Design books to give this Christmas

Mamma Milano
J.J. Martin; Vendome Press
The definitive guide to Italy and its magic, written by J.J. Martin, founder of the Milanese lifestyle brand La DoubleJ - whose fabrics bind every copy of this precious book. After moving from Manhattan to Milan 20 years ago, with no job, no friends and no patience for the Italian lifestyle, J.J. Martin realized that he had no choice but to surrender to the lively but slow-paced lifestyle of this city. In doing so, she has discovered more joy (and success) than she could have ever imagined. In this volume she invites us to join her on her journey to the beloved Milan of today. A book to immerse yourself in the delights of Italian fashion, food and good living, to meet some of the main artists of Italian taste (the “La DoubleJ Babes”), to draw on Martin's secrets to unleash creativity and wisdom and much more, all with a hint of vintage chic LaDoubleJ.
 

Formafantasma. Oltre Terra: Why Wool Matters
Andrea Trimarchi e Simone Farresin con Hanne Eide, Kristian Wikborg Wiese, Marianne Yvenes (a cura di); Walther König edizioni
In this volume - catalogue of the exhibition of the same name that took place this year in Oslo - the Milan-based multidisciplinary design studio Formafantasma investigates the history, ecology and global dynamics of the extraction and production of wool. A wide range of artworks, agricultural and cultural objects, photographs, videos and other materials demonstrate how wool is more than simply a raw material for the design and textile industries. The exhibition consisted in an installation containing six life-size reproductions of different sheep breeds, a carpet made from discarded wool fibers, as well as documents, films, by-products of manufacturing processes and various types of organic matter. All these elements are presented side by side to counteract persisting categorizations that separate human from animal and product from biological matter.
 

Green gulfs and Panga Panga parquet. Milano San Felice
Elisa Di Nofa, Francesco Paleari; Humboldt Books
This book is a tribute to one of the lesser-known corners (and stories of architecture, entrepreneurship and urban planning) of Milan, as well as a volume resulting from exquisite research. Milan San Felice is a residential neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of the city born at the end of the Sixties from an idea by the engineer Giorgio Pedroni and designed by the architects Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Vico Magistretti. More than half a century after its conception, the book examines the relationship between the early settlers and the urban planning, architecture and interior design of Milano San Felice, calling on both those who took part in the development phase and on its initial resident community – one which, with great care and pride, houses an incredible universe of private archives and personal and collective memories.
 

What Design Can’t Do. Essays on Design and Disillusion
Silvio Lorusso; Set Margins’
This book probes the disillusionment that permeates design and his author Silvio Lorusso, while reviving historical expressions of disenchantment, examines present-day memes and social media rants. To depict this disheartening crisis, he crafts a new critical vocabulary for readers to build upon. What this book reveals is both worrying and refreshing: rather than producing a meaningful order, design might be just about inhabiting chaos. If you see yourself as a designer without qualities; if you feel cheated, disappointed or betrayed by design, this book is for you.
 

Mary McCartney. Feeding Creativity
Mary McCartney; Taschen
Mary McCartney is a photographer, filmmaker, TV cook and author. In Feeding Creativity she blends her passions for food and photography, cooking 60 of her favourite (plant-based) recipes for friends, family, musicians, actors, artists and visionaries. Mary makes each a specially prepared dish, which they eat together at their home or studio. Here, she shares her photographs, recipes, and anecdotes from those culinary encounters - together with Cameron Diaz, the HAIM sisters, David Hockney, Woody Harrelson or Jeff Koons, and many many more.
 

Io so quel che mi faccio. Anna Castelli Ferrieri
Chiara Alessi; Electa
The volume is part of the Oilà series, edited by Chiara Alessi, which presents the stories of protagonists of the twentieth century. Female figures who, in the Italian and international creative panorama - from design to fashion, from architecture to music, from illustration to graphics, from photography to literature - have distinguished themselves in relation to disciplines and professions that have always been considered the prerogative of the male universe . The books, designed to be read aloud from start to finish in forty-five minutes - a short journey - are stories told through a special lens about their biographies, jobs, private facts and public achievements. The graphic design is by Studio Sonnoli.
 

Chromatic Herbarium
Massimo Gardone, Alessandra Muran; Corraini
This volume is many things: a living and vivid herbarium of nature's colors with elements collected and photographed while still fresh, but also an evocative photo book capable of enhancing with the eye of the graphic artist the colors and "pantone" of petals, leaves, branches and other elements of nature. The texts accompanying this research are an essay by Beppe Finessi and Francesco Messina and reflections by landscape designer Matteo Lacivita who starts from the naturalistic observation of colors to also talk about painting, music and other art forms that color really cannot do without.
 

Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day
Ronan Bouroullec; Phaidon
Over his 30-year career, French designer Ronan Bouroullec has used photography to document his process and communicate his unique perspective, amassing a vast archive of images in the process - shared on Instagram with his huge and loyal following. Part visual diary, part catalog of his work, Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day presents these images to a wider readership and offers an intimate and fascinating look into his life, vision, and creative process, offering a unique and vibrant insight into the work, perspective, and creative process of one of the most celebrated and creative design minds working today.
 

Timemade
Davide Dolcini
Italian designer David Dolcini's Timemade project has landed in a publication documenting the entire process and creative concept, with photographs by Mattia Balsamini and texts by Piergiorgio Caserini and Marco Sammicheli. This book recounts the slow experience towards the art of making through the time spent in close contact with a material, wood. A process during which the temporal aspect emerges. The book can be purchased at the ADI Design Museum Bookshop.

Echoes. Cassina, 50 years of iMaestri
Ivan Mietton; Rizzoli
Over the last fifty years, the Cassina iMaestri Collection has brought together the works of the most important architects and designers of the 20th century. Perhaps too revolutionary for their time and often opposed, these iconic models of artistic expression are today reworked through a long process of study, research and development achieved thanks to Cassina's experience. This volume highlights the unique method with which Cassina re-proposes the great classics of all the great designers with whom it has collaborated, through research and analysis of archive material, annotated sketches, drawings, historical images and a series of photographs commissioned for the occasion, together with the curatorial essays.

Gianfranco Frattini. Design 1955/2003
After the success of the exhibition Gianfranco Frattini: yesterday, today, tomorrow - hosted during the Milan Design Week 2023 in Cesano Maderno - Silvana Editoriale dedicates a volume to the designer, accompanied by 58 sheets which exhaustively describe furnishings and projects, describing their characteristics and revealing curiosities. Original sketches and drawings of some architectural projects, photographs of archive pieces and re-editions are placed alongside the images of the exhibition, to complete the overview of the design sensitivity and the different fields in which the architect has operated over the years, from design to research textiles to domestic interiors.