General Projects

Austin Howe, the award winning, industry-straddling copywriter behind a good handful of Sandstrom’s* stuff (have you ever noticed how much of their work is based on brilliant copy?), has a book. A great book.

On a purely superficial level, the design is wonderful. Minimal and conceptual. Each chapter tells you how long it will take to read and all the headlines are struck-through; taken with the title, this presentation reads as a challenge to any designer worth his salt. A poke at an industry-wide insecurity. I know it worked on me. You can thank Fredrik Averin for the design. I’d never heard of Averin before, which I feel pretty stupid about because he does wonderful work.

Content-wise, you could call it a kissing cousin of both Paul Arden’s motivational books and Bierut’s 79 Essays on Design. Short, motivational essays, usually based on an interesting anecdote or observation. The topics range from the practical (”More of you and Less of Them is Best For Them“) to the abstract (”OCD and Modernism“).

A short excerpt and a bit of a cliff-hanger to get you a feel for the content:

A thought has ben bugging me for a while. Actually, two thoughts have been bugging me for a while.

One, how is that so much of Paul Rand’s work still holds up and resonates today?

Two, why is it that I enjoy working with graphic designers so much more than I do advertising art directors?

I think there may be one answer to both questions.

Want more? You can read a few excerpts on Howe’s site, or go grab it on Amazon.

*I didn’t link to Sandstrom’s website because I hate with the fire of a thousand burning Pantone swatches.