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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2000 books

Imagining Language: An Anthology Jed Rasula et al. On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Experiencing Architecture Steen Eiler Rasmussen On Paul Goldberger’s Book List On Maya Lin’s Book List On Carl Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Impossible Dead Ian Rankin On Massimo Pitis’s Current Reading list Add to My Reading List	Thoughts on Design Paul Rand On Michael Bierut’s Book List On George Lois’s Book List On Tom Geismar’s Book List On Ivan Chermayeff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Designer’s Art Paul Rand On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List On Ivan Chermayeff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Fountainhead Ayn Rand On Michael Bierut’s Book List On Adam Tihany’s Book List On Deborah Sussman’s Book List On Chip Kidd’s Book List On Stanley Tigerman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sparkle and Spin: A Book About Words Ann Rand et al. Add to My Reading List	Ramtha Ramtha On Sagi Haviv’s Book List Add to My Reading List
What the Buddha Taught Walpola Rahula On Zack McKown’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Memphis: Research, Experiences, Results, Failures and Successes of New Design Barbara Radice On R. Craig Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Complete Costume History Auguste Racinet On Guo Pei’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rosa Jonathan Rabb On Adam Tihany’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ishmael Daniel Quinn On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Gravity’s Rainbow Thomas Pynchon On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List On Peter Eisenman’s Book List On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Alexey Brodovitch Kerry William Purcell On Carin Goldberg’s Book List On Christian Lacroix’s Book List Add to My Reading List	American Design Ethic Arthur J. Pulos On Chris Bangle’s Book List On Dan Formosa’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The Guermantes Way Marcel Proust On André Leon Talley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Search of Lost Time (A la recherche du temps perdu) Marcel Proust On Thomas Girst’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust On Peter Eisenman’s Book List On Deborah Sussman’s Book List On Penny Drue Baird’s Book List On Maira Kalman’s Book List On Michael Manfredi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Office Robert Propst On Carola Zwick’s Book List Add to My Reading List	American Jewelry Penny Proddow et al. On Marion Fasel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Re: CP Cedric Price Add to My Reading List	Cedric Price (Works II) [The Square Book] Cedric Price On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List On Carlo Ratti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Monster of Florence Douglas J. Preston et al. On Penny Drue Baird’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	An Illustrated History of Furnishing Mario Praz On Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration: From Pompeii to Art Nouveau Mario Praz On Susan Weber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The House of Life Mario Praz On Stanley Abercrombie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	David Adler: The Architect and His Work Richard Pratt On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Solar Living Source Book Douglas Pratt On Andrés Duany’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rachel Feinstein Bill Powers, ed. et al. On Cynthia Rowley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	HTML Programmer’s Reference Thomas Powell et al. On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List
A Time to Be Born Dawn Powell On Jonathan Adler’s Book List Add to My Reading List	What is a Designer Norman Potter On Massimo Pitis’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	Amusing Ourselves to Death Neil Postman On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology Neil Postman On Susan S. Szenasy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Rome of Borromini Paolo Portoghesi On Peter Pennoyer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Roma Barocca Paolo Portoghesi On Michael Manfredi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Open Society and Its Enemies Karl Popper On Craig Hodgetts’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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