Managing the Design Process – Concept Development by Terry Lee Stone

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 10.08.2010

[rating:3.5]

”Managing the Design Process – Concept Development’ is a great primer for all graphic designers to help establish career skills, not just design skills. From creating an effective design brief to establishing valuable and insightful questions to ask during client meetings, this book has it covered. Industrial designers do not fear, you will find this book just as relevant as any graphic designer, the principles really are transferable across all design disciplines.

‘Managing the Design Process’ really focuses on the early stages of the design process including research, goal setting, design strategy, creative risk taking and what I deem the most important and challenging, managing client expectations. The concept stage of a project is so important to get right, it is the stage where the most value can be gained or lost on a project, so on this point alone it is worth the read. I really do think the theory, processes and methodologies of the concept stage of design projects hasn’t been fully perfected by anyone yet, so it is to my slight disappointment no revolutionary concepts are explored in this book. Rather, this book sticks to ‘knowns’. You can tell by the language Stone uses throughout the book that she is speaking from sound experience working as a design writer, educator and practitioner. The language is simply and elegantly blunt which makes it particularly appealing to designers or visual thinkers. There are numbers of over-simplified diagrams and charts and dot points littered all over the book which make it easy to take away the key points that Stone is trying to express in each chapter. Some of these dot points I think would be fantastic to post up around a design office!

Throughout the book there are some stunning visual case studies of client work that helps communicate some of the principles in the previous pages. However after a while it is debatable whether there is a need for all the case studies as sometimes you feel the case studies are really just a good excuse to show off cool designs.

Despite its lack of exhaustive and explorative detail, ‘Managing the Design Process’ is a fantastic read for people who just want to know what works in a simple and accessible manner. The topics chosen throughout are excellent especially the ones on design strategy, design research and client management. These are topics we so rarely ever get to see in printed form!