Book Review: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

The book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell is just one of his well known works. He is also the author of The Tipping Point, a book about science and chaos theories and hopefully a book I will be reading in the near future. Yet, Blink is a book written about the power of thinking without thinking. What does that mean you ask? It's about the snap-judgments or slices of thoughts that we make without our control. In my understanding of it, it almost seemed that snap judgments where "learned thoughts" through our environment. It was the stuff we might have learned through a situation, such as, a stressful time, or through the influence of others. Such as manners, racism, and common likes or dislikes. It's our first two seconds of thinking that we have learned so well it hits us in a instant. Other interesting topics within the book include mind-reading, speed dating, and selling cars. Gladwell talks about how we can better understand each other without words and know what to look for in a person’s face or body jesters.

Gladwell's Blink had a very interesting chapter, Chapter 5: Kenna's Dilemma: The Right - and Wrong- Way to Ask People What They Want. Throughout the chapter he talked about, Kenna, a musician that couldn't seem to get a solid record deal  because he could not get enough fans in "x" amount of time. And throughout the chapter Gladwall branches into the subject of Coke versus Pepsi and how Pepsi is the better soda at the first sip and not by the glass. The idea is that it takes time to make decisions about products and peoples actions, like 10 minutes or so to realize that you're being tricked or scammed. And sometimes we still don't even know what we want. In Gladwell's TED video I remember listening to a talk about marketing tests for spaghetti sauces. The tests would ask "Did you like a thin sauce or a thick sauce" and the results were all over the map. Because people made snap judgments about how their sauce should look versus its taste or texture. Many Italians like the sauce thin to coat the noodles at the bottom, because that was the traditional way sauce was made; even though the thick sauce was better favored. It wasn't until the company thought people just needed something difference altogether and added meat. People didn't know that they should like meat sauce or not by Ragu showed them the way.

Thoughts no matter how quick they come to us have been learned. It’s our way of protecting ourselves when we have little time to think- it’s or Fight or Flight mechanism. Although this book at first seemed to start telling the same storyline over and over, each story had great points that can be used to better understand product design, research statistics, and marketing/advertising; which is why I would recommend Blink by Malcolm Gladwell to any designer looking for answers and better results.

Book Review: How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul

How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul Design is written by design guru Adrian Shaughnessy; who has most recently release this book's expanded edition in September 2010, with a new cover design, as seen above in gray.

You can tell that Shaughnessy had been working on this book for some time, perhaps years, because it reads similar to journal entries. The book as a flow of practical business solutions mixed with uplifting inspirations; thoughts that I have found to manifest slowly in years of being in the design business. And it seems as if he collected these thoughts and wrote them out into chapters.

This book's chapters span many topics from how to find a job to how to run a design studio. Yet, the chapters do not read as step-by-step guides; instead Shaughnessy offers a background of intelligence providing considerations that you may have not thought of yourself in the normal stresses of the daily design life.

Many phrases and bodies of text hit home and warm the heart while others are a surprising; may are relieving ways of looking at normal design life. The book ends with pages of how good work is also green work, plus graphic designer interviews and samples. Shaughnessy's wisdom and warmth makes his somewhat "how-to" book into an enjoyable conversation with a fellow experienced designer.

The Education of an Art Director Book Review

The Education of an Art Director is an interesting how-to book, written in a informal how-to way. There is no clear answer to how to actually become an Art Director in this book, but many individuals telling their stories, (mostly working for up and coming print magazines) on how they got to where they are today. There was a lot of great names mentioned like Alexander Liberman and Paul Rand, that only make you wish you were in the height of your career in the 1950's, 60's, and 70's.
This book was written by Steven Heller, a very well know graphic design education book writer and Veronique Vienne a well know writer on design ethics and business practices. Some chapters held great inspiration while others read a bit dry but got a similar point across; that the education of an Art Director does not necessarily come from school education but from your apprenticeship to those great around you.
Passage from the book on hiring well, "Design Director Joe Dizney at Wall Street Journal oversees a staff of fifty in New York metro area, plus small staffs in Brussels and Hong Kong. 'Hire good people, hire smart people, then be fair and honest with them,' he says. 'I see myself as an entertainer first, then a friend, then a boss.'"
Topics that this book talks about range from starting out as a intern, to mentoring and teaching. A great read for those of us who need to look up and out and appreciate many of the co-workers that help bring their strength and creativity to the table.

Just my type, A book about fonts

This sounds like a very cool book, if you like fonts and type, and British humor. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield comically writes about favorite fonts informing you about their history, popular uses and abuses. If you want to get an idea of the tone of this book it goes something like this "well, I am apparently the last person on earth to know that Eric Gill had sex with dogs and wrote about it, and may have committed incest"; which was loosely paraphrased by Emily Pacey writing for Design Week, a weekly design magazine based out of London. Look for this interesting display of font history and cheeky humor coming (hopefully) late October. Book cover designed in-house at Profile by art director Peter Dyer. Sign up on Amazon.com to get an email when it comes out.

