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We've rounded up a list of fantastic books written by a few of the speakers at DesignThinkers Toronto 2018.
Now You See It and Other Essays on Design
by: Michael Bierut
Design is a way to engage with real content, real experience," writes celebrated essayist Michael Bierut in this follow-up to his best-selling Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design (2007). In more than fifty smart and accessible short pieces from the past decade, Bierut engages with a fascinating and diverse array of subjects. Essays range across design history, practice, and process; urban design and architecture; design hoaxes; pop culture; Hydrox cookies, Peggy Noonan, baseball, The Sopranos; and an inside look at his experience creating the "forward" logo for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Other writings celebrate such legendary figures as Jerry della Femina, Alan Fletcher, Charley Harper, and his own mentor, Massimo Vignelli. Bierut's longtime work in the trenches of graphic design informs everything he writes, lending depth, insight, and humor to this important and engrossing collection.
How To
by: Michael Bierut
The first monograph, design manual, and manifesto by Michael Bierut, one of the world’s most renowned graphic designers—a career retrospective that showcases more than thirty-five of his most noteworthy projects for clients as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Yale School of Architecture, the New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the New York Jets, and reflects eclectic enthusiasm and accessibility that has been the hallmark of his career.
Design the Life You Love: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Meaningful Future
by: Ayse Birsel
An interactive journal that serves as a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you've always dreamed of, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer.
Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints -- time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative to make what you want and what you need co-exist. Design the Life You Love is a joyful, inspirational guide to building the life you’ve always wanted, using the principles and creative process of an award-winning product designer. Through four steps that reveal hidden skills and wisdom, anyone can design a life they love!
Do You Matter?: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company
by: Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery with Russ Hall
More and more companies are coming to understand the competitive advantage offered by outstanding design. With this, you can create products, services, and experiences that truly matter to your customers' lives and thereby drive powerful, sustainable improvements in business performance. But delivering great designs is not easy. Many companies accomplish it once, or twice; few do it consistently. The secret: building a truly design-driven business, in which design is central to everything you do.
Do You Matter? shows how to do precisely that. Legendary industrial designer Robert Brunner (who laid the groundwork for Apple's brilliant design language) and Stewart Emery (Success Built to Last) begin by making an incontrovertible case for the power of design in making emotional connections, deepening relationships, and strengthening brands. You'll learn what it really means to be "design-driven" and how that translates into action at Nike, Apple, BMW and IKEA. You'll learn design-driven techniques for managing your entire experience chain; define effective design strategies and languages; and learn how to manage design from the top, encouraging "risky" design innovations that lead to entirely new markets. The authors show how (and how not) to use research; how to extend design values into marketing, manufacturing, and beyond; and how to keep building on your progress, truly "baking" design into all your processes and culture.
Make It Now!: Creative Inspiration and the Art of Getting Things Done
by: Anthony Burrill
If you’re stuck for an idea, have a big decision to handle or need a new perspective on a problem, here are some approaches for thinking, communicating and creativity. An upbeat guide that anyone can use to help with the big and small challenges we face every day.’ Anthony Burrill
A life-affirming guide to new thinking, creative problem-solving and getting things done from graphic artist Anthony Burrill. Full of inspiration and ideas, his best-loved prints as well as new work, this book will get you thinking bigger and better and recharge your creativity.
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Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Strategies To Evolve Your Creative Business
by: Emily Cohen
Brutally Honest is chock full of advice, insights, best business practices, and actionable strategies as well as 20 compelling, real-world case studies from other creative professionals. Critical business challenges explored and addressed in this book include: positioning & specialization, marketing, case studies, new business development, strategies for qualifying new clients, pricing, retainers, proposals, contracts, organizational structures, staff management, client & project management, creative briefs, and industry trends. Unlike many other professional practice books for our industry, Brutally Honest is designed for visual learners (like us!) and includes colorful, illuminating information graphics, checklists, as well as short, impactful, and insightful sound bites and quick wins.
In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector
by: Jessica Hische
This show-all romp through design-world darling Jessica Hische's sketchbook reveals the creative and technical process behind making award-winning hand lettering. See everything, from Hische's rough sketches to her polished finals for major clients such as Wes Anderson, NPR, and Starbucks. The result is a well of inspiration and brass tacks information for designers who want to sketch distinctive letterforms and hone their skills. With more than 250 images and metallic silver ink printed throughout to represent her penciled sketches, this highly visual book is an essential—and entirely enjoyable—resource for those who practice or simply appreciate the art of hand lettering.
Desire by Design
Conventional thinking has brands trying to give customers what they want. But what if wanting is no longer enough? A customer may want a great mobile phone, for example, and there are many options. But a huge majority will choose the now iconic iPhone, even waiting long hours in lines to purchase the latest model. This is not simply about wanting. Its about desire. The question for brand marketers is how to make that elusive magic happen.
In Desire by Design, Jean-Pierre Lacroix unravels the irrational element of desire and explains how brands, designers, and marketers can tap into the emotional high that elicits such passion for certain brands. Jean-Pierre shapes high-level ideas and insights from neuroscience, cult fanaticism, and behavioral psychology into practical worksheets that explain the how-to in creating desire for a brand. Using design philosophies he has developed through his thirty years of experience, Jean-Pierre offers interesting history, insights from scientific research, and actionable advice to lead brands from a want category to the much-coveted desire space in the marketplace.
Signs of Resistance: A Visual History of Protest in America
by: Bonnie Sielger
In hundreds of iconic, smart, angry, clever, unforgettable images, Signs of Resistance chronicles what truly makes America great: citizens unafraid of speaking truth to power.
Two hundred and forty images—from British rule and women’s suffrage to the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War; from women’s equality and Black Lives Matter to the actions of our forty-fifth president and the Women’s March—offer an inspiring, optimistic, and visually galvanizing history lesson about the power people have when they take to the streets and stand up for what’s right.
Dear Client: This Book Will Teach You How to Get What You Want from Creative People
by: Bonnie Sielger
In a world where every business, brand, product, and service needs a strong visual identity, it’s critical for clients and creative professionals to work together. And the key to success, as with any relationship, is communication. In Dear Client, award-winning graphic designer Bonnie Siegler offers an invaluable step-by-step guide to how to talk so creatives will listen, and how to listen when creatives talk.
To see these authors in person, register for DesignThinkers Toronto happening on October 23 and 24, 2018.