I have previously described the miraculously original design autobiography Chasing the Perfect by Natalia Ilyin. In fact, I gave Ilyin her own category.
Because I submitted a blue form and asked the library to buy the book, using my own review as justification, now Toronto Public Library has two copies of Chasing the Perfect. One of them lives at my home branch. They’re both holdable.
Toronto designers, like Toronto developers, leave the city once they attain a level of competence. Hence Toronto designers dearly need their knowledge of history, and especially their understanding of Modernism, permanently recalibrated by Natalia Ilyin. Some books change your life; this one will change your career. And now there’s no excuse: You can borrow and read her book for free.