October 18, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: The Power of Habit

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

This fascinating book is divided into three parts - habits within individuals, habits of organizations, and habits of societies.  Drawing on academic research, interviews, and anecdotes, this book focuses on how we stop making conscious choices as behaviors become automatic, why those habits form, and identifying patterns of a habit so they can be reshaped. (Read more)

September 26, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: The Gifts of Imperfection

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown

I'm a huge fan of Brene Brown and the real, honest stories she shares in her writing. Building off of her extensive research into difficult emotions such as shame and vulnerability, this book muses on: What is a wholehearted life? How do we cultivate it? What does it take to live from a place of worthiness and embrace imperfections? (Read more)

August 9, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: Quiet – The Power of Introverts

Quiet, by Susan Cain.

From the moment I first learned the words introvert and extrovert, I knew which group I definitely fell into. But I thought the definitions of both were simply:

Introvert: n. gets energy from being alone. See: Kim.
Extrovert: n. gets energy from other people. See: what seems to be most of the rest of the world.
(Read more)

July 10, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: The Shape of Design

The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero
"A fieldguide for makers. A love letter to design."

This book is deceptively short. It is indeed a quick read, but it'll leave an impression long after you've put it down. The book starts off pondering the relationship between How & Why... it is simpler to answer "How do I do this?" instead of "Why am I doing this?" The How shifts from context to context, from job to job, but the Why is about the very objective, the reason why decisions were made, and propels us to a higher level of thinking rather than focusing on only the execution. (Read more)

May 25, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: A Technique for Producing Ideas

A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young

Written by an advertising man in the 1960s, this book is his response to a question asked to him: "How do you get ideas?". This is a deceptively simple book - it can be read in under an hour and seems straightforward on the surface, but is the result of years and years of the author's experience of watching ideas develop... (Read more)

May 17, 2015Comments are off for this post.

Book: Bird by Bird

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Though this is a guide intended for writers, I found this full of lessons that are applicable to my work as a designer.

You write a shitty first draft of it and you sound it out, and you leave in those lines that ring true and take out the rest.

(Read more)

© Kim Kiser Ramirez 2020