Design Observer's Summer Reading List: Books That Shaped Designers

Design Observer compiled a summer reading list featuring books recommended by designers and creatives that influenced their practice. The list includes Bruno Munari's "Da cosa nasce cosa" ("Design as Art") chosen by Giorgia Lupi, Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" by Alix Pollack, Julia Watson's "Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism" by Ari Melenciano, Soetsu Yanagi's "The Unknown Craftsman" by Jonsara Ruth, Ursula Franklin's "The Real World of Technology" by Ethan Marcotte, Edward de Bono's "Children Solve Problems" by Rachael Dietkus, Joan Didion's essay "Why I Write" by Jamer Hunt, Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" by Dionna Dorsey, and Michael Bierut's "Looking Closer" series by Dave Snyder. The article also covers news items: Ferrari's first electric vehicle Luce designed by Jony Ive ($640,000) facing backlash, NYC's Community Schoolyards program building 225 kid-designed playgrounds since 2002, a study attributing 1,500 deaths to last summer's European heat wave from fossil fuels, and vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool with five arrests including Olympian David Hearn.