Recent products and publications by Pratt graduates include playful accessories, hybrid furniture, and visual histories.

Cover of The Rose Book. A hardcover book with a red cover adorned with overlapping, semi-translucent gold and fuchsia pink roses.
Image courtesy of Phaidon

The Rose Book
Kristine Paulus, MSLIS ’03

In everything from fashion to fragrance to art and horticulture, the rose is one of nature’s enduringly captivating flowers. The Rose Book, coauthored by Kristine Paulus, head of acquisitions and technical services at New York Botanical Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library, does a deep dive into its historical and cultural significance. Along with essays and a rose glossary, 220 images trace the rose’s influence—a visual survey with highlights that include botanical illustrations, a couture Dior gown, and a rose-embellished Barbie as well as ancient mosaics and Victorian Valentine’s cards. Available at phaidon.com.

A necklace featuring bright multicolored semi-translucent beads embedded with glitter shaped like confetti and stars. Dangling from the necklace is a small silver charm in the shape of the letter "M."
Photograph courtesy of Marland Backus

Bouncy Ball Necklace
Marland Backus, BID ’15

With her foundations in industrial design, Marland Backus creates jewelry that plays with form, material, and scale—like a giant diamond ring designed as neckwear, toy-car hair clips, and a charm bracelet bursting with shell, crystal, and glass ornaments and other miniature surprises. Backus’s designs have adorned stars and style tastemakers like Chappell Roan, Charli XCX, Addison Rae, Doja Cat, and Olivia Rodrigo. This nostalgic piece is made of bouncy-ball lookalike resin beads, complete with tiny star confetti and glitter inclusions, on a stainless steel chain. Available at marlandbackus.com.

A rectangular pale wooden table with a single matching chair. The table features eaves around all sides and has a large depression in the center of the table. On the left eve is a serving tray with a single gray cup and a Chemex coffee maker filled with black coffee. In front of the chair is a coaster and a matching gray cup.
Image courtesy of Zac Feltoon/Arcanium Inc.

260 Hybrid Table
Zac Feltoon, BID ’08

Made for a seamless transition from dining to gaming, this table from Zac Feltoon for Arcanium Inc. uses a unique folding-leaf system to shift modes. “The table leaves follow a balletic transition sequence, which, as far as we can tell, is a design solution that has never been done before in table design,” says Feltoon. The piece, named a Core77 Design Awards 2024 Notable, was created especially with long-form game players in mind, with a storage compartment at the center, covered by the dining table’s surface, to help pause extended game sessions. The 260 Hybrid Table is made of solid American Ash hardwood in Omro, Wisconsin. Available at arcaniuminc.com.

Two clear glasses rest on a table. The glasses have a conventional cylindrical top, but have glass rings around their centers. Below the glass rings, the glasses have a bubble-like form that tapers into a flat base.
Photograph courtesy of Rebecca Mapes

Resting Glass Set
Rebecca Mapes, BFA Fine Arts ’11

From the Santa Fe studio of Rebecca Mapes come glass objects that take their forms from nature’s shapes and lines. Pieces from the Resting series, which includes uniquely crafted vases, bowls, and glasses like those shown here, were blown by Mapes using glass produced in Tijuana, Mexico. Available at rebeccamapes.com, along with jewelry that borrows similar inspiration from the natural world.

Book cover with text Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game. Caldecott Medalist and New York Times Bestselling Author Kadir Nelson. Cover features a painterly portrait of an African-American athlete with a slicked-back hairstyle lifting a laced leather basketball above his head. The athlete’s expression is focused.
Image courtesy of Hachette Book Group

Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game
Kadir Nelson, BFA Communications Design ’96

Forthcoming in January, Kadir Nelson’s richly illustrated history of basketball celebrates the passion, strategy, and athleticism that’s been at the heart of the game since its origins some 125 years ago. Accompanying the Caldecott Medal–winning artist’s paintings are features on star players including Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Stephen Curry along with quotes from significant figures in basketball. For sports lovers, Nelson’s new book could be a companion to his lauded bestseller We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Available at hachettebookgroup.com.

Book cover. Gold foil text with a bold, stylish typographical treatment reads “Greatness: Diverse Designers of Architecture Written by Pascale Sablan, Pro Editions.” The cover image, filtered in teal, depicts a modernist concrete walkway where two women engage in discussion. Below the walkway is a plaza where a mother sits with a young child, children run and play, and others stand. A speeding bicyclist can be seen in the bottom left corner of the photograph.
Image courtesy of ORO Editions

Greatness
Pascale Sablan, BArch ’06

Celebrating the work of 47 contemporary architects and designers from around the world, this anthology from architect and activist Pascale Sablan addresses the question of “greatness” in architecture and sheds light on often-overlooked contributions to the field. Through profiles, essays, and project case studies, Greatness highlights how the discipline at large and the built environment—from residential, cultural, institutional, and master plan design—have been and continue to be shaped by designers from a range of backgrounds. Available at oroeditions.com.