The Internet Case Study Book

Preordered and dispatching on the 31st. From the people at FWA and packed full of interesting goodness from Industry Peers. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this stuff, as I've usually seen it and the last thing you want is a book crammed full of useless, good looking, marketing web stuff...

The Amazon synopsis talks about Strategies for Success - let's see, as we put a few to teh test.

This title offers strategies for success. It discusses how to make your business work online. Featuring 60 success stories, from clients' briefings to final projects, this book provides detailed studies divided into five chapters: e-Commerce, Corporate Sites, Campaigns, Social Media, and Promotional Sites. These subjects form the core of what the web can offer to every person or institution, and knowing how these projects were developed can help differentiate your business or online presence from that of your competitors. Strategies examined range from those of giant corporations to small businesses, but all have a common goal: a successful, efficient and cost-effective investment on the web. Each project is laid out in terms of Brief, Challenge, Strategy and Results. From Coca-Cola to Prine of Persia, from Diesel to Domino's Pizza, this book shows how successful businesses of any size can devise an effective online presence, and features the work of strategic innovators such as Ajaz Ahmed, Alex Bogusky, and Jeff Goodby.

(Penguin Classics) RED

Re-released as part of the (Penguin Classics) RED Charity Series. Interesting cover designs and to be fair, that's why I am posting them here. Originally spotted on Creative Review Blog.

Books from Tolstoy, Stoker, Wharton, Zola, Dickens, James, Dostoyevsky, Conrad. In fact I could be very tempted.

Baked in: Creating products and businesses that market themselves

In Baked In, CP+B's Alex Bogusky tells us how 21st Century marketing will give us better products. To quote Mr Sall Ball, I wonder if Product Design agencies across the land are talking about doing advertising...

In principle this sounds interesting but the book gets bad reviews. Creating products is something that takes time, talent and vision. Ultimately this book says less about product design and more about advertising, and how it needs to be useful and/or entertaining and/or connecting and/or educational.

Brands must build a new relationship with their customers and the culture they participate in. The old rule was: Create safe, ordinary products and combine with mass marketing. The new rule is: Create truly innovative products and build the marketing right into them. Today the product is at the centre of the conversation. It's within the product itself that a brand has the most leverage with consumers. Baked In gives companies a step-by-step guide to how to adapt and succeed in this brave new world, where the product is not separate from the message but is the message.

Ray Gun: Out of Control

I spied this on a client's bookshelf the other day. Reminded me of my own copy. Takes me back to a time when so many designers wanted to do everything in the style of Mr Carson.

I do like the line of typesetting an entire article in Dingbats, as the interviewee as total prick. Would make decent Greasemonkey plugin to change the typeface and pages that bore you. I've never seen a webpage set in Dingbats - maybe it's time....

Amazon Synopsis is to the point, if a little unhelpful. Not sure it's really that potent.

A potent blend of selected pieces from Californian magazines "Ray Gun", "Stick" and "Bikini". This text traces their evolving design with the work of David Carson, Vaughan Oliver and Robert Hales, and examines the culture that has produced them. Iggy Pop, Brian Eno, Quentin Tarrantino, Michael Stipe and Oasis are among contributors.