Cyan Books Milton, H: Alas! Smith and Milton

One of the world's most successful design firms reveals its inner workings in this look at the business of being creative. Written by the owner of a 25-year-old company that at times has both thrived and barely survived, each chapter addresses a different challenge in running a design firm, such as how to bring order to a creative business without spoiling the fun, manage and motivate creative people, and make money out of a design (and still enjoy it). Interviews with 25 of the company's past and present staff members that include luminaries from the design world, groundbreaking entrepreneurs, and big-hitting financial marketers provide a lively, revealing, and opinionated account of the company and industry's colorful history. Honest, informative, and entertaining, this guide to running a design firm does not claim to have all of the answers, but rather seeks to pass on the observations, lessons, and cautionary tales that only an experienced--and ultimately successful--business such as Smith & Milton could share.