Identity Designed turned to be very helpful for my own non-graphic business! I used to get in discussions around "I like the design/I don't like the design" very often. Realizing I need to frame it around 'does it work' has been a gem. In fact... two weeks later this happened:
One of my freelance clients is a large college. I help with the development of the curriculum for one of their programs. Earlier this year we had a committee that would determine whether the quality of our education was enough. Without the approval, we'd have to shut down the entire program. Countless hours were put into preparation and then the committee actually really obsessed over the deliverable: a thesis rather than for instance a website or movie. They were getting really critical and the department manager was getting more and more stressed. Remembering this book, I asked them: "I can totally see how a tangible end-product would seem so appealing, but it's like with beautiful graphic design: form doesn't matter as much as function. Don't you think we should keep in mind what we're trying to achieve? (Listing all the things) don't you think a thesis tests all of these, while a product would only test a few? Dead silence. Then their chairman answers: "This is a really good point".
We ended up getting approval, so a separate thanks for that!
Apart from that - the book is beautifully designed and offers a wealth of info on the process of developing branding identities. From pricing to customer communication and deliverables - it's got you covered. Some of the advice is a bit redundant, but I guess that's a logical consequence of analyzing different design studios, some of which offer the same insights.
(You might wonder why I gave the book 4 stars rather than 5. That's because it's heavily oriented towards the process of being a designer, I expected there to be more on actual decision making in the creative process, like how do you determine whether the design is a good fit).
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