Better Read Than Dead

John Emerson recently made a call to the Graphic Alliance to collect a required reading list for the socially minded designer. In response I put together the list of books below, which I've used as resources for my socially conscious design class Design Rebels at Virginia Commonwealth University. I've provided links for the books at the independent bookstore Powells.com for further information (and in a few instances where no information was available I've provided a link to Half.com), but be sure to look for them at your local library or independent bookseller:

• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
• Design Issues edited by D.K. Holland
• No Logo by Naomi Klein
• Ways of Seeing by John Berger
• Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin
• A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
• The Complete Guide to Eco-Friendly Design by Poppy Evans (this extremely useful book is sadly out of print)
• Organizing for Social Change by Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall & Steve Max
• The Swastika: symbol beyond redemption? by Steven Heller
• Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn
• The Silent Takeover by Noreena Hertz
• Deadly Persuasion by Jean Kilbourne
• Looking Closer 4 edited by Michael Beirut, William Drenttel, and Steven Heller.
• One Market Under God & Commodify Your Dissent by Thomas Frank
• The Overspent American by Juliet Schor
• Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart
• Conscientious Objectives by John Cranmer and Yolanba Zappaterra
• The Design of Dissent by Milton glaser and Miro Ilic

(I'll try to post a list of articles referred to in the class sometime soon.)