Mike T. Henderson

Seeing .net Magazine's recent post on The Top 25 Books for Web Designers and Developers the other day, got me thinking about the goal I made in January to read one book per month this year and wondering if I'm still on pace. The last few months have been tricky for me to keep up with workloads and schedules, but I feel with a second wind this final month and a half, I'm hopeful I can get that 12th. As it currently stands, here's what I've read this past year:

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Continuing my goal to read one book per month, my book for March was Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation.

The premise of the book is that in environments where good ideas are often generated, there are patterns that recur over and over again. The book takes a very scientific look at 7 specific patterns that contribute in creative innovation: The Adjacent Possible, Liquid Networks, The Slow Hunch, Serendipity, Error, Exaptation, and Platforms.

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Erik Spiekermann - Putting Back the Face into Typeface from Gestalten on Vimeo.

Listen to the design genius talk about new visual languages, design processes, the analogies of music and typography, and why we need better client culture in our latest Gestalten.tv video and you will easily realize why. Before heading to new visionary pastures, the bike enthusiast will make a short stop to receive the German Design Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 in February.

What I particularly enjoy from this video, is when Erik talks through his design process and how he expands and arrives to the adjacent possible of an already existing idea.

If I find something that I really like, that I think would work for a client but it's already used by somebody else, or it's too old, or I can't afford to buy it, or it would be a rip off; then I look at it for a long time, I look through books, and I draw it, and I sketch over it, and then I put it away and then the next day I sit down and I draw it from memory, and then it's different.

I've recently been reading Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters, by Dick Winters and Cole C. Kingseed. Winters served as a commanding officer in Company "E" during World War II, and as the title of the book suggests, was depicted in the HBO series, Band of Brothers.

Winters was the type of leader that led by example, from the front, through high character and by way of countless hours of study and preparation.

While reading the other day, I came across a quote by Winters that I found interesting in regards to creative problem solving:

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