No matter what your role in today’s design world—whether as a design insider or as one of the general public’s many “design-inclined”—the emergence of design in the United States to a position of popular cultural prominence is exciting and inspiring. Nowhere is this increased level of interest and attention more apparent than in the world of design book publishing

With the 2011 launch of our website, we at Designers & Books have been in a unique position to witness the dynamics of the design world’s relationship to books. From Vitruvius to William Morris to Frank Lloyd Wright to Edith Wharton to Le Corbusier to Paul Rand—there has always been a particularly special and robust relationship between designers and books: reading them, writing them, designing them, collecting them, learning from them, and being inspired by them. Over the last year and a half we have had the opportunity to celebrate that relationship by publishing lists of books that esteemed members of the international design community have identified as personally important, meaningful, and formative.

We launched Designers & Books with 678 books and 55 book lists from designers and commentators in architecture, fashion, graphic design, interior design, landscape architecture, product and industrial design, and urban design. We now have over 130 lists that feature more than 1,400 books—plus we highlight over 600 books written by our contributors. Equally important, the site now also draws attention to more than 80 publishers and over 40 booksellers focused on design.

Being located in New York City has enabled us to experience firsthand the current level of excitement and heightened interest in books about design. The mix that exists here of publishers, booksellers, design organizations, and writers—in combination with perhaps the world’s most concentrated population of professional and also “would-be” designers—creates a special and uniquely dynamic environment for the world of design books.

It is the coming together of all of these factors that has led us to launch Designers & Books Fair 2012. In doing so, we are bringing together all the constituencies of the design book world in a major event in the heart of New York City—at one of the world’s leading design schools. With approximately 30 publishers, booksellers, and rare and out-of-print book dealers, at this gathering we will mark the release of new Fall 2012 titles, bring renewed attention to important backlist titles, and provide opportunities for stumbling on those special antiquarian finds. We will also present interviews and panel discussions with some of the best-known and most celebrated names in the design book world.

We hope you will join us.

Please find more information on the book fair: bookfair.designersandbooks.com/

You can browse the entire collection here.