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

Carrie Stephen King On Ellen Lupton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Shining Stephen King On Ed Ng’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History Robin Kinross On Rick Poynor’s Book List On Erik Spiekermann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Tain Thomas Kinsella (trans.) On Jeanne Gang’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Man Who Would Be King Rudyard Kipling On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Perfect Acts of Architecture Jeffrey Kipnis On Terence Riley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Charles and Ray Eames Pat Kirkham On Wim Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Women Designers in the USA, 1900–2000 Pat Kirkham, ed. On Susan Weber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Fashioning Fiction in Photography since 1990 Susan Kismaric et al. On Valerie Steele’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Diaries of Paul Klee, 1898–1918 Felix Klee On Richard Saul Wurman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Pedagogical Sketchbook Paul Klee On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Henri’s Walk to Paris Leonore Klein et al. Add to My Reading List	The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Rome William Klein On Isaac Mizrahi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A Day with Picasso Billy Klüver On Christian Wassmann’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Saarinen’s Quest: A Memoir Richard Knight et al. On Jonathan Olivares’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Energy and Form Ralph L. Knowles On Niels Diffrient’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Universal Traveler Don Koberg et al. On David Kelley’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Book of Signs Rudolf Koch et al. On Alice Koeth’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Lotus and the Robot Arthur Koestler On Craig Hodgetts’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Groove Eric Kohler On Gail Anderson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Issey Miyake: East Meets West Kazuko Koike, ed. On Akiko Fukai’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Delirious New York Rem Koolhaas On Terence Riley’s Book List On Adam Tihany’s Book List On Andrés Duany’s Book List On Jeanne Gang’s Book List On Mohsen Mostafavi’s Book List On Galia Solomonoff’s Book List On Phil Patton’s Current Reading list On Aric Chen’s Book List On Michael Rock’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping Rem Koolhaas et al. On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	S, M, L, XL Rem Koolhaas et al. On Terence Riley’s Book List On Farshid Moussavi’s Book List On Florian Idenburg’s Book List On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Fundamentals Rem Koolhaas On Carlo Ratti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	NSCI: Das visuelle Erscheinungsbild der Nationalsozialisten 1920–1945 (The Visual Appearance of the Nazis 1920–1945) Andreas Koop On Fritz Frenkler’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Town and Revolution Anatole Kopp On Mels Crouwel’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Caution: Small Ensembles Edward Koren On Inga Sempé’s Book List 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	History Builds the Town Arthur Korn On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Being There Jerry Kosinski On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	A History of Architecture: Settings and Rituals Spiro Kostof On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Beer Can by the Highway John A. Kouwenhoven On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Lothar Meggendorfers Spielwelt Hildegard Krahe On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer On Sheila Bridges’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Scruples Judith Krantz On Jonathan Adler’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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