Reddit reviews 1000 Chairs, 1st Ed. (Bibliotheca Universalis)

An Essential Reading List For Designers

Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk

All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.

Architecture

• The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture by Phaidon
  
• The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi
  
• Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown & Steven Izenour
  
• Modern Architecture since 1900 by William J R Curtis
  
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Phaidon
  
  Communication Design
  
  
• Essentials of Visual Communication by Bo Bergström
  
• Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed
  
• Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice by Jonathan Baldwin & Lucienne Roberts
  
• This Means This, That Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall
  
• Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture by Marita Struken & Lisa Cartwright
  
  Fashion Design
  
  
• Fashion Design Course by Steven Faerm
  
• Fashion Today by Colin McDowell
  
• The Fashion Designer Survival Guide by Mary Gehlhar
  
• Deluxe: How Luxury Lost it Lustre by Dana Thomas
  
• The Fashion Book by Angela Buttolph Editors of Phaidon ?
  
  Furniture Design
  
  
• Furniture Design by Stuart Lawson
  
• Eames by Gloria Koenig
  
• Design of the 20th Century by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• 1000 Chairs by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• The Encyclopedia of Furniture by Joseph Aronson
  
  Game Design
  
  
• The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jess Schell
  
• Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
  
• [Challenges for Game Designers](Challenges for Game Designers) by Brenda Brathwaite
  
• Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers
  
• Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting by Syd Field
  
  Graphic Design
  
  
• Grid System in Graphic Design by Josef-Muller Brockmann
  
• The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
  
• A Type Primer by John Kane
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
• The New Typography by Jan Tschichold
  
  Information Design
  
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Show Me The Numbers:Desiginingg Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few
  
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Information is Beautiful by David McCandless
  
• Information Graphic by Sandra Rendgen
  
  
  Industrial Design
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
  
• The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
  
• Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Rob Thompson
  
• Process: 50 Product Design from Concept to Manufacture by Jennifer Hudson
  
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell
  
  (cont'd)
  
  

Sixties Design A fun romp through the sixties curvy day glow design bent
Eames: Beautiful DetailsDefinitive Eames Book.
Industrial Design Raymond Loewy My favorite all time designer.
Infrastructure by Brian Hayes Not Sexy, but necessary.
Industrial Design A-Z, Taschen Everything by the letters.
PreFab HousesGood, if dated a little on prefab potential
1000 Chairs Bible of chairs
Things Come Apart They destroyed it beautifully for you
Trespass Street Art photographed and credited
Type Vol. 2 The Taschen site-order version comes with a digital code for Hi-Res digital downloads of each plate. Not sure if the amazon version does. Still worth it either way.
D&AD 11 All the D&AD books are a real tight look at that years best and worst commercial work.
Logo Design 2 I'm sure this has been updated, but good enough and much cheaper now.
DDR Design I have a soft spot for bolshevik propaganda forced into design.
1000 Retail Graphics It is what it says it is, not much more. Good for brainstorming, but not really inspiring.

1000 chairs

Shin Takamatsu

Cities Without Ground: A Hong Kong Guidebook

Dude. Furniture is one of the oldest expressions of art! Holy shit. Every designer worth his salt has cut his teeth on designing chairs. There are hundreds of books about it. I think if you read a book like this your brain would explode
http://www.amazon.com/1000-Chairs-Charlotte-Peter-Fiell/dp/3836546744


This is amazing. Look around you, everything you see right now is art. Some art is better than others. But that pen you're using, the laptop you're typing on, the lamps in your room; that's all art!

Before I lose myself in that tangent, I think you are confusing my points.

You state that there are certain things (cameras, couches, pillows) that "have no function" and are useless and illogical.

I am saying I disagree. You make many decisions (like the kitchen and gym) that I could argue are functionless. Because they are to me. However, they do have a function for you, and so I do not think they are useless and illogical.

It is that last step you struggle with. Just because you don't see their function, doesn't mean they are functionless.

I posit that their function is aesthetic. Their function is mood... its ambiance. It's turning the prison cell one lives in into a home they feel comfortable in. What this means is that while they may not have the function you ascribe to them, there still is another purpose.