Books Every Designer Should Own - Modernism 101

Books every designer should own, recommended by Modernism 101.

1

Italy: The New Domestic Landscape Add to My Reading List

Emilio Ambasz Editor

Subtitled “Achievements and Problems of Italian Design,” this 1972 exhibition catalogue from The Museum of Modern Art and the Centro Di, Florence, was published with five cut-outs of furniture and objects inserted into the translucent glassine dust jacket. 

2

The New Graphic Art Add to My Reading List

Karl Gerstner
Markus Kutter

Association copies don't get much better than this: warmly inscribed by Gerstner to Piet Zwart. A book with the stated intention ". . . a pictorial survey [that] takes modern graphic art from its origins through present-day achievements and concludes with a look into the future" that embodies via association the origins and the future of graphic art in the 20th century. Form and content indeed.

3

Bauhaus 1919-1928 Add to My Reading List

Editor
Walter Gropius Editor
Ise Gropius Editor

One of the most important art books of the twentieth century. “It may be considered as much a work of the Bauhaus as it is a work about it; even the typography and layout for the volume were designed by a former Bauhaus master.”

4

Organic Design in Home Furnishings Add to My Reading List

Eliot Noyes

Eliot Noyes defined Organic Design as “. . . harmonious organization of the parts within the whole, according to structure, material, and purpose . . . “ 1940 MoMA catalogue that introduced the furniture designs of Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen to the world.

5

Thoughts on Design Add to My Reading List

Paul Rand

One of the most desirable graphic design books ever published. After a decade of establishing himself as the wunderkind of graphic design, Paul Rand sat down to codify his beliefs and working methodology into a single volume. Here is the result—an exceptional copy of the 1947 first edition. $400.

6

Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age Add to My Reading List

Deborah Rothschild
Ellen Lupton
Darra Goldstein

Selections from Merrill C. Berman’s spectacular private collection of twentieth-century posters, ads, photomontages, and graphic ephemera. All schools of early design are well represented here: the Russian Constructivists, the Bauhaus, DaDa, American Depression Moderne, Surrealism, etc. Essential.

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