In this book, Chris Orwig offers a unique perspective on the creative process, showing you how to find meaning in your work, be inspired, and discover the life for which you were designed.With thoughtful and engaging chapters such as "Keep the Edges Wild," "Einstein's Game of Connect the Dots," and "Grit and Glory," Chris presents each concept through personal examples--his own and others'--showing how to live a more creative and meaningful life.Drawn from his 12 years as a faculty member at the prestigious Brooks Institute as well as his experience leading creative inspiration and photography workshops and speaking on global stages, Chris's stories are designed to teach you how to discover your own creative voice. Each chapter includes exercises to help you incorporate what you've learned and connect the topics directly to your own experience. Features the friendly, approachable voice of Chris Orwig, whose photography, teaching, and speaking have inspired countless aspiring amateurs and professionals alike Includes exercises in every chapter to help you put the concepts you learned into practice Offers an elegant design filled with the author's original photographs captured to visually support the ideas discussed in the book For resources and inspiration, check out the book's companion site, thecreativefight.com.

    Business Book of the Month" Financial Times"A Modern Life Bible" Shortlist MagazineA model for how to break the system and create radical change" The London Evening Standard- - - - Mischief, Purpose, PowerPirates didn’t just break the rules, they rewrote them. They didn't just reject society, they reinvented it. Pirates didn’t just challenge the status-quo, they changed everyf*ckingthing. Facing a self-interested establishment, a broken system, industrial-scale disruption and an uncertain future, pirates rebelled against an unfair world and change it for good. Now, you can follow in their footsteps.Be More Pirate unveils the innovative strategies of Golden Age pirates, drawing parallels between the tactics and teachings of legends like Henry Morgan and Blackbeard with modern rebels, like Elon Musk, Malala and Banksy. With takeaway sections and a Featuring takeaway sections and a guide to build you own pirate code 2.0, Be More Pirate will show you how to leave your mark on the 21st century. Whatever your ambitions, ideas and challenges, Be More Pirate will revolutionize the way you live, think and work today, and tomorrow.[BACK INSIDE COVER PRINT]‘Be More Pirate feels so important as it looks to history to help us grip the future.’ Martha Lane-Fox, do you have a specific bio Martha would like us to use? ‘A refreshing, entertaining and inspiring perspective on work, leadership and why we do what we do ... it’s a call for a more radical rethink of where we’re going wrong, and where we’re going next.’ Bruce Daisley, Host of the Number 1 Business Podcast ‘Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat’

    With this practical book, you’ll learn how to design effective microinteractions: the small details that exist inside and around features. How can users change a setting? How do they turn on mute, or know they have a new email message?Through vivid, real-world examples from today’s devices and applications, author Dan Saffer walks you through a microinteraction’s essential parts, then shows you how to use them in a mobile app, a web widget, and an appliance. You’ll quickly discover how microinteractions can change a product from one that’s tolerated into one that’s treasured.Explore a microinteraction’s structure: triggers, rules, feedback, modes, and loopsLearn the types of triggers that initiate a microinteractionCreate simple rules that define how your microinteraction can be usedHelp users understand the rules with feedback, using graphics, sounds, and vibrationsUse modes to let users set preferences or modify a microinteractionExtend a microinteraction’s life with loops, such as “Get data every 30 seconds”

     It isn't enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive in today's marketplace, all of us-even the accountants-have to be ready to generate brilliant ideas on demand. Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to establish effective practices that unleash your creative potential. Born out of his consultancy and his popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering your personal creative rhythm. He focuses on five key elements: *Focus: Begin with your end goal in mind. *Relationships: Build stimulating relationships and ideas will follow. *Energy: Manage it as your most valuable resource. *Stimuli: Structure the right "inputs" to maximize creative output. *Hours: Focus on effectiveness, not efficiency. This is a guide for staying inspired and experiencing greater creative productivity than you ever imagined possible.

