Hi Uplifting Crew,
It's midnight. Typing "makoski" on Amazon.com now takes me to the live Uplifting Design book page. It's a surreal moment. I can now add "published author" to my bio. This is something I never thought I'd become. This label rests alongside a few others I've added in the past few years that evoke both gratitude and a bit of disbelief: Chief Design Officer, lecturer, UK Global Talent permanent resident, Fellow and Design Advisor.
When I finished the manuscript a few months ago a friend of mine kindly offered to connect me to their publisher. The idea of working with an editor was tantalizing, especially given all the feelings of vulnerability I was wrestling with. But I ultimately decided to self-publish, as I wanted this first book to be a personal act of service where I could share my story directly with those who seek to elevate the practice of design on their teams. A big thanks to my fiancé Giulia for inspiring me to write in the first place and giving me real-time feedback when I was getting stuck in the writing process, to my Dad for reading every chapter the day after I wrote it and giving me thoughtful editorial feedback, and to my Mom for catching over 120 proofreading issues!
The final result is thus not a manicured product aimed at maximizing distribution and sales, but a personal offering that captures key lessons, methods and principles I've learned from the past 25 years of design practice. My hope is that Uplifting Design will be helpful to business leaders trying to innovate through the humanity, simplicity, empathy and creativity of design; to design leaders striving to take their organizations to the next level; and to the next generation of design students who will expect more from the companies they join when it comes to fostering nurturing environments for design.
All three of those groups were represented at the private launch of the book at IDEO London this past Friday. I had the chance to tell the story of how the book came to be, gave a reading of a few pages, answered questions, and then finally signed the first copies of the book and gave the t-shirt gift I had designed for the occasion (BTW, there have been a few requests for those shirts, so let me know if you're interested and I might just start a merch section of www.Uplifting.Design!).
So, now is the time to grab your own book! Head over to Amazon.com to get either your digital or physical copy, send me feedback, write a review, and most importantly start using the principles and tools to take design to the next level with your team. I can't wait to hear your uplifting stories!
