The best design books of 2024
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I think about this year-end list of design books all year long, collecting stacks, reading hundreds of pages, pouring over countless images. I keep a list of the books that stick with me and feel like they show me something new. But its only when I narrow that long list down for publication that I can see the trends that emerged over the year. Regardless of circumstance, it seems there are always threads connecting the books that have meant the most to me. As I look over my favorite books of 2024, Im struck by their optimism. The books I couldnt seem to get out of my head this year feel the opposite, in many ways, of how the year felt. This list, then, is a list filled with color, with inspiration, with excitement, and with joy.[Cover Image: Princeton University Press]The Architecture of Urbanity by Vishaan Chakrabarti (Princeton University Press)In his first book, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, the architect and urbanist Vishaan Chakrabarti made the case that better designed cities could help solve the countrys challenges from public health to climate change. His follow up book, The Architecture of Urbanity, coming ten years later, builds upon this thesis to show how we can think about designing our communities for nature, culture, and joy. Moving through history to the present day and packed with graphics, maps, and drawings, Chakrabartis book is a hopeful and inspiring mandate for todays designers and architects.[Cover Image: Phaidon]Alexander Girard: Let The Sun In by Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee (Phaidon)When we think of mid-century design, we often think of a simplified aesthetic of steel and glass and blond woods. This representation can often seem sterile, serious, cold. But the design of the mid-century, of course, was much more varied: warmer, more colorful, and more playful. There are many mid-century designers to admire, from the Eames to George Nelson to Florence Knoll, but no one, perhaps, embodies the playfulness of the era than Alexander Girard. Showcasing his work across interior design, furniture, textiles, graphic design, and architecture, this stunning monograph captures the spirit and playfulness of one of the most important figures of mid-century design.[Cover Image: Phaidon]Atlas of Never Built Architecture by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin (Phaidon)Sometimes I think my favorite architecture is the architecture that doesnt exist. The buildings that never got built but remain alive through drawings, renderings, and plans become a type of speculative design, caught between reality and fiction. It seems architecture writers Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin feel similarly because their new book is packed with these never-built buildings. Packed with gorgeous renderings and organized geography, this book becomes an alternative history of some parallel architectural world.[Cover Image: Letterform Archive]The Complete Commercial Artist: Making Modern Design in Japan, 1928-1930 by Gennifer Weisenfeld (Letterform Archive)Over the last decade, theres been an effort across the design fields to uncover the often-overlooked areas of design history, expanding our understanding of the canon of what design is and can be. One of my favorite recent additions to this expanded design history is Gennifer Weisenfelds serious and inspiring look at The Complete Commercial Artist, a 24-volume publication released in Japan from 1928 to 1930. It was during these years, it turns out, that Japanese designers began to rethink the design profession, blending modernist methodologies with local vernacular creating an expressive, colorful, and wholly unique visual style. And it was all documented and discussed in The Complete Commercial Artist. Here, Weisenfeld looks at the history of the publication and the influence of this work on designers today, around the world.[Cover Image: Princeton Architectural Press]Building Culture by Julian Rose (Princeton Architectural Press)Over the last few years, there has been a series of books on the role of architecture in shaping museum experiences. The latest of the genre is art critic Julian Roses collection of sixteen interviews with leading architects about the museums theyve designed, the ideas behind them, and the relationship between art and architecture. Rose is a knowledgeable and generative interlocutor that makes for rich and engaging conversations.[Cover Image: Draw Down Books]Superstorm by Noemi Biasetton (Onomatopee)In an election year that sometimes felt like it was hard to make sense of, I found Italian design researcher Noemi Biasettons book to be an anchor. Born out of her PhD work at the University of Venice, Biasetton explores the relationship between communication design, media theory, and political discourse from the 1960s to 2020. Filled with case studies that range from the first televised debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon to Michael Bieruts 2016 Hillary Clinton logo, the film work of Steve Bannon to the now-iconic Obama O, Biasetton makes the case that our politics has become media, and that design has fallen behind in the increasingly chaotic superstorm of the Information Age.[Cover Image: Princeton Architectural Press]Here: Where the Black Designers Are by Cheryl D. Miller (Princeton Architectural Press)In 1987, Cheryl D. Miller wrote the now-canonical article Black Designers Missing In Action for Print Magazine that reported on the spaces for Black graphic designers. That piece helped kickstart more recent movements in design around diversity, inclusion, and decolonization. In the nearly-40 years since, Miller, a designer, writer, teacher, and theologian, has been at the center of these movements. This new book is a thoughtful memoir of her lifelong quest to answer the question where are the Black designers?
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