The PRINT Book Club brings together designers, thinkers, and writers each month to chat about visual culture and books—but not just any books. Design with-a-capital-D books.
And 2024 did not disappoint. We laughed, got a little meta, and expanded our perspective. We nerded out on process and bindings and typographic terminology. Our hosts, Debbie Millman and Steven Heller, and you, our audience, lobbed compelling questions at our guests, sowing the seeds of curiosity. We came together to celebrate, discuss, and appreciate the work of fellow creatives. What’s better than that?
In case you missed any of our brilliant discussions this year, we’ve compiled them in one handy link for your listening and reading pleasure. Find links where you can watch the recordings below.
Why Graphic Culture Matters by Rick Poynor
If something exists in the visual communication culture, chances are Rick Poynor has written about it. Our conversation with the writer and design critic lobbed more than a few philosophical considerations into the air, including:
The vital and disappearing culture of critical writing about design. Poynor believes we should seek out more than a surface-level showcase of our output.
Candor around the marketization and bland-ification of design—of our trying to find appeal across the maximum audience.
I Must Be Dreaming by Roz Chast
Roz Chast, the award-winning New Yorker cartoonist, has been places!
… a conversation with Henry Kissinger at the dentist
… cradling an adoring Danny Devito like a baby
… a terrifying convenience store named Stop and Chop
… something about her mother finding O.J. Simpson’s glove and renting it out for parties
All of these dreams are fodder for her real-life cartoons.
Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg by Pat Thomas
In this fascinating conversation, the author and designer, Andy Outis, discuss how they whittled down Ginsberg’s prolific archive of 10,000 items to 1,000, and more. Some of their faves:
a satire of Ginsberg’s Howl written by screenwriter Terry Southern
a transcript of a call between Ginsberg and Henry Kissinger about ending the war in Vietnam
a letter from the American Nazi Party to Ginsberg about all the reasons they wanted to assassinate him
Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton
A clear advocate for the culture of yes, Lupton talks about the ever-evolving field of typography from a deep historical appreciation to our current cultural context.
She also shares some keen insights about aesthetics, why hanging punctuation marks look so much better than unstyled punctuation mixing typefaces, and the process of mixing typefaces to complement one another like wine and cheese.
A Multimedia Feast of Words & Pictures with Warren Lehrer
The double release of Jericho’s Daughter (left) and Riveted in the Word (right) was more serendipitous than planned. Both projects are based on short stories, have bifurcated formats, are led by visuals, and illuminate women whose lives have been torn apart and who have to start over from scratch.
Our conversation was full of design geekery and a deep dive into the collaboration between Lehrer, artist Sharon Horvath for Jericho’s Daughter, and for Riveted in the Word, composer Andrew Griffin and creative technologist Artemio Morales. Watch the recording of our full discussion here.
Wonder City of the World: New York City by Nicholas Lowry and Angelina Lippert
Until the launch of this gorgeous book (and accompanying exhibition, there had never been a curated showcase of New York City travel posters. No one has written a book about them, either. Not even PRINT’s prolific design history hunter, Steven Heller.
So, Nicholas Lowry (Poster House board member, writer, and antiques expert—you may know his face from Antiques Roadshow) and Angelina Lippert (chief curator for Poster House) set out to rectify this.
Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future by Carissa Carter and Scott Doorley
We’re in an era of runaway design. It’s like a runaway train flying down the tracks. Often it will crash and cause destruction.
Runaway design is invisible and we don’t know where it’s headed. Sometimes we won’t even know something has crashed until we see the effects of the crash. This is where design fiction comes in.
Designers must use their imaginations as a way of putting themselves in front of the train, to write versions of the future to see how they like them.
July’s book club will Blow. Your. Mind.
The Architect & Designer Birthday Book by James Biber, designed by Michael Bierut
Nine months into the pandemic, architect James Biber thought if he did something on Instagram every day, he’d know what day it was.
So he started his timekeeping experiment by cataloging architects’ birthdays, eventually adding graphic designers and artists into the rotation. Michael Bierut saw what Biber was up to and thought it’d make great fodder for a book.
A particularly interesting discussion point centered around the bane of all publishers: the clearance of images. And, we’re talking IMAGES. Three hundred and sixty-six, in fact.
Citizen Printer: Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr.
The accomplishment Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr. is most proud of, is that 6,000 Americans display his prints on their walls. There’s no better anecdote to describe Kennedy’s humble and generous spirit, on full display in Letterform Archive’s gorgeous monograph and in our discussion.
I try to put ink on paper everyday. Then it’s a complete day.
HERE: Where the Black Designers Are by Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller
So, where are the black designers? As Holmes-Miller contends, “We’ve always been here. As long as Black people have been in this country, there have been Black designers. We go back to the slave artisans.” Here recognizes and celebrates this long history.
Holmes-Miller’s Here is part memoir, starting with her familial connection to art and design through her Danish and West Indian heritage and then her recognition of those threads as she began her design studies and scholarship.
It was a full house for Cheryl Miller. Watch it here!
Let The Sun In by Kiera Coffee and Todd Oldham
Designer (textiles, furniture, and interiors), graphic designer, and architect Alexander Girard refused to be boxed in by medium or style. He played with an aesthetic uniquely his own—defying the design canon. You may not know something to be “an Alexander Girard,” but his work is most definitely stamped on your design DNA.
New York Nico’s Guide to NYC by Nicolas Heller
The most frequently asked question Nicolas Heller (aka New York Nico) gets asked by his audience is, “I’m going to be in New York; what should I do?” So, when he was approached about doing a book, he couldn’t turn it down.
Over a year and a half, Heller and a team consisting of a co-writer, photographers, and others traversed the boroughs to interview the proprietors of each of the 100 quaint, classic, small businesses included in the book, all places Heller loves.
Watch and learn (even lifelong New Yorkers learned something new).
My First Book of Fancy Letters by Jessica Hische
In a PRINT Book Club first, we had a read-along with our author. Jessica Hische, a self-proclaimed “fancy letter expert,” shared her newest book for children from cover to playful cover.
The famously generous and willing-to-get-vulnerable polymath offered up work and life insights from the importance of self-promo to her recent diagnosis of ADHD to the ins and outs of retail shop ownership.
This conversation has something for everyone. Watch it here!
Mark your calendars for our first Book Club of 2025. On Thursday, January 16, Jon Key will join us to discuss his new book, Black, Queer, & Untold: A New Archive of Designers, Artists, and Trailblazers.
The post PRINT Year in Review: Conversations About Our Visual Culture in Thirteen Books appeared first on PRINT Magazine.