Essential books on design, design management, and leadership in design. Please browse and explore, you can also buy these books directly from Amazon.com.
(paperback edition, new)
[Required reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
A book created using the very principles it communicates. Over 80% of GDP in developed nations is created in services. Design is about information-based decision making and innovation-based creation.
A quickly growing community of service design practitioners has done an amazing job creating standardized tools and language. This books is the compendium for practitioners and corporate decision makers alike.
[Required reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
Kathryn Best simplifies and effectively communicates the practice of design management. For MBA’s and creatives alike, this book goes deep enough to be relevant, and goes wide enough to an enjoyable and engaging read. With many illustrations, it offers applicable frameworks for any business finding itself in the need of managing design processes.
[Highly Recommended Reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
Shedroff, Diller and Rhea have managed to put together one of the most important books about the intersection of design, business and management. This is a milestone must-read for any business-minded designer and design-minded business person.
Every responsible designer, manager, leader involved in the creation of goods & services should read this book. The authors make amazing connections between the world of commerce, design and philosophy. Following the principles shared in the book can make our world a profoundly better one.
[Recommended reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
Any member of management, as well as any responsible designer, makes decisions every day. How good are these decisions? If you are interested in broadening your horizon and improving your decision making processes, the book offers over 50 different tools to make relevant, lasting, rational decisions.
[Recommended reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
Tim Browns book helped ignite the discussion about “design thinking”. Whether that term is here to stay, or not: this is essential reading for everybody interested in connecting business and design practices!
[Recommended reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
The Board of International Design Research, Bird, has published this highly useful reference compendium. In a practice that getting more and more complex, this compendium offers concise definitions for designers and non-designers alike.
[Recommended reading ‘Service Design & Organizational Activation’]
The more relevant a design project is, the more diverse a stakeholder group, the more complex a task it is to keep everybody moving into the same direction. For business folks and designers alike, this book offers an amazing and playful toolset to accomplish the task.
When "the fundamentals of design management" does not go deep enough, this more advanced, more comprehensive publication does.
Norman shakes up conventional wisdom of good design about once a decade. In 2011 he has done it again. Refreshing, sometimes outright contradicting his previous books, “Living with Complexity” sheds new light onto a responsible practice of design.
A very personal and insightful journey into leadership. John Maeda sharing key aspects of learning to become a leader quickly.
This book is an absolute "must read" for any creative leader! Highly, highly recommended!
This is one of the greatest introductory books on type of all times. If you are interested in typography or want to just improve on your graphics skills, go get it.
One of the key books on the market about sustainability and sustainable design.
The first comprehensive book on ergonomics, and still a very relevant one.
Connecting the practice of design with the practice of business in an engaging and approchable way.
Michael Bierut has collected a phantastic collection of essays on design. If you want fodder for a healthy design discussion, this one is for you.
Some of the basics of creating successful form and function, 2D and 3D. Good reference book when you get stuck in the creative process.
An collection of essays on creating interactions that are meaningful to the user. As design shifts more and more away from just form giving of artifacts to a more integrated discipline, this is an important book.
Design Research is covering all the bases for the fundamentals of relevant research to the design process.
One of the best books on the tools and techniques of behavioral research. Useful for any research and design practice.
One Tufte's 5 great books on information design.
In a world where visual storytelling is becoming ever more important, this book is a guiding star for getting it right.
Watch it. Own it. Watch it again.
If you want to open your eyes about the one of the key ingredients that surround us in our everyday lives, this phantastic documentary about the typeface "Helvetica" needs a prime spot on your DVD shelf.
