Everyday I Write The Book

Local designers can be famous!

Two of my fellow designers and friends are featured in a new book by graphic design guru and NY Times Book Review art director Steven Heller. The Books is called Design Entrepreneur: Turning Graphic Design Into Goods That Sell. The Buffalo guys in the book are Rich Kegler from P22 and Julian Montague, artist and created of the The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification- which he has gotten quite a lot of mileage out of.

From what I can gather, the book is about graphic folks that have married their creative 'paying the bills' talent with their entrepreneurial spirit to create something to market, often a product. We do that with our T-shirts line- WheretoRoam.com. It isn't a unique situation, but I think it has become more prevalent- us designers often get more pleasure out of doing design for ourselves than logos or projects for clients. Unfortunately doing things for yourself doesn't amount to much money-- unless you can sell it. But most of the time it is more fun- without a client looking over your shoulder, you have more freedom to push yourself creatively.

Anyway- congrats to Rich and Julian- both awesome dudes and smart designer. I have always been a fan of Heller's writings (I get his Daily Heller email newsletter), the guy has written over 90 books on design and popular culture and is a well-known design critic. I like to see local folk done good.