Some wonderful stories about the common beliefs that people have about ideas and how they come to us. This will help you overcome your own fears about being a creative in a modern world full of skeptics as well as give you some ammo the next time someone says “ideas are accidents, like when that guy got hit on the head and discovered gravity”.

The Myths of Innovation

The follow up to Art of Innovation. Apparently the readers thought the process should just work and focused on that instead of the people. Turns out they’re important to the process as well

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Defeating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization

I don’t know why I’m even posting this book. you can’t call yourself a designer PERIOD if you haven’t read this book. IDEO is such an amazing model to learn from.

This book is a good second book AFTER The Creative Priority, as they were written in that order, but by different authors.

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America’s Leading Design Firm

This is a great book about the building of a creative team and a design studio many years before IDEO or APPLE!!  the focus of the book is on Industrial design but there is so much in here on team building and creative leadership that I consider it a must read for any creative individual.

Even though the stories about NDI are a little dated now the content still teaches valuable lessons.

The Creative Priority: Driving Innovative Business in the Real World

Great book on making ideas that people will remember. I picked it up while doing research in creativity and while I was teaching. It helped me understand both, much better. Each chapter is one thing your idea will need to be “sticky” and is told as a story so it makes the ideas easy to remember and engaging to read.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die