Providing insight on how to be a successful and strategic designer, David Holston answers many of the questions plaguing the profession today, including how to boost efficiency and enhance creativity. The design profession has been asking itself some important questions lately: How do designers deal with the increasing complexity of design problems? What skills do designers need to be competitive in the future? How do designers become co-creators with clients and audiences? How do designers prove their value to business? Designers are looking for ways to stay competitive in the conceptual economy and address the increasing complexity of design problems. By adopting a process that considers collaboration, context and accountability, designers move from 'makers of things' to 'design strategists.' The Strategic Designer shows designers how to build strong client relationships, elevate their standing with clients, increase project success rates, boost efficiency, and enhance their creativity.

Presents advice for designing web sites, discussing how to plan web projects, organize information in a meaningful way, optimize content, and use analytics to measure performance and customer satisfaction.

"The Business Skills Every Creative Needs! Remaining relevant as a creative professional takes more than creativity--you need to understand the language of business. The problem is that design school doesn't teach the strategic language that is now essential to getting your job done. Creative Strategy and the Business of Design fills that void and teaches left-brain business skills to right-brain creative thinkers. Inside, you'll learn about the business objectives and marketing decisions that drive your creative work. You already have the creativity; now it's time to gain the business insight. Once you understand what the people across the table are thinking, you'll be able to think how they think to do what we do." -- Provided by publisher.

Strategic design is about applying the principles of traditional design to "big picture" systemic challenges such as healthcare, education and the environment. It redefines how problems are approached and aims to deliver more resilient solutions. In this short book, Dan Hill outlines a new vocabulary of design, one that needs to be smuggled into the upper echelons of power. He asserts that, increasingly, effective design means engaging with the messy politics - the "dark matter" - taking place above the designer's head. And that may mean redesigning the organisation that hires you.

Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant “creative types” and left-brain dominant “analytical types." Such a division is not practical for preparing students to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. Strategic Design Thinking guides readers to cultivate hybrid thinking, whether their background is design, finance, or any discipline in between. This book is an introduction to an integrative approach using the lens of design thinking as a way to see the world. The focus is on process instead of solution, and on connecting disparate ideas instead of getting bogged down by silos of specialization. Through this book, students will be introduced to design management, strategic design, service design, and experience design.

The power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity: lessons from a Black professional’s journey through corporate America. Design offers so much more than an aesthetically pleasing logo or banner, a beautification add-on after the heavy lifting. In Reimagining Design, Kevin Bethune shows how design provides a unique angle on problem-solving—how it can be leveraged strategically to cultivate innovation and anchor multidisciplinary teamwork. As he does so, he describes his journey as a Black professional through corporate America, revealing the power of transformative design, multidisciplinary leaps, and diversity. Bethune, who began as an engineer at Westinghouse, moved on to Nike (where he designed Air Jordans), and now works as a sought-after consultant on design and innovation, shows how design can transform both individual lives and organizations. In Bethune’s account, diversity, equity, and inclusion emerge as a recurring theme. He shows how, as we leverage design for innovation, we also need to consider the broader ecological implications of our decisions and acknowledge the threads of systemic injustice in order to realize positive change. His book is for anyone who has felt like the “other”—and also for allies who want to encourage anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-ageist behaviors in the workplace. Design transformation takes leadership—leaders who do not act as gatekeepers but, with agility and nimbleness, build teams that mirror the marketplace. Design in harmony with other disciplines can be incredibly powerful; multidisciplinary team collaboration is the foundation of future innovation. With insight and compassion, Bethune provides a framework for bringing this about.

The fundamental tenet of this Design Leadership book is that design is a commercial and social imperative and its management and leadership are integral parts of what can make business successful, government effective and society safer and more enjoyable for everyone. The text draws on Raymond Turner’s extensive experience and insights into the effective use of design as a business resource for competitive advantage and social benefit. Raymond brings his experience of working for iconic businesses, projects and consultancies to provide essential, value creating, insights on the interface between design and business. Design Leadership adopts a straightforward approach that will be of great value to those who influence how organisations work - the managers and chief executives of a country’s wealth creating engines. It is also of particular relevance to those with design management and leadership responsibilities as well as students who aim to work in these roles. The ideas at the heart of the book concern all who shape society and have the brief to improve our lives. Raymond Turner’s advice will help all of these readers make design work and so become more effective more quickly.