Design & Philosophy

Design the Life You Love

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.


Design Transitions

Discover where design practice is today – and where it will take us in the future.
Design Transitions presents 42 unique and insightful stories of how design is changing around the world. Twelve countries are represented from the perspectives of three different communities: design agencies, organizations embedding design; and design academics.

The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas

How to get past the most common myths about creativity to design truly innovative strategies We tend to think of creativity in terms reminiscent of the ancient muses: divinely-inspired, unpredictable, and bestowed upon a lucky few. But when our jobs challenge us to be creative on demand, we must develop novel, useful ideas that will keep our organizations competitive. The Myths of Creativity demystifies the processes that drive innovation.

Watches Tell More Than Time

"I hope people are starting to see design is making a difference." —Steve Jobs on the iMac "Fifteen years ago, companies competed on price. Today it's quality. Tomorrow it's design." —Robert Hayes, Harvard Business School From the Back Cover The design of every product conveys certain information, and modern consumers are experts in reading the language of product design. Most of us can discern the different messages conveyed by say, a Rolex versus a Swatch, a Porsche versus a Hummer, a Kenneth Cole versus a Bally, or an iMac versus a Compaq.

Design by Nature

In Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design, author Maggie Macnab takes you on an intimate and eclectic journey examining the unending versatility of nature, showing how to uncover nature’s ingenuity and use it to create beautiful and compelling designed communications.

Breaking In

BREAKING IN™

BREAKING IN™ Product Designhelps you build the portfolio you need to get the job you want. With advice from over 100 product design luminaries, BREAKING IN™ gives you an unfair advantage over the rest. 

Get specific advice from the exact people you want to work for. 

Learn what Creative Directors are looking for in your portfolio. 

Avoid the common traps that most portfolios fall into. 

Problems of Design

We all know the designs of George Nelson, but this book reveals an amazing depth of understanding. Nelson ranges far and wide on why design is so important in elements much larger than a piece of furniture. Nothing less than society and cities is fair game for his take on the world. Nelson asks why things are the way that they are and examines urban centers to see what works and what fails. If all you expected was a set of pretty pictures of his chairs, then you should pick one of the many other books that cover his designs.

Karim Rashid: I Want to Change the World

Karim Rashid is the best known and most prolific young designer practicing in America today. On the brink of household-name celebrity, he has fast become a superstar among design aficionados by revolutionizing the visual standards of minimalist design with his fresh, colorful, sinuous, and sensual objects. His work is in the collections of museums worldwide, including The Musemu of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts.

NONOBJECT

The "objective" world is one of facts, data, and actuality. The world of the "nonobject" is about perception, experience, and possibility. In this highly original and visually extravant book, Branko Lukic (an award-winning designer) and Barry Katz (an authority on the history and philosophy of design) imagine what would happen if design started not from the object but from the space between people and the objects they use. The "nonobject," they explain, is the designer's personal experiment to explore our relation to the observable world.

Make Design Matter

"This little red book presents a pocket guide to meaningful design. Seven stepping stones that inspire you to cross the stream of change, and get you to the other side, firm and dry …" —Brent Richards, creative chef and architect

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