Book Review: The Designful Company

It wasn't that long ago that a company could manufacture a mediocre product and use mass advertising to succeed in the marketplace. According to author Marty Neumeier, those days "have come to an end." [p. 61]

It's innovation that's driving opportunity and market share -- think iPod, Google, Prius and NetFlix.

How do you radically differentiate, as well as solve all the other persistent, pervasive, slippery problems facing business today?

The answer to that question is the central theme of his book. According to Neumeier, you'll need to adapt design principles into your management processes, fundamentally changing the way you do business.

Easier said than done, of course. How do you

"trade the false security of best practices for the insecurity of new practices?" [p. 47]

He has a lot of ideas about how to make it happen. I loved his good/different chart, as well as the identification of the "levers of change."

This is a book about creativity and business, and it's crafted like one. Fun illustrations, text that goes over pages, and a solid index. For photos of some of the spreads (plus another review of this same book), see the Designer's Review of Books.

The book isn't as much fun to read as something from Jack Trout, but if you're thinking strategically about how you'll need to shape your organization to thrive in the future, you should give this book a serious read.

Thanks to Catherine Stickel, Academic Director for Graphic Design & Advertising at Art Institute of California for giving me a copy of the book.