Book Review: Glimmer by Warren Berger

In his new book, Glimmer, Warner Berger brings forth the idea that the process of design (as practiced by the greats) can and should be applied well beyond the confines of its perceived role as the basis of “fashionable clothing or handbags, distinctive typefaces, elegant Philippe Starck furniture or Michael Graves teakettles”. Berger makes cases for design as a transformative influence on business, the social sector, and even life. One of his primary muses in the book, Bruce Mau, seems to have designed writing a book right out of his life, hence why Berger is the author here and not Mau! But that doesn’t matter, the book will give you plenty to think about, especially if you, yourself, are not a designer.

This is not a book about product design or website design. It is about, as Bruce Mau puts it “the human capacity to plan and produce desired outcomes.” Berger shows how design has helped solve such interesting challenges as how to make certain that senior citizens take the right dosages of their medicine, how to bring portable computing to the developing world, how to create an effective stop-smoking campaign for teenagers, and how to inspire a company to rally behind their products by redesigning the product as a passion.

Berger brings forth 10 Glimmer Principles that serve as the blueprint for transformative design and are the primary chapters of the book. Some are actionable. Others are conceptual. Here they are:

Ask Stupid Questions: What is design?

Jump Fences: How do designers connect, reinvent, and recombine?

Make Hope Visible: The importance of picturing possibilities and drawing conclusions

Go Deep: How do we figure out what people need – before they know they need it?

Work the Metaphor: Realizing what a brand or business is really about – then bringing it to life through designed experiences

Design What You Do: Can be way a company behaves be designed?

Face Consequences: Coming to terms with the responsibility to design well and recognizing what will happen if we don’t

Embrace Constraints: Design that does “more with less” is needed more than ever in today’s world

Design for Emergence: Apply the principles of transformation design to everyday life

Begin Anywhere: Why the small actions are more important than the big ones

As someone who has to create (dare I say design) presentations, concepts and programs in my job, I enjoyed the read and the book gave me plenty to think about (several inspired blog posts have already been drafted). Although the subtitle of “how design can transform your life, and maybe even the world” feels pretty lofty, the concepts that Berger presents definitely have the potential to make a big impact on the way you think about your job and the world around you. If you are already a designer, I don’t think this book will offer much except maybe for some inspirational examples. And I will caution that Berger’s reuse of many of the same examples throughout the book can make finishing it a bit tiresome. All that said, if you could use a little creative inspiration in your approach to a challenge, a peek at the way a designer thinks cannot be a bad thing. Check out Glimmer.