New Book Announcement!
If you asked me about Moby Dick when I was in high school, I wouldn’t be able to tell you if Ahab was the whale or the sailor. But, a few years later, while studying design in college, I read Paula Scher’s book Make It Bigger. Something clicked.
Paula had voice. I’m not talking about voice in terms of design style; I’m talking voice as a writer. Her book’s absurd title was a jab at size-obsessed clients. One of my favorite stories? Diagram of a Meeting, where she suggested cutting the get-together shortly after the presentation. Linger too long and the client would go from loving to hating the work in record time. That story dripped with New York City sarcasm, and as a shit-tawker from Lawng Island, I felt seen. I realized that writing didn’t need to be waxed and polished like a plank on the Pequod.
Make It Bigger had a hardcover thick enough to clobber a whale. I remember tracing my fingers down the book’s spine to the open parenthesis and four bars that built the modernist Princeton Architectural Press logo. No woodcut animals or anchors. In my hands, Make It Bigger made me think I could one day author a book. But I wouldn’t have the stones to write one until 2024, with Creative Endurance.
And now, I’m excited to announce that my second book will be published by PA Press (formerly Princeton Architectural Press).
PA Press has published Ellen Lupton, Giorgia Lupi, Paula Scher, Steven Heller, and Zaha Hadid, so I’m in good company. Those authors have made tremendous contributions to the world of architecture, infographics, and design.
Design is the tool I’ve used to level up as a writer, professor, public speaker, and YouTuber. Most of my days are spent practicing graphic design. Graphic design is creative problem solving made visual — and our careers are problems to be solved.
As a journalist working at Fast Company, I’m trained to prove theory through story. Since my first interview with Mastodon’s guitarist three years ago, I’ve collected over forty origin stories of artists and inventors for this book. These stories span five decades, proving that design is a timeless tool.
In Creative Endurance, rule 46 is One-up Yourself. And that’s my goal for this new book: it’ll be hardcover, more words, and narrative-driven. I’m designing it, and I promise you, it’ll look sharp, but it’s going to be more subdued. That’s because I’m more confident as a writer.
The final title of Book No. 2 is still in the works, but one thing’s for certain: it’ll hit shelves in May 2028.
In the meantime, I’m going to give Moby Dick another read.