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

Identity Kits Germano Facetti et al. On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Idiot Fyodor Dostoyevsky On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler Italo Calvino On Angus Hyland’s Book List Add to My Reading List	If You Want to Write Brenda Ueland On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Iliad Homer On George Lois’s Book List On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Illuminations Walter Benjamin On Peter Eisenman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry Harold Newman On Marion Fasel’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	Illustrations of Tree Roots Noboru Karizumi On Diana Balmori’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Illustrator in America, 1860–2000 Walt Reed On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America Daniel J. Boorstin On Jessica Helfand’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Image and the Eye E. H. (Ernst) Gombrich On George Tscherny’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Image of the City Kevin Lynch On Philip Freelon’s Book List On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Image/Music/Text Roland Barthes On Ellen Lupton’s Book List On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imagined Cities: Urban Experience and the Language of the Novel Robert Alter On Julie Iovine’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Imagining America in 2033 Herbert J. Gans On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imagining Language: An Anthology Jed Rasula et al. On Abbott Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Immense Journey Loren Eiseley On Nancye Green’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Immoralist André Gide On Eric Owen Moss’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imperial William T. Vollmann On Alan Balfour’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imperial Delhi Andreas Volwahsen On David Easton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Imperial Grunts Robert D. Kaplan On Alexander Cooper’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Importance of Being Ernest Oscar Wilde On Alexa Hampton’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	Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel On Jasper Morrison’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Deed: Certificates of Authenticity in Art Susan Hapgood et al. On Prem Krishnamurthy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Defense of Food Michael Pollan On Zuzana Licko’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Groove Eric Kohler On Gail Anderson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Light of Italy Philip Conisbee On Jules Fisher’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Nature of Materials Henry-Russell Hitchcock On Norman Foster’s Book List On Richard Meier’s Book List On Emilio Ambasz’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Our Time Ernest Hemingway On Margaret McCurry’s Book List Add to My Reading List
In Patagonia Bruce Chatwin On Emanuela Frattini Magnusson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Praise of Architecture Gio Ponti On Marco Romanelli’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	In Praise of Slowness Carl Honoré On Zoë Ryan’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	In the Skin of a Lion Michael Ondaatje On David Weeks’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Life of Cities Mohsen Mostafavi, ed. On list of Books by Mohsen Mostafavi On Hugh Hardy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In Their Own Way Thomas Armstrong On Bruce Hannah’s Book List Add to My Reading List

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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