    This anthology is organized into three sections that focus on the use of design for innovation and brand-building, the emerging role of service design, and the design of meaningful customer experiences. This book provides readers with the strategies necessary to encourage the creative thought process in their companies, which will ultimately help to cultivate innovation, and therefore boost business. Experienced design leaders share their personal stories and give specific examples of their companies’ forward-thinking creations. This unique approach helps the reader learn how to build a solid brand foundation, solve problems with simplified thinking, anticipate and capitalize on trends, figure out what consumers want before they do, and align mission, vision, and strategy with a corporate brand. A sense of the content within Design Thinking can be gained from the titles of some of the key essays: “Building Leadership Brands,” “The Designful Company,” “Brand Building by Service Design,” “Service Design Via the Global Web,” “Customer Loyalty,” and “Driving Brand Loyalty on the Web”.

    In a world where everyone wants to blog and blog posts are ubiquitous, how do you stand out? How do you blog your way from nobody to somebody? How do you, as a business owner, use content to build your brand and drive your success?Blogging has become the ‘it’ career of the modern world and every business knows that blogging should be an integral part of their marketing and success, but it’s actually never been tougher to be shine in the digital storytelling landscape.No matter who are you – a mum at home, a budding fashion blogger or a small business owner –The Million Dollar Blog will be your ultimate guide to starting a successful blog or taking your existing blog to the next level.Through a combination of practical advice and interviews with some of the world’s most famous and successful bloggers, vloggers and content strategists, including Seth Godin, Lily Pebbles, Grant Cardone and Madeleine Shaw, entrepreneur and digital strategist Natasha Courtenay Smith shows you how to build a blog that will increase your profile, create new opportunities, earn money and change your life.

    But imagine for one moment that there are no employers, no firms to send your resumé to, no interviews to be had—what would you do? How would you forge your own path after graduation?The current economic climate has seen many graduates chasing a finite number of positions. The most ingenious and driven designers have found weird and wonderful ways of making opportunities for themselves, often by applying their skills across the creative disciplines of art, design, architecture, and interiors. Knowing what you want from your design career and being able to adapt your strategy to suit is basic and vital—just like in the wild, designers need to evolve.The book celebrates the various strategies that students and graduates are taking to gain exposure, while also including interviews and inspirational advice from those who are now enjoying success as a result of their creative approach to employment.

     The fact is, in today's world of constant distractions, most business owners struggle to get their marketing messages heard. Authority Content provides a simple process that any company can use to break through the noise. It doesn't matter whether you're the owner of a retail shop, financial advisor, swimming pool manufacturer or an inventor with an ingenious product - this powerful strategy will work for you. Built on the "3 Ps" framework (Present, Product, Promote) this book teaches you a step-by-step system for building authority within your industry thus sky-rocketing website traffic and sales. You will discover how to: Build maximum Authority, in minimum time Have your prospects, clients and Google fall in love with you Turn one day's work into months of content and share it around the web Write your own book easily and in record time Build your brand, sales and credibility Book website: AuthorityContent.com

    In this companion guide, also suitable as a stand-alone project workbook, the authors provide a step-by-step framework for applying the D4G toolkit and process to a particular project, systematically explaining how to address the four key questions of their design thinking approach.The field book maps the flow of the design process within the context of a specific project and reminds readers of key D4G takeaways as they work. The text helps readers identify an opportunity, draft a design brief, conduct research, establish design criteria, brainstorm, develop concepts, create napkin pitches, make prototypes, solicit feedback from stakeholders, and run learning launches. The workbook demystifies tools that have traditionally been the domain of designers--from direct observation to journey mapping, storytelling, and storyboarding--that power the design thinking process and help businesses align around a project to realize its full potential.

    More than 100 luminaries and leading organizations from the world of touring—among them Chris Connelly, Henry Rollins, the House of Blues, and the Vans Warped Tour, as well as club owners, tour managers, and even sex advisors—provide handy insider know-how along with insight on mistakes commonly made by novice bands. Chapters address the nitty-gritty of touring, with instructions on how to secure venues and publicity, how to stay healthy on the road, and how to keep the budget in the black. Loaded with hundreds of years' worth of collective hands-on experience from those steeped in the music business, this is a must-have resource for creating an unforgettable tour.

