8 Outstanding Design Books – Holiday Gift Ideas

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - shutterstock_2275897961-640x568

I LOVE books, especially inspiring books on design and design history!

And I love to give books to friends, clients, family and my staff in the holiday season.

My own library was started in earnest over 30 years ago – and now includes many books in my office, my apartment in Brooklyn Heights and at my still-pretty-new-very-old house in Connecticut.

I looked through my library to find eight books – new, not-so-new, and old – that I think are true gems that would make excellent gifts!

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#TBT: NEW YORK Magazine 1992



Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - New-York-Magazine-April-1992-Image-1-609x820Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - New-York-Magazine-April-1992-Image-2-601x820

One of my very first friends in NYC was a distinctive, sometimes kinda normal, but often offbeat guy named Jeff Fazio.  Jeff was affable, fun, carefree and seemingly “knew everyone” after a decade of working in a variety of upscale designed focus retail stores.

At the time of this project, Jeff was a buyer at Barney’s, working directly with the remarkable Phyllis Pressman – creator and curator of the Chelsea Passage department at the ORIGINAL Barney’s on 17th Street & Seventh Avenue; it was another era…

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Familiar Old Friends on Shelter Island

Glenn Gissler - Blog - 2014 - Summer-2009-071-640x480

I have had a long love affair with Shelter Island – a place that many people in New York have never heard of; a place some have heard of, but they aren’t sure where it is; a place some have driven through.  An even smaller number have been and stayed there!  It’s an island between the North and South Fork of Eastern Long Island where time, in many ways, has stood still; for me it is like the Midwest meets New England: It is a very special place.

While it is necessary to take a short ferry to get to the island from either Greenport or North Haven, there are treasures to be found.

I think it is worth the trip, and so apparently does HC&G!

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