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 Incal Jean “Moebius” Giraud et al. On Jens Holm’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Incognito David Eagleman On Jürgen Mayer H.’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Independent Group David Robbins On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Indian Summer Robert Grant Irving On Alexander Cooper’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Industrial Design, Unikate, Serienerzeugnisse Hans Wichmann On R. Craig Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Industrial Landscapes Bernd and Hilla Becher On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Infancia y Arte Moderno IVAM Centre Julio Gonzalez On Carin Goldberg’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Infinite City Rebecca Solnit On Alexander Haldemann’s Book List Add to My Reading List
Informal Cecil Balmond On Terence Riley’s Book List On Florian Idenburg’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Information Martin Amis On Alexa Hampton’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Information Anxiety 2 Richard Saul Wurman On Carola Zwick’s Book List On list of Books by Richard Saul Wurman Add to My Reading List	Information Architects Richard Saul Wurman On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List On list of Books by Richard Saul Wurman Add to My Reading List	Information Ecology: Bayer’s Book of Maps Nate Burgos On Richard Saul Wurman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Information Is Beautiful David McCandless On Alexander Haldemann’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Infrastructure Brian Hayes On Deborah Berke’s Book List Add to My Reading List	In the Garden of Beasts Erik Larson On James Biber’s Book List Add to My Reading List
In House Derry Moore et al. On Jeffrey Bilhuber’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Innovation and Entrepreneurship Peter Drucker On Tim Brown’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Innovators of American Illustration Steven Heller On Kit Hinrichs’s Book List On list of Books by Steven Heller Add to My Reading List	Insatiable Gael Greene On Penny Drue Baird’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Inside Steve’s Brain Leander Kahney On Stefano Giovannoni’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Intensive Science and Virtual Philosophy Manuel De Landa On Winka Dubbeldam’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Inter Ice Age 4 Kōbō Abe On Greg Lynn’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Interface Culture Steven A. Johnson On Zoë Ryan’s Book List Add to My Reading List
The International Style Henry-Russell Hitchcock et al. On R. Craig Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Interpretation of Cultures Clifford Geertz On Kent Kleinman’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud On Michael Sorkin’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes John Brinckerhoff Jackson On Denise Scott Brown’s Book List On Robert Venturi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Interpreting the Renaissance (Ricerca dell’Rinascimento) Manfredo Tafuri On Jorge Silvetti’s Book List Add to My Reading List	An Intimate History of Humanity Theodore Zeldin On Ian Ritchie’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Intimate World of Alexander Calder Daniel Marchesseau On Gijs Bakker’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer On Sheila Bridges’s Book List Add to My Reading List
An Introduction to Design and Culture in the Twentieth Century Penny Sparke On R. Craig Miller’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci Paul Valéry On Cino Zucchi’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Inventing America Garry Wills On Jaquelin Robertson’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Invention of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares On Elizabeth Diller’s Book List On Ricardo Scofidio’s Book List On Prem Krishnamurthy’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster On Mikko Heikkinen’s Book List Add to My Reading List	The Invention of Tradition Eric Hobsbawm et al. On Barry Bergdoll’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Invisible Art The Art Brothers On Seymour Chwast’s Book List Add to My Reading List	Invisible Cities Italo Calvino On Norman Foster’s Book List On Massimo Vignelli’s Book List On Juhani Pallasmaa’s Book List On Enrique Norten’s Book List On Jeanne Gang’s Book List On James Biber’s Book List On David Piscuskas’s Book List On Aric Chen’s Book List On Prem Krishnamurthy’s Book List On Craig Dykers’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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