Designers are Wankers.

Lee McCormack.
About Face Publishing. 2006. 237 pages.

"You'll really start to learn after you graduate" - the caution delivered to so many design students. Lee McCormack goes quite a few steps further and recounts his early experiences of the open road. Graduating in the 1990s, McCormack's lecturers hadn't prepared him for the commercial realities that seemed secondary when he launched himself with a shed load of ideals and ideas.

He anticipates and highlights numerous stumbling blocks to a design career that many students wouldn't have even considered. As well as the negatives there are some pretty inspirational passages about the benefits of commitment. Interviews with prominent design industry figures such as Paul Smith, Neville Brody and Karim Rashid help the reader triangulate a path to a fulfilling career rather than just relying on McCormack's own model.

There are also insights into how graduates are typically viewed by the business community, potential employers and manufacturers.

This book has also inspired a website which promotes nurturing of budding 'creatives' and a collaborative rather than competitive view of the industry. They're pressing all the right buttons as far as I'm concerned.

If you're getting close to graduation and don't know your NDA from your elbow - read it now.