The Education of a Design Entrepreneur

Book excerpt: New from the editor of the pioneering EDUCATION OF . . . series, this benchmark collection of fifty essays and interviews provides students and working designers with a firm understanding of the pitfalls and triumphs awaiting the design entrepreneur. Designers recount their motives for setting out on their own and reflect on the degree to which their creative spirit has been satisfied by entrepreneurial freedom –in areas ranging from book, Web site, and home product design to golf course development and entertainment design. Contributors such as Byron Glaser and Sandra Higashi, Eric Zimmerman, Rudy VanderLans, and others reveal that entrepreneurship is not simply a designer's ticket to liberation –it can also be a labyrinth of clerical tasks and manufacturing nightmares. This collection provides candid anecdotes and no-frills advice for any designer ready to brave the trials and rewards of entrepreneurship.