This past weekend, I finally go around to reading a book that, if you are a designer of any kind, you should read right now: Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro for A Book Apart. This is basically a handbook for the business part of being a designer. It helps explain how and why you should do things certain ways and most importantly says some brilliant things about helping your clients understand what you’re trying to do. Because really, don’t most of life’s problems come from miscommunication? That’s the part I really thought was the best: where Mike Monteiro tells designers that it’s our fault if clients don’t give us the kind of feedback we require to finish a project. This is a problem that I think is frustrating for both designers and their clients. We all need to be better at communicating.
Mike’s main point about feedback is to direct client feedback. ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it because I hate green,’ aren’t going to get anyone what they want so it’s up to designers to direct clients to give better feedback. Mike advocates questions like: Does it feel inline with your brand? How is the structure of the piece? to get the kind of feedback we designers need.
As well as the excellent chapter on feedback, the book contains many gems, two of my faves being: ‘Networking is just research plus manners’ and ‘To be referred to as one of those “creative types” is to be written off as intellectually inferior.’ As you can tell from those two quotes, this isn’t your art school prof’s design handbook. It’s funny, irreverent and modern. Seriously, read this book now.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to start reading another book in series: Responsive Web Design.
Kate Moore Hermes 