With 233 (to be exact) hints, tips and pieces of advice, Now Try Something Weirder shows those in the creative industry how to have great ideas (every day).

Internationally award-winning graphic designer Michael Johnson draws on over thirty years’ experience (his CV clocks up eight creative posts, three dismissals and the launch of his own business) to share his ultimate secrets to enviable success … who said you should keep your secrets closely guarded?

Looking to improve the way you work with clients, understand and question design briefs, deliver knockout presentations – and generally gain covetable creative confidence? Sometimes the solution is staring you in the face.

‘Michael Johnson offers the most generous kind of professional advice: insightful but full of enthusiasm. Designers need cunning as well as inspiration’.

 — Deyan Sudjic OBE, Director of the Design Museum

‘Want better ideas, start reading better books. Or even something Weirder’.

 — Sir John Hegarty, founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty

‘I’ve always wanted to be a little bit weird. Now a prince of weirdosity has come up with the perfect short guide to the creative life’.

— Robert McCrum, bestselling author and former editor at Faber and Faber and The Observer

‘Don’t try harder; try weirder. Michael Johnson’s new book is chock-a-block with home truths about graphic design. One of the first is also one of the best: Work out who you want to work for BEFORE you graduate. Worth the price of an education, right there’.

 — Marty Neumeier, branding guru and author of ‘The Brand Gap’ and ‘Scrambled’

‘I particularly liked pages   ,    ,    and   .’

 — Bob Gill, illustration and design legend and author of Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned About Graphic Design, Including the Ones in this Book

‘Michael Johnson is an amazing storyteller with a rich visual sensibility and an uncanny ability to grasp the weird and wonderful. He’s also learned a thing or two about life in his years as a graphic designer: you will become not only smarter but wiser from this insightful book. And every page will delight you.’
 — Jacqueline Novogratz, serial TED-talk speaker, pioneer of ethical investing (Acumen) and best-selling author

‘One cannot be in the design business for the time that Michael has without coming across the issues discussed in this book. As I read, I found myself nodding and smiling and saying to myself, “Yep, I know that one …. and that one.” The only way of knowing this information is to have lived it, or to work beside someone exceptional. Sadly, very few of us have that opportunity. So how brilliant then, that rather than keeping these gems to himself, Michael got off his backside and wrote it down in a witty little book.’
 — Martin Lambie-Nairn, founder of Lambie-Nairn and world-renowned television branding expert

About the Author:

Michael Johnson is a writer, designer and thinker, and founder of world-renowned brand consultancy, Johnson Banks. He has won many sought-after prizes, including seven yellow and one ‘black’ pencil from D&AD. He received its lifetime achievement award in 2017. His books include Problem Solved and Branding.

The ultimate step-by-step, visual guide to creating a successful brand

Michael Johnson is one of the world's leading graphic designers and brand consultants. His studio, johnson banks, is responsible for the rebranding of many notable clients, including Virgin Atlantic, Think London, BFI, Christian Aid, and MORE TH>N, and he has garnered a plethora of awards in the process.

In Branding, Johnson strips everyday brands down to their basic components, with case studies that enable us to understand why we select one product or service over another and allow us to comprehend how seemingly subtle influences can affect key life decisions. The first part of the book shows how the birth of a brand begins not with finding a solution but rather with identifying the correct question the missing gap in the market to which an answer is needed. Johnson proceeds to unveil hidden elements involved in creating a successful brand from the strapline that gives the brand a narrative and a purpose to clever uses of typography that unite design and language.

With more than 1,000 illustrations showcasing the world's most successful corporate identities, as well as generic templates enabling you to create your own brand or ad with ease, Branding explores every step of the development process required to create the simplest and most immediately compelling brands.

About the Author:

Michael Johnson set up the creative design studio 'johnson banks' in 1992. Since then, he has received eight ‘pencil’ awards from D&AD, thirteen Design Week awards and four NYADC ‘cube’ awards, among many others. Johnson has been cited as one of the most notable British designers by the Guardian and the Independent, and has been featured in Design Week’s ‘Hot 50’ list of prominent figures in design on three separate occasions. He is also the author of Problem Solved.

 

Problem Solved is the only book that teaches students and professionals how to recognize the recurring problems common to all areas of communication and explains how to solve them.

Each chapter explores a different problem and concludes with a case study exploring a particular solution in detail. Themes include: producing innovative work, avoiding repetition, standing out in the market place, reinventing a tired brand, keeping a brand young and trendy, using shock tactics, and word-based advertising in a world over-run with images and sound-bites.

This new edition is brought up-to-date with new images and updated text throughout as well as a new chapter, examining the contemporary phenomenon of flexible identity schemes.

Examples of companies featured include Saks Fifth Avenue, Google, Aol, The Natural History Museum, the BBC 2 and Channel 4 Idents and The Tate. The book provides an unparalleled overview of the design industry, including over 1000 images from throughout the 20th Century to today and bringing together for the first time discussions and case studies that reveal the working methods of major advertising and graphic design firms.

Featured agencies and designers include: Saatchi and Saatchi, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Bob Gill, Milton Glaser, Wolff Olins, Pentagram and George Lois, as well as examples from the johnson banks archive. An entertaining and thorough primer, Problem Solved is essential reading for students and professionals in all areas of the design and communication industries