
To offset the eye candy pouring out of blogs like Blue Ant Studio and MoCo Loco, I regularly check out Design Observer for writings on design, media and visual culture. Lately I’ve been paying particular attention to the Recommended Books sidebar. (Admittedly, it’s shopping – and books are one of the rare things I don’t second guess my need for.) My first purchase was Michael Beirut’s Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design. He’s a founding writer at the Observer, a partner at Pentagram, worked for Vignelli Associates for 10 years (just out of college, can you imagine?) and I like the way he writes firsthand about his design life experiences.
Charlie Harper: An Illustrated Life was my next purchase. I’d known his work for some time, but it was his print exhibit and sale at the Dwell on Design conference that stoked me to get the book – and Design Observer that reminded me I needed it.
Then, last week I noticed Maira Kalman’s new book, The Principles of Uncertainty. I’ll buy anything she does, having first been smitten years ago with Max Makes a Million. Sure enough, my fresh copy arrived yesterday and I stayed up too late reading the first 150 pages. Check out the video just posted today of Maira discussing The Principles of Uncertainty at the New York Public Library.
Posted by Kristine Langevin