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I have been making more efforts to explore references without meddling of algorithms. Goodbye Pinterest. Goodbye endless "recommended for you" scrolling. I booked an appointment at the archive library of this Japanese streetwear brand called Vowels in NYC. The creative director has over 2000 fashion, culture, photography, and design related magazines and books that spanned over 4 decades. I was able to choose books out of the 200 or so that were out in the store, and they had scanners. I had the time of my life. I felt like a researcher, a real curator. This is small first step in rebuilding my critical eye & references free from digital interference.
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Apr 27, 2025
Related Recs
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A cool book featuring vintage typography and design.
I found this book at the public library when I was 16 or 17. The library is a great place for finding all sorts of unexpected and whimsical books. (This is a recommendation nested within a recommendation!)
Feb 16, 2024
The 1965 Ivy League fashion bible for Japanese boomers that is also basically responsible for the whole old-skool J. Crew aesthetic in its prime (90s - 00s).
My friend from Google days, W. David Marx, wrote an excellent book that uses Take Ivy as a jumping off point: https://craigmod.com/onmargins/s02e03/
Feb 18, 2024
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I’ve seen these annual digests of the best in product innovation around forever but only started buying them recently. I grabbed one at a place in LA that had loads of dusty design books on the cheap. Not long after that, I went to a Housing Works on the UES because someone on TikTok said it had the best clothing selection. It didn’t, but they did have 2 of these for $10 each.They’re pure cheat code. Every good idea that’s being ripped off by contemporary artisans is in one of these - lamps bent into unnatural shapes, shelves that don’t look like they hold very much, dinnerware that you’d never dare eat off of. The designs are Italian and Japanese, of course, but also Finnish, Canadian, Spanish, even American. Each edition has a different luminary as an editor: Arata Isozaki, Mario Bellini, Philippe Starck, freakin’ Alessandro Mendini. They’re tidy, portable museums.
Aug 24, 2021
