Guy Kawasaki did it again – publishing a great book I mean. I guess he is an entrepreneur at heart who loves to find solutions to problems he has, so this time he tackles the problem of (self)-publishing with “APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur–How to Publish a Book “. And unlike many self help books out there this one written by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch actually gives you insights about the process from all angles – the creative, the business and the promotion aspects of publishing a book on your own.

It’s filled with screen shots of settings, tools and info graphics that will help you master your publishing venture. But what if you don’t want to publish a book? Well I guess you know someone who does – at what is better than a great book to give someone which will help him realize a project like publishing a book.

Last but not least – this book will save you time if you are a designer. Why? Because you don’t have to support your friends/acquaintances/clients who are writing a book so heavily.

Guy Kawasaki’s Books are great to give to someone – Enchanted has become a standard gift to my clients to educate them about social media. This book will become the gift “de rigeur” if I hear someone talking about writing a book – and it gave me obviously the base to know what to do if I want to start such a venture.

Here is where you can get the book:

• Title: APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur–How to Publish a Book (ISBN 978-0-9885231-1-1)
• Shipping date: 12/10/12
• Cost: $9.99 ebook, available at Amazon APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur-How to Publish a Book
• Additional information:  apethebook.com

I’m just listening right this moment to the audiobook of +Jeff Jarvis Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live
- so will switch my headphones to hear this talk

Reshared post from +Jeff Jarvis

Please come join the Facebook talk I’ll be giving this afternoon at HQ about Public Parts and privacy. They’re streaming live at 3p PT, 6p ET. It’s public, of course.

Embedded Link

Facebook Live with Jeff Jarvis, Author of Public Parts | Facebook

Google+: View post on Google+

Branding is an integral part of the job of any designer. But building a great brand is not only done by having a great design. A big role is also played by the company who owns the brand – may it be big or small.

You may have clients that understand the importance of a brand but don’t know what it takes to build a brand. It happened more then once to me, that I had to presented a design combined with a communication strategy containing the measures the brand owner has to take in order to achieve his goals. Some clients just stared at me, others just dismissed the suggestions not understanding that design alone doesn’t do the trick. It was frustrating.

I often hear that designers should educate their clients – but most designers are not able to. This is where the new book from Guy Kawasaki comes into play: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. It can help you to educate your clients without being rude.

Guy talks in his book how great brands like Apple enchant their customers – and all your clients want to be a brand like Apple, don’t they? I was lucky to get a copy for review of this book and have loved it so much, that I have incorporated it into my client process.

When I meet with a new client I give him the book as a present. They will not only appreciate it, but will know what I care about (because I highlight some chapters) and since it is not me who gives the lessons I don’t appear to be the know-it-all.

What I like about the book most is the easy to read structure and that all the latest technologies (Facebook, Twitter, etc) are covered in a way that everyone can understand how to use them to build a brand.

You may think that this will take away the “you are the expert” aura from you, but in reality if your client understands what you are doing he will appreciate your work even more.

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More Resources about the book can be found here:

The new structure of the book was based one topic: “Light” Not lighting as you might suppose. What happens when you have no lighting (the title night blind shows this concept) and what does light do when there is light.

The resulting chapters where: Color, Form, Room and Character. No color, no form, no room and no character without light.

The book shows the projects and locations where Ewo Lights have been employed. The single projects where aligned to the four chapters and the images often have been retouched creatively to emphasize the intention of the lighting. Every project had at least two pages and many had fold-out pages to enrich the experience.

Silver is king

In this book printed in CMYK + Silver. The silver color is not only used to highlight some small parts on a page, but it’s often used as a main color for photographs. Often times designers are limited to think in CMYK, B/W and DuoTone – this time I wanted to break the common rules and show or hide the lamp on a page by using the silver color.

Glowing in the dark

Again as in book one; the cover was an important part of the whole product. While the first book was bright and shiny, the second one is dark and black. The paper used was thick and rough and the title is cut-out on the front. On the first page of the book a special color was printed to let the book glow in the dark. Just like the watches, the book’s title glows and gives the book a magic aura. So in the end, while you think this black book has nothing to do with light, it surprises you by being a light itself.

My services for this project

Details

Client: Ewo GmbH (Visit site)
Agency: Conzepta
Format: 21×28 cm
Pages: 116
Color: 5 (CMYK+Silver)
Paper:  Magno Matt Satin 115 gr/m2
Special Treatment: Cutout, Glowing ink

Briefing

The client wanted a “catalog” for his main audience – architects and urban planners – which was not the usual book filled with technical details and some nice drawings. They wanted to go a step further and to inspire the reader. Ewo produces a wide range of high tech lighting, mostly for outdoors.

The book

To go further I needed to make an art book, not a catalog. An inspiring new mix of good photography and the right amount of technical info. The layout was executed in the style of an art book, large pictures and white space. Some of the photographs did not show the lamps but the light and the atmosphere the lamp created, some did show the lamp in bright daylight, turned off. The use of an additional color (silver) gives furthermore a stylish and high quality look.

The cover

A great amount of work went into the design of the cover. The technical difficulty of this was to find the right partner to print this book and the cover. The cover mimics the mirrors used by Ewo in its indirect lighting lamps. The tricky part was, that I wanted the cover not only to have the silver hotfoil shaped like the mirrors on the cover, but also to emboss this mirrors in order to have a physical representation of the mirrors. To complicate it even more I wanted the mirrors to go over the bleed. It took several tests to get to this result and this finish makes a great product amazing.

Images

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Details

Client: Ewo GmbH (Visit site)
Agency: Conzepta
Format: 21×28 cm
Pages: 116
Colour: 5 (CMYK+Silver)
Paper: Cover – Sirio Pearl 300 gr, Inside – Magno Matt Satin 115 gr/m2
Special Treatment: Hotfoil, Embossing

Pentagram, a historic graphic design firm is releasing a new book. It will cover 400 logotypes and symbols made by Pentagram from the 1960s until now on over 800 pages. Neddles to say that this is a must for every serious graphic designer and a top inspiration source.

And if you preorder it now you can save 37% off the retail price. So get yours now.

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Serj asked me in a mail if I could list some books about graphic design theory. The amount of books on the market is astounding these days and I understand that surfing through the internet, with its wast resources, tutorials and inspirational site,  its good to have the foundation to build on. Most of the theoretical stuff is normally taught in design schools and most of the books I will recommend are used in this context.

The list

Many are not fancy or new, but the principles of graphic design still apply (just think about the bible printed by Gutenberg, is still considered one of the best justified text layout on the world). So lets get to the list – just a last word, I only recommend books I own or have read, so this list its genuine.

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Presenting the ideas you develop to a big audience in most cases is a pain. Most of the time the layouts you make (unless they are screen-designs) don’t feel right, you cannot go through the pages of a folder for example. Therefore is even more important that you engage your audience. Same thing for powerpoint presentation you get to pimp. The most of time are just plain awfull. The following book gives you in an easy and understandable language the basics on how to structure presentations, not just powerpoint. It’s caled “PresentationZen” by Garr Reynolds and a foreword from Guy Kawasaki. Don’t get fooled by the title – it’s nothing esoteric. It helps you bring your audience to go out of the presentation wanting for more. It also helps you to guide the authors of the powerpoints, if you are just the one who overhauls them, to get you better material to work beforehand.

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I use this approach with quite some success, by getting into the process of structuring a presentation right when the authors has his material togheter. This is even before they make their manuscript. Try it – it’s just a few bucks investet in the right place.