What do we love more than lists here at Flavorwire? Lists about books, that’s what. In keeping with one of our favorite time honored traditions — the end-of-year requisite roundups — we thought we’d take a look at some of the most noteworthy design books released in the past twelve months. Often relegated to the coffee table category, the design tome is a hallowed genre that’s more pictures than prose, but affords what we think is still the best form of inspiration in the world: the impeccably printed page.
From Phaidon’s comprehensive book-in-a-box featuring 500 plus graphic designs to Taschen’s enchanting retrospective of fairy tale tree houses for grownups, click through to check out our favorite design titles of 2012.
A Visual Inventory by John Pawson
Image credit: Phaidon; Wallpaper
A journey into the creative world of one of design’s most elegant and accomplished architects, A Visual Inventory is 320 perfect pages presenting a selection of the some 200,000 photographs John Pawson has taken over the course of his 30-year-long career. Like an inspiring international Instagram in book form, the visual diary is annotated with Pawson’s personal notes and spans different countries and time periods. From Pawson’s visit to Peter Zumthor’s St. Benedict’s Chapel in Switzerland, to when he was designing key works like the new Cistercian monastery in Bohemia, and more recent work trips to Japan, Seoul, New York, and Paris.
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The 20 Most Beautiful Libraries on Film and TV
The 50 Albums Everyone Needs to Own, 1963-2013
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