Designers Don't Read

by Austin Howe

Austin Howe is a creative director, writer, advocate, and cheerleader for design-but not a designer. He believes “in the wonder and exuberance of someone who gets paid-by clients to do what he loves.” Howe places immense value on curiosity and passion to help designers develop a point of view, a strong voice. He explores the creative process and conceptualization, and delves into what to do when inspiration is lacking. If there’s a villain in these elegant, incisive, amusing, and inspiring essays, it’s ad agencies and marketing directors, but even villains serve a purpose and illustrate the strength of graphic design “as a system, as a way of thinking, as almost a life style.” Howe believes that advertising and design must merge, but merge with design in the leadership role. He says that designers should create for clients and not in the hope of winning awards. He believes designers should swear “a 10-year commitment to make everything we do for every client a gift.” If this sounds like the designer is the client’s factotum, not so. Howe also argues in favor of offering clients a single solution and being willing to defend a great design. Organized not only by topic, but also by how long it will take the average reader to complete each chapter, Designers Don’t Read is intended to function like a “daily devotional” for designers and busy professionals involved in branded communications at all levels. Begun as a series of weekly essays sent every Monday morning to top graphic designers, Designers Don’t Read quickly developed a passionate and widespread following. With the approximate time each chapter might take to read, Designers Don’t Read’s delight and provocation can be fit into the niches in the life of a time-challenged designer. Or it may be hard to resist reading the entire book in one sitting!

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Creative, Art Design

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me explain why this book is garbage.

I was curious why this seemingly graphic design book was written from the perspective of a fanboy. I couldn't quite get why the author, who I assumed was a graphic designer, was repeatedly fawning over Paul Rand (obvious) and Damien Hurst (tasteless).

Then, halfway through the book, the author came out as an advertiser. He works directly with designers in his job, but he is not a trained designer.

Also, it really pisses me off when people talk about "design," meaning exclusively graphic design. There are several other fields of design outside of the print and digital world, so stop discrediting everyone else by assuming ownership of the greater label of "design," because it's simply wrong.

This guy is nothing more than a fanboy who is sharing his uninformed opinions about design. While reading several essays I was confused about what he was talking about. For example, at one point he told his elaborate story that was hard to follow about how he creates identities for his hypothetical clients and takes a deep investigation into who they are. Then I realized, oh, he's talking, in a very backward way, about making a persona. However, he didn't use the word "persona" in the entire essay, probably because he doesn't know what a persona is, probably because he is not a trained designer (used here to imply the entire family of designers, all designers should know why, when and how to utilize personas).

Get the fuck out of here with your undeserved perspective on a field you don't know much about. You're a fanboy of design. Congrats. I'm a Beatles fanboy, but I'm not going to write a book about them because I am aware that I am not an authority in that topic.

This book didn't need to be published. I'm not sure who the intended audience was. Perhaps my annoyance could have been saved by forwarding these essays in an email attachment to the other design fanboys. Waste of time.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The bottom line is that times change, culture changes and tastes change, but great ideas will always be great ideas. They will stand the test of time. And insofar as graphic design is about ideas first and foremost, and as long as the execution serves the idea, it really doesn't matter what we call it or how academia tries to reverse engineer it.”

Gems like this permeate this book, which is really just a short collection of stuff that he started writing one day. The miniature essays range from silly to serious, and cover a variety of topics. I noticed a theme throughout, which was his personal wish that advertising and design should be reunited.

Howe seems to be a bit biased towards designers, but I agree with him on most accounts. He usually critiques advertising as not being truly conceptual, and often suggests that many do not consider the design until the very end. He praises (good) designers for being curious, intellectual, witty and well rounded.

It's his focus on curiosity that stuck out to me the most. My favorite professor in college was a big advocate of the fact that, in his eyes, the best designers were intensely curious about the world around them. They should be constantly learning, questioning, figuring out the why and the how. In his eyes, it is a designer's job to know just a little bit of everything, and when the time comes, to educate yourself on something new to better understand the client/business.

This was nicely written, with a very human side to it. Perhaps its because he isn't a designer that it was so refreshing to me to read...but he's obviously worked with many throughout his career. It's an interesting take on life and design. Very enjoyable.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of essays on the subject of design. In an nice design touch, each is preceded by a title and an estimate in minutes of how long it would take to read. The content was opinionated and interesting, but I don't feel that I know tons more about design for having read it.

[Ninakix · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some nice gems and questions in here. But probably, most of this stuff is best for people who work in agencies or advertising. It's difficult when the definition of design is so broad.

[Igor Kolar · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're starting out on the subject of PR and design agencies, you can learn about some concepts that make the ones on top stand out. If you're a design student or graduate, it doesn't seem to me that this book contains anything you won't find out through shear osmosis if you have any interest in furthering your knowledge.

It's typographically interesting, though given the vagueness of the content, that sadly ends up being more of a gimmick than icing on the cake.

[hannah boss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was basically Austin Howe complaining about the advertising industry for 200 pages. It felt very discouraging and negative about the direction that design is going towards. I didn’t feel like I was the right audience for this book at all, hence that I am a junior art director in the world of advertising and it seemed that most of the content was geared towards people higher up in the design industry.

[Carmen Keating · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for new designers working directly with clients. It goes through some of the challenges while working with clients and how to overcome them.

[Laura Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting design commentary—helps to rethink the role of designers through historical, humorous, and personal anecdotes. The dialogue about the role designers play in advertising firms and relationship they have with art directors does not apply as much to independent contractors, but could be very useful to revisit later. An easy and enjoyable read, presenting thoughts and ideas worth meditating on.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I spent $20 on this book and that was four times the worth I found within. If I ever read the phrase "My favorite designers…" again, I am going to throw the item I am reading it upon out the nearest window (whether it be a book, a tablet, a laptop, or scrawled on a chalkboard).

[Karmen V · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://bit.ly/9IRYx3

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simply inspiring.

[Jimmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit negative for my tastes, but overall a great message and lots of inspiration to take with you.

[Seth Whitton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and quick to read before diving into your workday.

[B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on design I have ever read.

[Fai Ahmed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bores me to death. It has interesting ideas but his style of writing is awfully boring& I understand why.


Note: never hire a graphic designer to edit your writings. & You're wrong, not all of designers make good writers.