Bruce Mau: MC24: Bruce Mau’s 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in your Life and Work

by Bruce Mau

" MC 24, Bruce Mau's 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work" is an inspirational and motivational book that is relevant to anyone who wants to make big changes -- from business leaders and entrepreneurs to designers and students -- in their work and life.  

In equal parts a business leadership book, an art book and a personal development book, this stunningly beautiful and practical blend of business wisdom and design methodology introduces Mau's 24 massive change (MC24) design principles through a compelling mix of illustrations, data and real-life examples. For each MC24 principle, Mau provides an array of  prompts that guide readers to thinking critically about how they can apply MC24 principles to elevate and amplify any project. 

Mau believes that design is more than making fancy objects look good. Design provides the process and the tools, Mau argues, for leaders to envision a better future across the spectrum of human activities and devise a systematic approach to achieving their vision. A key premise of Mau's book is you don't have to be a designer to design a better life or a better business company, making this the perfect gift for everyone who wants to design and lead change on any scale.

Genres: Design, Architecture, Coffee Table Books

512 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2020

About the author

Mau was born in Sudbury, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, but left prior to graduation in order to join the Fifty Fingers design group in 1980. He stayed there for two years, before crossing the ocean for a brief sojourn at Pentagram in the UK. Returning to Toronto a year later, he became part of the founding triumvirate of Public Good Design and Communications. Soon after, the opportunity to design Zone 1/2 presented itself and he left to establish his own studio, Bruce Mau Design. From 1991-93, he also served as creative director of I.D. magazine.

In addition, Bruce is an honorary fellow of the Ontario College of Art & Design and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was awarded the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation in 1998, and the Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design in 1999. In 2001 he received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council.

In 2006, he participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions. As of 2007, Mau was in residence at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in the Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Design Objects Department.

[from wikipedia]

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our Buddha of design, Bruce Mau, has released another doorstop of a book. BOOM. At the very least, props must be given for his continued perseverance in spreading his “Massive Change” gospel. Like any guru, he does a good job of codifying disparate, abstract ideas and giving them a well-organized home.

And, like any guru, a lot of it is self-serving and borderline snake oil for the unassuming and unaware. To be fair, I’m probably too healthily a skeptic for Mau’s overly saccharine bromides. It’s not that he’s wrong or doesn’t mean well. We need visionary thinkers—but maybe a few less simplistic and overly optimistic ones. Alas, designers are rarely anything but.

[Paige]

It's not bad but it's not really my thing. A lot of it seems to be him tooting his own horn, he talks about how people were concerned that his amazing fame would spin his head and he wouldn't survive it, which I found a little funny because I'd never heard of him, so you can probably guess I'm not really the intended target, i.e., someone who is all in on "design." I mean I've never even taken a single class on design, although I am vaguely interested in it. When flipping through the book, it seemed like I'd love it, but in actually reading it, it...wasn't that interesting, really.

I started reading it from the front, got about a section and a half in, was underwhelmed, then started to treat it like a coffee table book and skipped around sections and "essays" but was also underwhelmed. I would say in all I probably read about a quarter of it. Main takeaway is this guy is super far up design's ass. Not trying to be critical, we all have our preferred lens(es), and that's his, and it seems to serve him well. The book itself is visually appealing, fun to hold and flip through, so at least it seems like he knows what he's talking about there. But it does sort of feel like... all design, no substance. It seems like this is book hits really well for its intended audience, though, so if you're a design person, you might want to check it out. It's probably just me who doesn't "get it."

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book on design thinking. Designers look at a problem and see a design challenge that excites them. Production artists are concerned with putting it together and what it looks like. I loved the 13 aspects of beauty. People are attracted to beauty and beauty is more than what your eyes see. I highly recommend this book to every type of designer and definitely professors of design.

[Nicholas Holden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can be repetitive. Beautiful images though, more for a coffee table than a read through.

[CC · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to live.

[Stacy Neier Beran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see this book as a masterpiece must-read. It gripped me from the start: afterall, the first chapter is about the required role inspiration plays in design leadership. From the initial inspiration and through every mantra-like chapter, I simultaneously felt ready to take on the world and scared of what was to come. Mau takes on plenty of misguided impressions about design - that design is purely visual - and takes us into how we can rise above the noise factory, overcome a time famine, and understand the difference curve to soar us into original thought. Professionally, I saw my crossover between business, education, and design represented in ways I’ve not previously experienced design-related books. Personally, I saw my values steeped in the reflective questions included at the left margin of most pages. The coffee table style format - with a powerhouse pink sateen cover! - created an intellectual indulgence unlike any book I’ve recently read. It is impossible to match the ethos of the book in a humble review here, but when 2021 closes out & I reflect on how I expanded, I’m quite certain MC24 will have played an inspirational role.