Writing for the Design Mind

"Becoming a designer takes a huge amount of time and education. With so many skills to learn, many people never get the chance to master the one skill that can give them a real advantage in business or academia: They never learn to write well.” In Writing for the Design Mind author, designer and educator Natalia Ilyin offers clear, concise, and humorous writing tips, techniques and strategies to people who have spent their lives mastering design rather than learning to write. Ilyin’s book helps designers approach writing in the same ways they approach designing – teaching skills and methods through encouragement, practical exercises and visual advice. Writing well is a skill, like any other, and with this book you can learn to do it with confidence. //Winner in the 50 Books | 50 Covers award 2019 from the AIGA//

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1: Sitting Down to Write Beware the Journaling Roommate Ten Things About Writing How to Begin 2: The Writer’s Matériel Making Marks Marks into Signs Signs into Sign Bundles Bundling Bundles Alphabets Are Systems Letters into Type Coding and Decoding 3: Words Denotation and Connotation Focusing In Exercise 1—Seven Beautiful Words 4: Phrase to Clause to Sentence First, Phrases Now, Clauses Exercise 2—Seven Beautiful Clauses Finally, Sentences Stop the Wandering Three Sentence Writers Exercise 3—Seven Beautiful Sentences 5: A Dash Through Punctuation Altering Meaning with Dots and Lines The Art of the Pause: Paragraphing Exercise 4—Building a Paragraph Brush Up on Your Use of Articles 6: Thinking in Diagrams A Third Way of Communicating Imitate the Way Your Brain Thinks: Nodal Mapping Exercise 5—Trying Out Mapping 7: Writing Is Argument What “Expository” Means If You Missed Learning How to Write a Five-Paragraph Essay The Rooted Tree A Five-Paragraph Essay, Line by Line Exercise 6—Master the Five-Paragraph Essay How to Move Past Five Paragraphs Exercise 7—Flip the Tree On to the Semilattice Deploying the Semilattice: Rooms Make the House Exercise 8—Eight Paragraphs of House A Tiny House Caravan Exercise 9—Structure the Caravan Essay Exercise 10—Write the Caravan Essay A Note On Conclusions 8: Convincing Ethos: Convincing by Inspiring Trust Pathos: Convincing by Appealing to Emotion Logos: Convincing by Appealing to Logic 9: Tone & Voice Tone The Differences Between Formal and Informal Writing A Personal Tone Exercise 11—Tone Warm-Up A Professional Tone Exercise 12—A Short Professional Piece The Traditional Academic Voice Voice 10: Academic Writing What is an Academic Critique? Exercise 13—An Eight-Page Academic Critique Structuring the Complex Think Piece Various and Oppositional Arguments Exercise 14—Balancing Opposing Arguments What Academic Research Is and Is Not How to Begin Your Research A Note on Research Databases The Rules of Fair Use Plagiarism What Design Research Is and Is Not Structuring Design Research Documentation What is the Peer Review Process? 11: Writing Long Bibliographies, Research Papers, BFA Documents, Master’s Theses Invisible Argument: The Art of the Annotated Bibliography If You’ve Just Been Assigned an Annotated Bibliography Exercise 15—Build an Annotated Bibliography In Defense of the Term Paper Structuring and Writing Research Papers Exercise 16—Create a “Process Machine” The Design Master’s Thesis: I Hear a Symphony Exercise 17—Three Basic Questions Exercise 18—Getting to a Thesis Statement 12: Writing to People In Admiration Exercise 19—Write a Note Because You Want Something—Like a Job Exercise 20—Write a Convincing Email Because You Don’t Want Something—Like a Client exercise 21—Write a Client-Firing Email Letters on Paper 13: Business Proposals & Reports A Word on Business-Speak A Simple Proposal for Getting New Business Exercise 22—Map, Diagram, & Write a Simple Proposal Responding to the RFP Exercise 23—Map, Diagram, & Write a Response to an RFP 14: Copywriting What Kind of Copy Is It? First, Targets Brush Off Your Poetry Hat Be Wise About Copy Okays Write Alone Exercise 24—Exercise Your Inner Colette 15: Writing for Social Media Writing for Websites Is Its Own Thing Creating a Cohesive Identity Online Keep the Music Playing Exercise 25—Create a Social Media Plan Writing Tips Eleven Errors of Death How to Get It All Read Last Thoughts Illustration Notes

About the Author :
Natalia Ilyin is Professor of Design at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, USA, where she teaches design history and criticism, design for social activism, and transition design. In 2012- and again in 2015 - she earned Cornish's Award for Teaching Excellence. Natalia is also Founding Faculty for the MFA in Graphic Design at Vermont College of Fine Arts, has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Yale University, The Cooper Union and the University of Washington, and has acted as Critic for the MFA in Graphic Design at Yale University and at Rhode Island School of Design.

Review :
Every designer will have to write in her career. Some will find it more painful than others. Funny, direct, wise and clear, design educator Natalia Ilyin has come to the rescue. I would make this book required reading for any writing intensive course within an Art & Design department. A hugely engaging and inspiring read - the tone is perfect for students. [M]any tutors out there ... would enjoy reading this book as much as I did, densely packed as it is with excellent counsel, communicated in an engagingly informal, second-person mode of address and peppered with personal anecdotes and often laugh-out-loud humorous asides. Readers might feel as though they are one of Ilyin’s fortunate students, sitting with her in her office for a tutorial.