I’ll add stuff on my current activities later, but for now, here’s some background info on ‘Design Management: Managing Design Strategy, Process and Implementation’
Published by AVA Publishing 2006. ISBN 2-940373-12-4
About the book:
Design Management – the management of design strategies, processes and projects is an intricate subject.
As the role of design in the world continues to broaden, organisations are increasingly viewing design as being integral to their decision-making processes.
This book leads the student through the key knowledge, practice and skill areas of design management, focusing on the strategy, process and implementation involved in the management of design.
Opening with a contextual overview of the subject, this book then explores the stages involved in the application of design to business. Each topic is accompanied by key questions that get the reader thinking about the issues raised, and professional case studies and interviews demonstrate the knowledge and practices described. Areas of key practical skill are outlined to bridge the gap between creativity management, academic theory and professional practice.
Book Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
“A great holistic introduction to design management. A book which succinctly covers the many areas that design management touches. It’s a hard task to explain design management to anyone, as it covers so many subjects and areas, but by the end of this book you have a great feeling of understanding and appreciation of the discipline. Short, concise, no waffle, gets straight to the point and covers it enough to go off and ponder what she has touched on and further develop yourself”.
Royal Society for the Arts (RSA)
“A clear guide to the key knowledge, practice and skills required when applying design to business.
It promotes a clearer understanding of the relationship between design and management and its importance within a successful organisation. Having established a long-running and successful tradition of projects that celebrate and promote good design, the RSA has a strong commitment to exploring how design can be used to remove the barriers to social progress. Encouraging the effective use of design in business strategy, Design Management makes a vital contribution to our understanding of the potential uses design”.
Engineering Designer
“There few books on design management and none like this. It is almost a ‘coffee table’ volume with excellent figures and colour pictures throughout. The first amazing thing about it is the price. Compare what you get with this with other similar books to see what good value it is. Kathryn takes a broad view of design management eliciting the views of many other authors and this gives the volume the ‘balance’ that many design books fail to achieve. It helps the designer clarify the role and position of their particular specialism in the ‘big picture’ of the total design process. It is also such an enjoyable read that I would even recommend it to non designers. The structure of the book is quite clever. A good feature of any book is to inspire the reader to take things a bit further, and certainly Kathryn’s book has achieved this. There is an excellent glossary – I personally believe that defining design terminology is important so that designers and non-designers at least are using the same words in the same way”.
Amazon.com
“The book is an excellent example of the successful combination between theory and practice. Structured as a hypertext the book allows you to open and read at from any page or passage. A lot of contemporary cases from all over the world show you a wide scope of design management specifics. After reading the book you’ll be armed with the up-to-date ideas and concepts. This masterpiece by Kathryn Best is most useful for the design practitioners as well as for students or lecturers. Being a lecturer in design management and professional development I can note easy language, in-depth explanations and a good glossary of terms used in design management. This book presents the structure that sustains the design discipline in the (corporate) world today. You will get more info about the process, the vision and in the end – your own role in this entire structure.
It is a great eye opener for the designer engaged only in designing, and a good reference for the manager involved in the process. The graphics gives engagement to the reading. Makes for a good reference book”
Branddriveninnovation.com
It’s a great book, covering design management in a very fresh and inspiring way. It manages to showcase the breadth of our profession without falling into the trap of connecting everything to everything else. And it doesn’t flirt with the ‘management’ side of design management too much. It’s a designer’s book. It really is a very unpretentious little gem of design management”.
Builders Booksource
“Design Management considers the relationship between design and management and reveals how that relationship contributes to business. A clear, step-by-step guide to planning and implementing a project from conception to delivery, it focuses on the underlying strategy and process of good design management. Author Kathryn Best, a world-renowned authority, gives examples of successful practice from casebooks. Indispensable to design students and anyone involved in design management, marketing, media communications, and business study, as well as everyone interested in the balance between design and creativity, Design Management is an essential purchase”.
Mantex
“Each section is split into the knowledge required, selection of case studies, and an outline of the skills needed. The case studies are interesting, well-illustrated and up-to-date. Extended analysis of real-world examples… diagrams, procedures and models of good practice (that can be) adapted for their own circumstances.
It includes non-hierarchical systems of working and working conditions and design studios straight from the pages of Architecture Today.
It’s an amazingly thorough production. It even finishes with practical suggestions for communication skills….It’s also stylishly designed and produced, printed on thick matte paper stock with colour-coded pages, bound in an attractive paperback A4 format, and elegantly laid out”.
