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

The Colossus of Maroussi Henry Miller On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Frank Miller et al. On Chip Kidd’s Book List On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Einstein, Picasso, Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc Arthur I. Miller On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Obedience to Authority Stanley Milgram On Chip Kidd’s Book List Add to My Reading List	L’esperienza musicale e l’estetica Massimo Mila On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Hokusai Sketchbooks James A. Michener On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest Martin Meyerson et al. On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Setting the Table Danny Meyer On Jeffrey Beers’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Oceanic Art Anthony J. P. Meyer On Lisa Jenks’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Syrie Maugham: Staging the Glamorous Interior Pauline C. Metcalf On Susan Weber’s Book List On Dominique Browning’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Presence of Mies Detlef Mertins On Terence Riley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Louis Kahn: On the Thoughtful Making of Spaces Michael Merrill Add to My Reading List	Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (11th ed.) Merriam-Webster On Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Visible and the Invisible Maurice Merleau-Ponty On Steven Holl’s Book List On Juhani Pallasmaa’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Architettura addio Alessandro Mendini On Alberto Alessi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Ascher: Fabric, Art, Fashion Valerie D. Mendes et al. On Claire Wilcox’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Moby Dick Herman Melville On Margaret McCurry’s Book List On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List On Steven Holl’s Book List On Tod Williams’s Book List On Phyllis Lambert’s Book List On Michael Rock’s Book List On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Bartleby, the Scrivener Herman Melville On Peter Eisenman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Billy Budd Herman Melville On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Pig 05049 Christien Meindertsma On Alice Rawsthorn’s Book List On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Remembering Mr. Shawn’s New Yorker Ved Mehta On Amanda Dameron’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Dialogue in the Void: Beckett & Giacometti Matti Megged On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Madame Grès: Sphinx of Fashion Patricia Mears On Valerie Steele’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
Long Slow March Clifton Meador On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Sentinel Syd Mead On Chris Bangle’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Richard Serra, Sculpture Kynaston McShine et al. On Juergen Riehm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Survival of the Bark Canoe John McPhee On Bruce Hannah’s Book List On Richard Sachs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Annals of the Former World John McPhee On Michael Rock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Sense of Where You Are John McPhee On George Lois’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Founding Fish John McPhee On Alexander Cooper’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Basin and Range John McPhee On Antoine Predock’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Plant Propagation Philip McMillan Browse On Todd Oldham’s Book List Add to My Reading List	McMaster-Carr Catalog McMaster-Carr On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Medium is the Massage Marshall McLuhan et al. On Abbott Miller’s Book List On Carola Zwick’s Book List On Warren Lehrer’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan On Craig Dykers’s Book List On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Typographers on Type Ruari McLean, ed. On Erik Spiekermann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Victorian Publishers’ Book-Bindings in Cloth & Leather Ruari McLean On Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Jan Tschichold Ruari McLean On Sheila Levrant de Bretteville’s Book List On Angus Hyland’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Experiences in Visual Thinking Robert H. McKim On David Kelley’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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