book List On Marco Romanelli’s Book List On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Shaping Things Bruce Sterling On Tucker Viemeister’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Laws of Form G. Spencer-Brown On Neil Denari’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Personal Space Robert Sommer On Niels Diffrient’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Masterpieces from the House of Fabergé Alexander von Solodkoff On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design Process: Olivetti 1908-1978 Nathan H. Shapira et al. On David Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Craftsman Richard Sennett On Milton Glaser’s Book List On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On Carola Zwick’s Book List On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Wiener Werkstätte: Kunst und Handwerk, 1903–1932 Werner Schweiger On Carin Goldberg’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Nature Design Angeli Sachs On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Kimono Mind Bernard Rudofsky On Tom Geismar’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Grammatica della Fantasia (The Grammar of Fantasy) Gianni Rodari On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design fai da te Recession Design, ed. On Paolo Deganello’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The War of Art Steven Pressfield On Carin Goldberg’s Book List On Tom Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Substance of Style Virginia Postrel On Adam Tihany’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design Revolution Emily Pilloton On Tom Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Design for the Real World Victor Papanek On Tim Brown’s Book List On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On Zoë Ryan’s Book List On Gijs Bakker’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creative Intelligence Bruce Nussbaum On Dan Formosa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Heraldry Ottfried Neubecker On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	How to See: A Guide to Reading Our Manmade Environment George Nelson On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	How to See George Nelson On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Fantasia Bruno Munari On Giuseppe Lignano’s Book List On Ada Tolla’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Nella Notte Buia (In the Darkness of the Night) Bruno Munari On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Nella Nebbia di Milano (In the Fog of Milan) Bruno Munari On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Setting the Table Danny Meyer On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Thinking in Systems Donella Meadows et al. On John Maeda’s Book List Add to My Reading List	McMaster-Carr Catalog McMaster-Carr On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Marinetti: Selected Writings F. T. Marinetti On Daniel Libeskind’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Laws of Simplicity John Maeda On Tim Brown’s Book List On list of Books by John Maeda Add to My Reading List
Pasta by Design George L. Legendre et al. Add to My Reading List	Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement Leonard Koren et al. On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers Leonard Koren On George Yabu’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Pedagogical Sketchbook Paul Klee On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Module, Proportion, Symmetry, Rhythm (Vision + Value Series) György Kepes On Niels Diffrient’s Book List On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Language of Vision György Kepes On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Interface Culture Steven A. Johnson On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Creating with Paper Pauline Johnson On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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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