The Business of Design: Balancing Creativity and Profitability (Business and Career Guide to Creating a Successful Design Firm)

"Granet's book offers the first steps for designers and architects to start, as the title suggests, balancing creativity and profitability... The business advice he imparts could be applicable to any small-business owner."—USA Today

The Business of Design debunks the myth that business sense and creative talent are mutually exclusive, providing the necessary tools to create and run a thriving business. Keith Granet provides a comprehensive guide to running a design business, drawing on over thirty years of experience helping design professionals turn their passion into profit.

• Marketing and public relations
• Business and financial management
• Human resources
• Project Management
• Product Development

Granet explains in detail all aspects of business design, tailored to creative industries, from forming a business plan, to billing, to website design, to learning how to say no to projects. Charts and graphics illuminate each process for a visual audience.

Includes case studies and interviews with successful design practices. Each chapter is interwoven with stories and life lessons from Granet's work with over 400 design firms. Individual architects and designers who have made their mark share their experience in interviews, including John Merrill, A. Eugene Kohn, Victoria Hagan, and Richard Meier.

A vibrant and enticing look at the business side of design practice, this graphically beautiful book is a comprehensive and accessible guide to creating a successful design business.

"Keith Granet's new book The Business of Design is especially welcome... His Los Angeles company, Granet and Associates, provides management consultant services to some of the best-known architecture and interior design offices in the country." --AIArchitect.org

"A comprehensive and approachable guide to making a living while following your bliss... Filled with helpful (and attractive) illustrations and easy-to-follow advice tailored specifically to the needs of creative types." --Lonny magazine

"In an industry perceived more for its beauty than its money-making ability, Granet's book offers the first steps for designers and architects to start, as the title suggests, balancing creativity and profitability... The business advice he imparts could be applicable to any small-business owner." --USA Today

"Granet's book isn't about designing a room-- it's about designing a career-- or giving an existing one a better bottom line." --Veranda.com

"Asking yourself what you would do for work if you didn't need money can help you choose a career. But keeping your business afloat requires financial savvy. In The Business of Design, Keith Granet interviews architects Michael Graves, A. Eugene Kohn, Richard Meier, and John Merrill to supplement his own years of business knowledge." -- Architect magazine

"The book is truly encyclopedic, offering advise and practical examples... Interviews with five eminently successful designers (including Interior Design Hall of Fame members Michael Graves, Victoria Hagan, and Richard Meier) join the nuts-and-bolts information." --Interior Design

"Mr. Granet has become to decorators what Swifty Lazar was to screenwriters and starlets." --The New York Times