Selected Readings & Indispensable Texts
A note for my students: I strongly encourage you to avail yourselves of the expertise and resources in your Cornish College Library. The library staff are specially attuned to the needs of students in the arts, and can provide you with access to the 40,000 volumes contained in the stacks, periodicals, and special media. Since the merger with Seattle University, Cornish students also have access to Seattle U’s Lemieux Library, which itself contains more than 380,000 volumes.
All of the texts here are available in either library, some through Inter-Library Loan. I’ve provided a link to the appropriate library catalog for ease of access and checkout. I am also happy to lend my own copies of these books.
You are also eligible for a library card at the Seattle Public Library as a student living in Seattle, which grants you access to SPL’s collection of nearly 2 million items.
The Cornish Library is located in the Main Campus Center at 1000 Lenora Street, 2nd Floor. The Lemieux Library is located up the hill on the Seattle U campus, at 901 12th Avenue. The closest public library branches to Cornish are the Central Library located Downtown at 1000 4th Avenue, and the Capitol Hill branch located at 425 Harvard Avenue East.
A Pattern Language
By Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiskdahl-King and Shlomo Angel. Oxford University Press, 1977. 1141 pages. ISBN 0-19-501919-9 patternlanguage.com Available in the Cornish Library
The Art of Hand Lettering
By Helm Wotzkow. Dover Publications, 1967. 320 pages. ISBN 0-486-21797-3 Available in the Cornish Library
The Illustrator
By Steven Heller & Julius Wiedemann. Taschen, 2019. 608 pages. ISBN 978-3-8365-9256-7
Designing Type
By Karen Cheng. Yale University Press, 2020. 248 pages. ISBN 9780300249927 Available in the Cornish Library
The History of Printing in America
By Isaiah Thomas. Gramcercy, 1988. 1000 pages. ISBN 0-517-17202X
Map Worlds: A History of Women in Cartography
By Will C. van den Hoonaard. WLU Press, 2013. 394 pages. ISBN 978-1-55458-932-6
Chasing the Perfect: Thoughts on Modernist Design In Our Time
By Natalia Ilyin. Metropolis Books, 2006. 131 pages. ISBN 978-1-93304-5214 Available in the Cornish Library
Writing for the Design Mind
By Natalia Ilyin. Bloomsbury, 2019. ISBN 978-1-35003-4976 Available in the Cornish Library
Mary Oliver: New and Selected Poems
By Mary Oliver. Beacon Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-8070-6877-9 Available in the Lemieux Library at Seattle University
The Power of Maps
By Dennis Wood. Guilfortd Press, 1992. 248 pages. ISBN 0-89862-493-2 Available in the Lemieux Library at Seattle University
Sapiens
By Yuval N Harari. Harper, 2015. 443 pages. ISBN 978-0-06231-6097 Available in the Cornish Library
Letter Fountain
By Joep Pohlen. Taschen, 2011. 640 pages. ISBN 978-3-83652-5091 Available in the Lemieux Library at Seattle University