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A Summer of BooksThe Manifesto and Other Books on the Business of Design July 12, 2010 at 9:00 am by Blair  After feeling 10 months pregnant for the last six months (thereby establishing a new gestation record for humans, even if just imagined) The Win Without Pitching Manifesto has been born. You can read it for free online, download the ebook in two different formats or, if you're in North America, you can order the hardcover from Amazon (it's still a few weeks from shipping, so I guess I remain a little pregnant, but you can pre-order now.)
I'll post more on the book once I recover from the birthing and catch up from my just-completed vacation, but I want to take a few lines to discuss some other books on the business of design that are worth reading this summer.
Managing (Right) for the First Time, A Field Guide to Doing it Well
Managing Right is a book for first time managers or for those who've been at it awhile and want to get better at it. I, for one, maxed out on management books 15 years ago and if it weren't for my relationship with David I wouldn't have picked this one up. What struck me most about Managing Right, even well before I finished it, is that it's unlike anything else in the crowded space of books on management and leadership. Reading it, I kept asking myself why no one had written this book before. Most management books are either thinly disguised celebrity CEO autobiographies or dry academic textbooks. Managing Right is neither. The lessons in it are learned, not from the author's experience as a manger, but from his experience in talking with and surveying managers and employees in hundreds of organizations over many years. One of the surprising finds in this book is that Baker doesn't advocate a certain management type or style, as most do. At the center of the book is the idea that managing is a human endeavor and how you manage people is rooted in the decisions you make in your life. This isn’t a book about him; it’s about you. I guess that sums up how Managing Right is different from every other management book.
The book is very well organized and easy to read, in typical David C. Baker fashion. I suspect Managing Right is going to find a wide, wide audience. Only once you read it will you realize the size of the hole it fills in the pantheon of management advice. Buy it for yourself and all the managers in your firm.
How to Run a Successful Design Business
The second book from UK-based consultant Shan Preddy features contributions from numerous authors and experts across a wide range of design consultancy management practices, including two chapters from yours truly.
Shan’s first book How to Market Design Consultancy Services (Gower, 1997) found wide readership throughout the English-speaking world and has never gone out of print. I’m looking forward to getting my signed copy from Shan when she and I speak at the Vision:Bristol Conference in September.
Logo Design Love, A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities
David Airey is an Edinburgh based, Northern Ireland raised designer and one of the web’s more prolific and widely followed bloggers on design (davidairey.com and logodesignlove.com). Logo Design Love, published at the very end of 2009, showcases some iconic brand identities, which designers will love, but it’s David’s advice in working with clients that I found most helpful. David is selective about who he works with and is thoughtful in his approach to collaborating with clients without allowing them to drive the creative process.
I was happy to contribute a small piece to this book on the subject of presenting creative to clients.
You can find David Airey’s book on Amazon here. Tags: books (2) |
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