Design is a growing and important field these days. Of course, in order excel as a designer, you need to be deeply in touch with your creativity. Being a designer involves looking at something a different way from how everyone else looks at it. But just how do you learn to do that? And what do you know when you’re a creative person, but your creative juices just aren’t flowing? That’s where the advice of The Design Book: A Guide Book for Designers comes in. A Design Book is actually a two-volume collection including two very popular books on creativity and innovation by acclaimed business author Can Akdeniz. The set includes Go Nuts: The Art of Creativity and Innovation and Kill the Normal: The Secrets of Revolutionary Designs.
Kill the Normal: The Secrets of Revolutionary Designs is a detailed study of the evolution of design. The book covers everything from 3D-printed organs to modern architectural theories and everything in between. It talks about the architectural creative processes of Santiago Calatrava and the ground-breaking design process of companies like Apple and Google. It explains the factors that helped James Dyson achieve success and the role that revolutionary design has played in developments as different as the automotive industry and the solar power revolution. In short, the book covers everything you need to know about the modern history of design.
Basically, Kill the Normal a primer on the history of design and function – and in learning about that important piece of history, you’ll learn all about the creative and innovative though processes that you can apply to your own life in order to become the best designer you can be. Fortunately, Akdeniz doesn’t just leave you to make the connections on your own; he very clearly outlines the lessons to be gleaned from historical moments of creativity and innovation. The best way to conquer the future is to understand the past, and with Kill the Normal you will undoubtedly understand the important pieces of design history.
Go Nuts: The Art of Creativity and Innovation examines creativity through the ages, showing how man’s inherent creativity has surfaced again and again even in the most unlikely of situations. The book contains in-depth case studies that will help give you concrete ideas about how to foster your creativity in real-life situations, no matter how mundane or uninspiring they may seem at first glance. The text is packed with diverse examples that can apply to all fields of work; they are general principles of creativity and innovation, so the knowledge is particularly valuable because it can be applied anywhere.
Although Go Nuts can’t solve your creative problems for you, it will show you how to solve them yourself. The anecdotes and case studies form strong models for creative thinking. Your own creative thinking might go in any direction, but these models are bound to inspire you. With the helpful takeaway lessons Akdeniz gives the reader, you will learn how to apply these models in your own life. These are valuable lessons in innovation that any designer should strive to absorb and follow.