Creative Strategy and the Business of Design

I only wish I came across Creative Strategy and the Business of Design and Douglas Davis’s important work sooner. His point of view and what CSBD teaches not only educates, but elevates our design community. I’d first come across Douglas Davis on The Futur podcast, and knew right away I had to pick up this book--I was not disappointed. Since then, I’ve not only been able to transform my perspective of design, but also my approach to creativity and design as well. By coincidence, I’d recently been able to connect with Douglas through his work with AIGA, and I am now growing my side hustle in design to include branding and brand strategy. Having worked as an in-house graphic designer over two years, I heard these four words all too many times: “Just Make It Pretty”. Although I knew my team and I had the same goals for our clients and our company--the concepts, language and jargon of business always intimidated me. To boot, there was always a lack of understanding on both sides of our team. Yet over time, I’d always wonder why I was not part of any strategy meetings, or only get pulled in at the end of them--to take orders and push pixels. CBSD is an essential resource for creatives, creative entrepreneurs, and creative teams, teaching you the language, framework, and tools you’ll need for your business as well as devising and implementing successful strategies and strategic thinking. Davis’s work is thorough and in-depth, yet his approach and writing style is down-to-earth. This book is packed with insights, references, resources, examples, personal anecdotes--including gems from Davis’s mentors, peers, and students. Or you can train in slaying your creative career dragons by taking on and tackling the number of exercises and projects to reinforce the powerful framework of creative strategy.

The perfect book for someone who is creative but also business minded!

This book is a great resource for all creatives looking to add more value to their work and have a deeper understanding of the necessary process behind design execution. It has approachable, actionable steps that you can begin implementing immediately. This book will help you become a more thoughtful designer and increase your understanding of the strategy behind any design brief or project. On a personal level, I always felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle when working on creative client projects. I knew there was a more strategic way of beginning new design projects, but wasn't quite sure how to get there consistently. This book helped me solidify my project process, understand the language around business and strategy, know the right questions to ask when beginning any design project and understand how to organize incoming information to better inform my design goals. I was able to start putting Douglas's concepts into practice right away and have already seen a shift in the way I structure and execute new projects. Thank you Douglas!

I’ve worked in advertising for over 15 years and was nodding my head to a lot of what Douglas outlines in this book. The distinction he makes between a creative idea and a creative business solution was spot on, as well as the subjective power playing that goes on with creatives in many agencies (all agencies I’ve worked at, to varying degrees). He offers sound advice for navigating these scenarios and making sure to balance art (the personal part) with the business (the part you are in service of, like it or not) via sound strategies and articulation of those strategies in the moments that matter.

This book as an excellent resource for both junior and senior level designers. Junior designers will learn to think differently about design and the objectives of their work. Senior level designers will appreciate this thorough and well crafted compendium of strategies to help maximize the real effectiveness of their work. Design is a lot more about the “look” of the product, it is about effectively communicating to a target customer. This book will teach you how to look at design through a strategic lens, how to walk your clients through a strategy workshop, how to understand customer behavior, and craft solutions that impact the real needs of their business. A must have for any designer, this book has the ability to transform your approach to design. Kudos, Douglas, on creating an amazing book that fills a giant hole in the industry.

I've been to art school and I earned my Masters of Fine Arts in Luxury Fashion Marketing and Management, and I can honestly say that reading this book was like reading 50 course books in one. The principals on strategy emulated those of the Blue Ocean Strategy, and the numerous insights collected from actual professionals in the field were not only beneficial, but advantageous for any creative wishing to break out of the "order taker" role. If you need direction in your practice, then you need this book. It's well written, intriguing, beautifully designed (as a graphic designer, I also geeked out on that aesthetic), and streamlined. The practical information is specific enough to apply (thereby increasing your trade skills), yet there is enough philosophy behind the teachings to extend your knowledge with other sources (which Douglas Davis also provides, to boot). Like I said: It's the next best thing to reading 50 books in one. Savor every word of it.

A good book and worthwhile read.

This is a book ahead of its time. It is relevant to any creative who wants to stay ahead of the industry ans AI.

Pure gold

After watching an interview with Douglas Davis on The Futur’s YouTube channel, I knew I had to get this book. The amount of knowledge crammed into these pages is astounding, everything from business term definitions, business models, best practices for process and a wealth of other tricks and tips. They are all presented in an approachable and engaging way, supported with articles from Douglas' peers. I've been frantically scribbling down notes whilst reading, and I can't wait to start applying these principles to my own working practices. After reading this book, you will never look at Creative Strategy or the Business of Design in the same way!

This book has helped me understand a lot of what goes on behind the scenes of designing. There are a lot of business concepts in this book that give you great insight on how top creatives work and build successful creative projects that match the business goals of a company. At the end of the book, there is an included chapter of assignments that you can work through to put the concepts in the book into action which really help you think through what you read and reinforce the ideas from the book (which is a huge plus since i had no idea where to begin to implement these ideas). Definitely a book you want to keep on hand to reference and look back on.

el libro esta muy bueno y llego en buenas condiciones.