Whether you’re a free­lance designer fresh out of col­lege or a 10 year vet­eran, Design­ers Don’t Read by Austin Howe is a real treat. From top­ics like “HOW MANY IDEAS SHOULD YOU PRESENT?” and “CAREER LAUNCHERS” to “NOCTURNAL GENIUS” and “THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESENTATION SKILLS”. Each chap­ter is as enter­tain­ing as it is infor­ma­tive and dou­bly inspirational.

Each chap­ter orig­i­nated as a piece of work all its own, essays Howe would write weekly and share with friends and col­leagues. Clev­erly com­bined into 41 total chap­ters each labeled with a time (foot­noted “Read­ing times are esti­mated based on aver­ages. Indi­vid­ual times may vary”) mak­ing each that much more entic­ing to read!

I have to say, I had a real laugh out loud moment when I got to “SOMETIMES THE MOST INSPIRING THING YOU CAN SAY IS NOTHING” mainly because my wife asked me when I had learned to read Latin… the entire chap­ter con­sisted of:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, con­secte­tur adip­isc­ing elit lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, con­secte­tur adip­isc­ing elit lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, con­secte­tur adip­isc­ing elit…

If you’re look­ing for a fresh and insight­ful per­spec­tive into the life and busi­ness of adver­tis­ing and design, Austin Howe has offered up exactly that. Every chap­ter lives up to it’s title as well as it’s read time, and thanks to it’s unique design, Design­ers Don’t Read is per­fect for an after­noon read and is equally at home in the bag of any time starved designer.

From the back cover:

Design­ers Don’t Read is “on demand” inspi­ra­tion for cre­ative pro­fes­sion­als. Cre­ative direc­tor, writer and design advi­cate Austin Howe explores the cre­ative process and what to do when inspi­ra­tion is lack­ing. Orga­nized not only by topic but also by how long it will take the aver­age reader to com­plete each chap­ter, the book is intended to func­tion like a daily devo­tional for design­ers and busy pro­fes­sion­als involved in branded com­mu­ni­ca­tions at all lev­els. With it’s unique orga­ni­za­tion and attrac­tive design, com­plete with “dis­cov­er­able,” Design­ers Don’t Read can 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.

Austin Howe’s per­sonal mis­sion is to help inspire and bring together the col­lec­tive strengths of the dif­fer­ent cre­ative dis­ci­plines. Design­ers Don’t Read is an incred­i­ble spring­board into this frame of mind.

Tech­ni­cal:
Design­ers Don’t Read By Austin Howe; designed by Fredrik Averin
Pub­lished by All­worth Press, 2009

Dis­claimer: Pur­chas­ing the book from ama­zon using any link con­tained in this arti­cle will result in me being paid a small comm­sion. If you found the arti­cle help­ful, please show your support!