From the category archives:

Thought

Take a Line For a Walk: A Creativity Journal

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This isn’t your typical sketchbook. Robin Landa, Professor of Design at Kean University in New Jersey, collaborated with some of the nation’s top creative experts to bring readers a brainstorm session in the form of a journal. Contributors include Rick Valicenti of 3st, Pentagram’s Michael Bierut, and design critic Jessica Helfand, among other well-known artists [...]

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Just Design, Socially Conscious Design for Critical Causes

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“Designers are the mediators of our daily experience. The easier my compost bucket is to use, the more appealing my reusable grocery bag, the more likely I am to participate in environmentally sound practices. Designers carry a heavy responsibility, but at the same time they can offer our future the greatest gift.” So says Gavin [...]

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Thoughts on Interaction Design, Second Edition

Thoughts on Interaction Design, 2nd Edition

How often do you read a design text that impacts your life dramatically? As someone relatively new to the field of Interaction Design, John Kolko’s Thoughts on Interaction Design, Second Edition has allowed me to understand so much about the way I think, and the approach I’ve taken towards designing over the years. It’s content [...]

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Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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This is going to be a short review because there have been so many reviews and commentaries about the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson (Amazon: US|UK|DE) that it seems there is almost nothing left to say. The question this review sets out to answer is, “why should designers read Steve Jobs’s biography?” On a [...]

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How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer

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“I often get questions like this from students, and whenever I do, I get the sense that they are fishing for a recipe to become a successful designer.”  Steff Geissbuhler Critically prefaced via email correspondence by designer Steff Geissbuhler, How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman, claims not to provide a [...]

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Creative Personal Branding

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Do you wonder what’s next? Your next job, the next big opportunity for your business, the next technological development that could change everything for you? Our economy is changing so rapidly, it’s unlikely any of us can count on long-term stability in our work. Developing and preparing for the next step is crucial. Creative Personal [...]

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Dieter Rams Double Review – Less and More & As Little Design As Possible

Dieter Rams double book review

Double review of Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams and Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible Review by Carolina de Bartolo “To design is to think.” —Dieter Rams, Industrial Designer (b. 1932–, Weisbaden, Germany) What can I tell you about Dieter Rams that you don’t already know? Since one of his [...]

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Designers Don’t Have Influences by Austin Howe

Designers Don't Have Influences

I had better start by owning up to not having read Designers Don’t Read by Howe – I had seen lots of press for it but never got round to picking up a copy. So I have come to his second book without reading the first, but Designers Don’t Have Influences (Amazon US|CA|UK|DE) is stand-alone [...]

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White

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A small part of the book White is about color: “it is ‘all colors’ and ‘no colors’ at the same time. This identity as a color that can ‘escape color’ makes white very special. If white is not simply a color, mightn’t we be able to understand it as functioning like a design or expressive [...]

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I Heart Design

I Heart Design

I Heart Design. No, really I do. I design every day, spend my spare time obsessing about typography, and could never imagine doing anything else. Design holds a near and dear spot in my heart. But this isn’t about me. It’s about a book. I Heart Design by Steven Heller is a collection of, as [...]

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