Book Review, The Learners by Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd's second novel, The Learners, The Book after the Cheese Monkeys, had gotten in my hands soon after hearing the news he'd be speaking at SUNY Oswego in September. I quickly ordered it from the library and began to read.

The book starts in 1961 with the main character, nicknamed Happy, applying for a job following the footsteps of a favorite professor at an advertising agency in New Haven, CT. While the story weaves around humorous office characters, nicknames and drama it also falls deep into a mysterious suicide of, Himillsy, a college girlfriend of Happy's. Happy starts piecing together Himillsy's reasons for death and fails prey to the same doleful emotions caused by their involvements in a psychological "obedience experiment".

Although the book was a bit dark, it did have some great elements. My favorites were his emotion/expression typography studies, and his mid-story italicized thoughts of wit and irony. Basically what this book studied was how psychology and design work together or against each other. What I have also learned from this book, from both Chip Kidd and Stanley Milgram, the "obedience experiment" scientist, is to think before I follow, that things aren't what they seem and to think twice before participating in medical studies. Either way, I think it's a good book to get under your skin.

See you in Oswego, Chip.

Shamu training in the Work Place?

I saw Amy Sutherland on the Today Show and couple years ago talking about her article which later became her book, 'What Shamu Taught me about Life, Love, and Marriage', She was speaking about how animal training can be used within your daily life, on humans as well as animals. I listened carefully to what she had learned from following a school for animal trainers and applied it to my life, as she did hers. What she said just made sense, ignore unwanted behavior and reward good behavior. And if an action gets out of hand punish immediately, but not too harshly, and let your trainee know why he/she is getting addressed. I was interested in the idea and always wanted to read her book. Last week my eyes fell upon it at the library, like fate.

I think a lot of people do the opposite and just take for grated good behavior when its happening and shout at bad behavior the moment it occurs. I was lucky to have a natural act of thanking my husband for things as a appreciative wife, but I also had learned to nag when I didn't see results from my requests. Part of applying, Shamu results, was teaching myself to be patient. As a result, I feel my marriage is great, we don't yell at each other and we really help one another out. Very often my husband will say how great our marriage is, and how great we are together. Which is wonderful since we have been happily together almost eight years now.

Another thought that I always had was why don't employers reward more? I wish that more bosses would just say, "Thank you". Yes, employees love a good party or gathering every once in awhile. But that individual, "Good Job" can go a long way. Yes, I know that your paycheck is your reward but employees take it for grated just as much as employers take day-to-day work from their employees for grated. I think if you want great employees you got to nurture their happiness, its more bang for your buck. I know I would naturally work harder for a company that takes care of me versus intimidate me into work, wouldn't you? In the end the employee feels good about their work, good about their company and in the end will speak well to others about your company. Sounds like the best type of advertising to me. So make an effort today to send a quick, email to an employee that might not be doing so hot, and see what happens. Encouragement can go a long way.

Book Review- The Martha Rules

I'm currently reading Martha Stewart's book about managing and starting a business. Although it is a generalized how-to it is quite enjoyable of a read. I was collecting books about how to start my freelance business and picked this one up quickly before leaving the library. (I love that about libraries you can grab books without thinking twice about them.) Martha's book sat on my coffee table for awhile with other books on subjects from business etiquette to Donald Trump, while I tried to read Michelle Goodman's first book, the Anti-9 to 5. I had started reading Michelle's book when I thought I had lost my way, but after my trip to NYC I feel like I could move forward again. Martha Stewart, no matter how much my mother dislikes her, she is a mentor too me, and I thank her for showing the average individual about the important of putting attention to detail.

Freelance Career Starts Next Monday

So, I'm quitting my job this week, Friday is my last day. I will be starting my freelancing career! I have to say I'm a bit nervous about the obvious things like money, but I'm going to try to stay positive and work through it. Hopefully I can kick my butt into gear and try to get over what's going down at work and focus on what is happening here in my life, a new beginning/ a new chapter. I'm currently reading a great book from Michelle Goodman called the My So-Called Freelance Life to advise me through the start up of my freelance life. Its a great read so far. She is also known for her first book, The Anti 9-to-5 Guide.


Do-to list to start Davey Designs
1. Design business cards, just a few cause I need to wait until I have my most desired url. Expiration date already on the iPod Touch calendar.
2. Design up Davey Design's Design brief, and Letter of Agreement forms.
3. Start sketch for new website design.
4. Clean the Office
5. Make a list of clients I want to work for.