I first heard the expression “mind the gap” on the London Underground.  I thought it so much more considerate than “don’t fall in between the trains.”  In the same spirit of consideration, we offer the following titles as a way of filling some of the gaps that are inevitable in anyone’s design education, given how vast the territory it embraces.  In addition to disciplinary surveys, you’ll also find some critical and historical anthologies in this very condensed compendium. Consider these references as part of the essential underpinnings of design studies.  But only part!  There’s much more to come as you will see in future posts.

See all 10…

Graphic Design

Drucker, Johanna and Emily McVarish (2008) Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide. New York: Prentice Hall.

Meggs, Philip and Alston Purvis (2011) Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: Wiley.

Product Design

Caplan, Ralph (1984) By Design: Why There Are No Locks on the Bathroom Doors in the Hotel Louis XIV and Other Object Lessons. New York: McGraw Hill.

Meikle, Jeffrey (2005) Design in the USA (Oxford History of Art). New York: Oxford.

Gorman, Carma (2003) The Industrial Design Reader. New York: Allworth Press.

Architecture

 

Fazio, Michael, Marian Moffett, and Lawrence Wodehouse (2008)A World History of Architecture. New York: McGraw Hill Professional.

Urbanism

Kostof, Spiro (1993) The City Shaped. New York: Bulfinch Press.

Gandelsonas, Mario (2002) Shanghai Reflections: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Search for an Alternative Modernity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Social systems design

Atkinson, Paul, Michael Avital, Bruce Mau, Renny Ramakers, Carolien Hummels (2011) Open Design Now: Why Design Cannot Remain Exclusive. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers.

Interaction design

Moggridge, Bill (2007) Designing Interactions. Cambridge: MIT.

 

Tags: Books