    See the updated version StoryBranding 2.0, published in March 2014, as this one will soon be out of print. Having worked on many famous brands as an advertising executive, Jim Signorelli has found that today, in order for advertising to be truly effective, the brand being promoted must work the way a good story works. Many brands continue to get in their own way with an over-reliance on editorialized benefits. "Today, that's  a death-wish," says Signorelli. "To remain competitive, brands must provide consumers with story themes they can relate to, identify with, and share with their tribes."   There are a number of books that discuss the parallels between stories and brands. But until this book was written, few, if any provide practical advice on how to apply story thinking to branding. Whether your brand is a product, service, or yourself, you'll be taken through the 6 steps that every brand should take in order to find it's oft-hidden story, the one that will make it most attractive to its audience. An easy, entertaining, and educational read, critics are saying this revolutionary book on branding is a must-read.

    Please find the Paperback or Kindle-compatible Ebook at stackingthebricks.com/tinymba/You don't need an MBA or fancy investors to succeed in business. Use the 100 ideas in this tiny book to evaluate your current situation: your advantages, your relationships, your potential choices, and the most likely outcomes.BONUS! If you enjoy The Tiny MBA and want to go deeper on the topics lessons and themes in the book, check out the Tiny MBA Podcast Tour with the author! In each episode, Alex visits with the host of a different podcast or livestream to dig deeper into that hosts favorite pages of the book, and explore specific examples or stories rooted in these lessons.Check it out now at stackingthebricks.com/podcast/ and subscribe to get new episodes every week.

    Whether you want to cross over into user experience or you're a seasoned practitioner trying to drag your organization forward, this book gives you tools and insight for doing more with less.

    Guns, which lead to so much death, work exactly as they’re designed to work. And every time we “improve” their design, they get better at killing. Facebook’s privacy settings, which have outed gay teens to their conservative parents, are working exactly as designed. Their “real names” iniative, which makes it easier for stalkers to re-find their victims, is working exactly as designed. Twitter’s toxicity and lack of civil discourse is working exactly as it’s designed to work.The world is working exactly as designed. And it’s not working very well. Which means we need to do a better job of designing it. Design is a craft with an amazing amount of power. The power to choose. The power to influence. As designers, we need to see ourselves as gatekeepers of what we are bringing into the world, and what we choose not to bring into the world. Design is a craft with responsibility. The responsibility to help create a better world for all.Design is also a craft with a lot of blood on its hands. Every cigarette ad is on us. Every gun is on us. Every ballot that a voter cannot understand is on us. Every time social network’s interface allows a stalker to find their victim, that’s on us. The monsters we unleash into the world will carry your name.This book will make you see that design is a political act. What we choose to design is a political act. Who we choose to work for is a political act. Who we choose to work with is a political act. And, most importantly, the people we’ve excluded from these decisions is the biggest (and stupidest) political act we’ve made as a society.If you’re a designer, this book might make you angry. It should make you angry. But it will also give you the tools you need to make better decisions. You will learn how to evaluate the potential benefits and harm of what you’re working on. You’ll learn how to present your concerns. You’ll learn the importance of building and working with diverse teams who can approach problems from multiple points-of-view. You’ll learn how to make a case using data and good storytelling. You’ll learn to say NO in a way that’ll make people listen. But mostly, this book will fill you with the confidence to do the job the way you always wanted to be able to do it. This book will help you understand your responsibilities.

    Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynman’s “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” is another. Now comes Youngme Moon’s Different, a book for “people who don’t read business books.” Actually, it’s more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works … and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.  If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it’s the absolute importance of “competing like crazy.” Youngme Moon’s message is simply “Get off this treadmill that’s taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else.” Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different—different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive.  Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts—the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even “hostile,” almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: “Worried that this car is too small? Look here. It’s even smaller than you think.”  These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with “extras.” Different shows how to succeed in a world where conformity reigns…but exceptions rule.