Books
(All reviews are from amazon.com)
NEWEST RESOURCE AT THE TOP
AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design: American Institute of Graphic Arts
by Tad Crawford (Editor), AIGA
A main selection of the Graphic Design Book Club, AIGA Professional Practices in Graphic Design is a comprehensive guide to every aspect of the graphic design business, from designer relationships with clients, employees, and suppliers to management issues, marketing strategies, rights, and ethical standards. It covers negotiation principles, setting fees, contracts, structuring the design firm, audits, insurance basics, studio safety, marketing on the World Wide Web, copyright and licensing, trademark infringement, and business ethics. Short and long versions of the AIGA Standard Form of Agreement are included for easy reference, and a complete resources section highlights selected publications and organizations for graphic designers.
by Cameron S. Foote, Mark Bellerose (Illustrator)
The most comprehensive business companion available for those just starting out or expanding operations in the design field. This updated edition of an industry standard furnishes all freelance graphic designers, art directors, illustrators, copywriters, and design-shop principals with the tools needed to move ahead in the design business. From getting launched to running a multiperson shop to retiring comfortably, this book covers it all and includes sample business forms.
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook : Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (10th Edition)
by Graphics Artists Guild
First published in 1973, the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook has become the essential source for fair prices and practice. Assembled by the national organization for graphic artists, this 10th edition contains the latest information on business, pricing and ethical standards for nearly every discipline in the visual communications industry, from advertising to publishing to corporate markets.
The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus
by John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
The Witch Doctors is a one-stop guide to management theories, fads, and the gurus who promote them that will spark controversy, debate, and a dialogue for change. Funny, entertaining and outspoken, this is a book no American worker can afford to miss.
Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used
by Peter Block
For over fifteen years, consultants—both internal and external—have relied on Peter Block’s landmark bestseller, Flawless Consulting, to learn how to deal effectively with clients, peers, and others. Using illustrative examples, case studies, and exercises, the author, one of the most important and well known in his field, offers his legendary warmth and insight throughout this much-awaited second edition. Anyone who must communicate in a professional context—and who doesn’t?—will use the lessons taught in this book for years to come!
Creative Company: How St. Luke’s Became “the Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies”
by Andy Law
In Creative Company, the chairman and cofounder of St. Lukes answers these questions and many more. Andy Law writes candidly and enthusiastically about breaking the agency mold and organizing a company in a completely different way.
Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That Revitalize Your Business, Career & Life
by Joey Reiman
The “big idea” behind this book is that ideas are becoming more valuable. Reiman became wealthy in advertising, then founded BrightHouse, a company that sells ideas. He offers many anecdotes about how creative thinking has paid large rewards in his life but little advice for those who would emulate him. He insists throughout that ideas are the currency of the future, but he gives few clues as to who will buy these ideas and who will execute them. His material is scattered, with no clear idea of where it is going, ranging from anecdotes to a four-page “history of the world through advertising” to brief biographies of outstanding thinkers to models of how the mind generates ideas and even a few, very general management tips.
Selling Graphic Design, Second Edition
by Don Sparkman
The book explains in a professional, no-nonsense style how to write effective proposals, offer the right design solutions, and provide services to fit a client’s needs and budget. Full of tips on pricing, billing, portfolios, promotion and networking, and turning low budgets into successful projects, the revised version includes new chapters on Internet promotion, electronic design technology, selling Web page designs, and protecting your electronic files.
Competing on the Edge : Strategy as Structured Chaos
by Shona L. Brown, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt
In the first book to translate leading edge concepts from complexity theory into management practice, each chapter focuses on a specific management dilemma and illustrates a solution. Linking “where do you want to go?” with “how will you get there?” here’s a bold and surprising strategy that works—when the name of the game is change.
Marketing Aesthetics: The Strategic Management of Brands, Identity and Image
by Bernd H. Schmitt, Alex Simonson
Bernd Schmitt and Alex Simonson, two leading experts in the emerging field of identity management, offer clear guidelines for harnessing a company’s total aesthetic output — its “look and feel” — to provide a vital competitive advantage. Going beyond standard traditional approaches on branding, this fascinating book is the first to combine branding, identity, and image and to show how aesthetics can be managed through logos, brochures, packages, and advertisements, as well as sounds, scents, and lighting, to sell “the memorable experience.” The authors explore what makes a corporate or brand identity irresistible, what styles and themes are crucial for different contexts, and what meanings certain visual symbols convey. Any person in any organization in any industry can benefit from employing the tools of “marketing aesthetics.”