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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I recently came across this Ted Talk from a few years back by Simon Sinek on how great leaders have inspired action. I found it to be an interesting look as to why certain people tend to out-achieve, and out-innovate others.

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Such a great quote by Steve Jobs that I think really speaks to his work ethic and attention to detail. Appropriate given his latest decision to step down at Apple. It's his commitment to this simple line of thinking that made Apple what it is today.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.

Via Quotes on Design.

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 been on a bit of a Milton Glaser kick lately. I find myself inspired by his humble insights on design and the creative process. I highly recommend reserving 40 minutes of your day to give his Creative Mornings Lecture, from a few months back, a watch.

2011/01 Milton Glaser from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

I believe one of the great difficulties of professional life is you can't fail often enough without being out of the profession. ~ Milton Glaser

Last night I was browsing my Netflix Instant View library and stumbled across a wonderful documentary on Milton Glaser titled: To Inform and Delight.

Inform and Delight glances into the everyday moments of Milton Glaser's personal life and captures his immerse warmth and humanity, as well as boundless depth of his intelligence and creativity.

I had no idea this film existed. No body ever told me, so I'm telling you: If you haven't seen it yet and you're into design, art, or better yet both, give it a watch.

Great day of sessions today at WebVisions. I particularly enjoyed the opening keynote by Luke Williams of Frog Design. The topic of his presentation was Thinking the Unthinkable: How To Spark Disruptive Innovation.

The key takeaway here: stop replicating and start innovating. By breaking traditional patterns, you can create an expectation gap, limit your competition, and leave others scrambling to catch up.

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I'm in Portland, Oregon this week attending the WebVisions Conference.

About WebVisions:

WebVisions explores the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy to uncover the trends and agents of change that will shatter your assumptions about the Web. Be ready to network, share ideas and be inspired by an all-star lineup of speakers.

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