Design Is a Job

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Mike Monteiro

A Book Apart, New York, 2012, English

Design, General

8.4 x 5.8 inches, paperback and ebook, 135 pages

ISBN: 9781937557041

Suggested Retail Price: $18.00

From the Publisher. Co-founder of Mule Design and raconteur Mike Monteiro wants to help you do your job better. From contracts to selling design, from working with clients to working with each other, this brief book is packed with knowledge you can’t afford not to know. Mike Monteiro is the co-founder and design director of Mule Design, an interactive design studio whose work has been called “delightfully hostile” by The New Yorker. He prefers elegant, simple sites with clear language that serve a real need. He prefers that designers have strong spines.

Mike blogs frequently about the craft and business of design. In early 2011, he gave a Creative Mornings talk entitled “F— You, Pay Me” that uplifted the downtrodden the world over, and he can be heard weekly as the co-host of Let’s Make Mistakes with Katie Gillum.

On 1 book list

Alissa Walker

On Alissa Walker’s Notable Books of 2012 list

In my Notable Books of 2011 list, I mentioned A Book Apart, a new publishing company focused on creating short, useful books on designing websites. The latest volume is by Mike Monteiro, the San Francisco-based designer-slash-Twitter personality, which actually goes far beyond the web-design realm, and serves as an excellent primer for running a design business, or, I'd argue, any type of creative business. Easily devoured in an afternoon, the book is made even more enjoyable by Monteiro's refreshingly honest tough-love approach (not surprising from a man who gives lectures with his lawyer and is known for creating a painting that reads “Fuck You, Pay Me”). So many books like this are written by accounting types who want to “help” creatives, so Monteiro's work is long overdue: he's translated business basics back into the language of designers. And he does it with such a skillful sense of humor that it proves his other point: Running a business, like reading this book, can and should be fun.

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