CREATIVE STRATEGY AND THE BUSINESS OF DESIGN Paperback – 10 August 2016

I was totally in love with this book, I got a freelance from a startup to fix their product-building & marketing process as they are making a ton of mistakes repeatedly, and all 4 product managers, marketers and were frustrated by this issue.One of the founders was a friend of mine who had given me a call and asked to fix it.Very soon I realized that it was because of the misalignment of the product team & marketing team, they are totally polarised in their thoughts, and at this time I introduced a simple process :for Product team it was : Business requirements > User Requirements > Feasible Features > Content Viabilityfor Marketing & Branding team it was: Features > Benefits > Value > Key Messageso what was missing earlier? the communicative bridge between, Product: People: Profit.and it took 3 days to hand off this process from start to end to the startup team.The head of product & director of marketing feels so relieved after a successful trial of the session. They thanked me & asked me how much he owns me. I said, "$10,000 (750,659 INR)"The Head of the product was shocked. " What do mean, $10,000 ? You were here for a few days only. You delivered a simple framework. Anyone amature designer could google and do that. I need an invoice breakdown, please."I understood they measure work basis on time not on the value delivered, So I reaches my Bonsai invoice and hand shared the invoice to his mail.The head of the product reads it and immediately transfers the balance.The invoice read: Process Framework delivery- $ 1000. Knowing what Creative strategy to introduce: $9000."---------------------There are those who know & there are those who don’t know, and that applied knowledge is not just power, it's a profit."Creative Strategy and the Business of Design" is filled with many of such business thoughts, frameworks & strategies I've discovered to give me the results and rewards for my efforts.I have read and absorbed each page of the book like Goku absorbs nature's energy to make a spirit bomb in the Dragonball Z series. and It was about two be 2 years since I finished but even today I dive inside the book to find gemsHats off to Douglas Davis & the team!

I purchased this book on the suggestion of Chris Do (Emmy award winning director, designer, strategist and educator, Founder of The Futur & CEO of Blind). The book has helped me a lot in my journey of transitioning from being just designer, taking orders to a business focused brand strategist capable of helping my clients focus on their business goals and solve their business problems through the strategy first approach towards designing, planning, prioritizing, and brand building. I am still learning & experimenting and the book has something to offer me at every step.Creative Strategy is the bridge between the creative side and the business side of a project, brand or task that involves designing & business planning, to be successful.Designers being able to understand and contribute to the strategic planning and working not just on the aesthetics but the functionality of the designs, immensely benefits the projects & all concerned. Author Douglas Davis explains all this in great detail & with much patience for creatives who may not be comfortable having to deal with the business jargon initially. The book helps us offer more value to our clients.

Great book. But extremely heavy. It's printed on 250 or 260 gsm paper I think. Very thick pages which makes it very heavy to hold. Not comfortable. So I returned it and bought it on Google books to read on mobile.

Give it a Read. Only one drawback it's quite heavy in weight which makes it uncomfortable to hold the book for longer period of time.

Precise and on point

This book changed everything that I thought I knew about the process of design. It clearly puts forward the importance of a solid foundation before beginning any creative work and it also taught me that doing just this for my client is a viable career path. It is well articulated and has actionable steps regarding how to go about doing strategy.