Lita Talarico - Becoming a Design Entrepreneur: How to Launch Your Design-Driven Ventures from Apps to Zines

Copyright 2016 by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles.

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COVER AND INTERIOR DESIGN BY

Anderson Newton Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data is available on file.

Print ISBN: 978-1- 62153-508- 9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1- 62153-514- 0

Printed in China

DEDICATION

Nicolas Heller SH

Julian Friedman LT

Contents

Terms in Current Use

Maker, Making, Made

SIDEBAR

By Ken Carbone

By John Carlin

With Ken Carbone

SIDEBAR

By Anthony DAvella

By Zack Yorke

With Ben Blumenfeld/The Designers Fund

Benjamin Gadbaw

SIDEBAR

by Steve Kroeter

With Linda Holliday

Master of Many Mtiers

Making the Best Stuff

Her Passion Cometh

Healing Birds

New Model for Bookmaking

Kubaba Bespoke Books

Barking Up The Paper Tree

The Go-Comb Experience

Making Diaries

The Reality of Creating a Business

The Digital Marketplace

Frontier Woman Online

Products in the Wild

A Digital Feast

Games for a Living

Being Acquired to be Hired

Making Cooties

Visual Storyteller

Nano Blogging

The Entrepreneuriral Advocate

Design Nerd

Design History as Commodity

Toys With an Edge

A Sixteen-Page Adventure

Saving Lives, One Prescription at a Time

Design Restauranteur

Dating Adventure

By Frank Martinez, Esq.

By L. Lee Wilson, JD

By L. Lee Wilson, JD

By L. Lee Wilson, JD

SIDEBAR

Preface

W hen we began using the term design entrepreneur, the two words were rarely uttered together. Now the next big thing in graphic designin fact, in all design disciplinesis entrepreneurship. The United States is a land of inventors, and entrepreneurs and designers have virtually all the skills needed to conceive, develop, research, and producein short, make products for a marketplace. What was missing when we began were business, presentation, and promotion expertise.

This book builds, in part, on the curriculum of The School of Visual Arts MFA Design/Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program (which we founded and co-chair). With the help of our faculty, alumni, and staff, we have fine-tuned this material for nearly twenty years. It is part handbook and part casebook, addressing how designers can accelerate their concepts as marketable in the analog and digital worlds.

Entrepreneurship is risky yet empowering. Taking ownership of ideas and fabrications, either alone or in collaboration with others, is a goal worth pursuing and an opportunity worth taking. Even failure is an opportunity. Entrepreneurship is a learning process. The designer must learn to incorporate design talent with business skill to ensure the outcome of any sustainable venture.

SH + LT

Acknowledgments

F irst and foremost, we thank David Rhodes, president of the School of Visual Arts, for his continued support of design entrepreneurship throughout the school, and for his generosity to the MFA Design (MFAD) program and its students, past and present.

We are grateful to Tad Crawford, publisher of Allworth Press, for his unflagging enthusiasm for graphic design and design in general. This book is a tribute to his dedication.

Without our co-workers at MFAD, Esther Ro Schofield, director of operations, and Ron Callahan, technology director, we would be at a huge loss. Thank you for your dedication to our program and students. For their design and typography, thanks to Gail Anderson and Joe Newton of Anderson Newton Design.

Warm wishes to the faculty members, both current and past, who have added their own imprimaturs to design entrepreneurship, either by engaging in it themselves or encouraging others.

And to all those who were interviewed, analyzed, and otherwise probed about their entrepreneurial highs and lows, we are sincerely thankful for your generosity.

SH + LT

An Entrepreneurs Glossary

TERMS IN CURRENT USE

ACCELERATOR Company that fast-tracks start-ups to launch their ventures

ANGEL Investor who looks for early-stage ventures to provide capital in exchange for equity in the venture

ANCILLARY An extra that adds to the core product of the venture in hopes that it will attract a target audience

ASSET Something that has value or can generate income

BRANDING The narrative that identifies a product, venture, or service

BRAND PLATFORM Items that define a products core attributes

BUSINESS MODEL (aka Value Exchange) Definition of the product and how it will make a profit

COLLATERAL Different types of marketing products that support a venture

COLLABORATION Working with others to accomplish a task

CORE CONCEPT The idea that drives all the parts of a product

DECK Series of Keynote slides or PDFs showing key elements of a pitch or proposal

DELIVERING VALUE Promise of what you will provide to an audience

ECOSYSTEM (see Stakeholder) All the participants in a venture, from the creators and founders to the various stakeholders, who will provide sustenance and sustainability

END USER The intended audience for a product

ENTREPRENEUR Person who starts a new business venture that requires initiative and risk

ELEVATOR PITCH Quick summary used to define a product

ETHNOGRAPHY Research that is conducted to provide in-depth understanding of the culture of a targeted audience

EXPERIENCE Response a user has to a venture

FOUNDER Originator of the idea and creator of the venture

IDENTITY Look and feel of the product (also Logo)

INCUBATOR Entity that attempts to nourish potential ventures

INNOVATION Term used to describe new ventures

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY Legal rights for protecting ideas including trademark, copyright, trade dress

ITERATION (experimenting to iterate the experience) Developing a version of the product

LOGO Identity mark of a company

MARKET TESTING Evaluating responses to a product prior to releasing it

MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT (MVP) Core elements of product that launches early for feedback in order to iterate

MISSION STATEMENT Essence of a businesss goals and philosophy

PITCH Defining a venture in a way that excites and generates interest

PRODUCT End result that is offered to meet the needs of the intended audience

PRODUCT NARRATIVE Story behind the venture

PROTOTYPE Early iteration of a product