Inspiration

Books

Design books

• Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. A classic about how we understand the UI in the world around us.

• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. The classic book on web design.

• Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringurst. Typo style manual, combining practical, theoretical, and historical.

• Interactions of Color by Joseph Albers. Seminal book about color.

• Grid Systems in Graphic Design Josef Müller-Brockmann. Foundational book about grid systems in page layouts.

Leadership & teams books

• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. A guide to overcoming internal creative struggles.

• Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon Mackenzie. Maintaining creativity in bureaucratic chaos.

• Team Geek: Mastering Collaboration by Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman. Advice for working with people.

• Teaming by Amy Edmondson. A guidebook for making organisational learning happen by building teams that learn. Her principles are concise and actionable, the concept of "fail well" by learning quickly from mistakes was a highlight.

My ‘Books To Read List’ based on recommendations from friends

• Unleashed by Francis Frei & Anne Morriss. Advice that real leadership is about how effective you are at making other people better.

• Collaborating with the Enemy by Adam Kahane. Offers personal stories of collaboration that embraces experimentation and co-creation.

• Thinking in systems by Donella H. Meadows. Breaks down how to use systems thinking to solve complex problems.