Books on product design entrepreneurship

Special Interest Areas business practices
1

I’m looking for anything related to starting your own firm, bringing a concept to market, etc. I’ve found a lot that are target toward graphic design but haven’t had much luck finding any specifically targeting product design. Any out there you guys would recommend?

2

the types of products you can mass produce in your garage are fairly limited, so business publishers tend to ignore the few case studies that exist.

3

I’m not necessarily talking that small scale. I’m interested in basically two types of info:

  1. Finding investors, buyers, manufacturers, distributors, etc. for a single product

  2. Starting your own firm

For the latter, I would assume that general design entrepreneurship books will help no matter what the specific field (e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Not-Enough-Business-Designers/dp/0321278798/ref=wl_itt_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I34Q4PRG4LF0OA&colid=1RTHJGIC4C36V), but I don’t know where to find info on the former.

4

Michael Gerber - The E-myth.

Mark

5

“How to Break Into Product Design”
http://www.amazon.com/How-Break-into-Product-Design/dp/0891348298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237414188&sr=8-1

Kind of an odd book in that it’s written for graphic designers looking to branch into product, but the case studies are pretty good. It’s getting a bit old though, and mostly predates a lot of the stuff that has made the job so much easier (i.e., the internet).

I’m toying with writing a book like this myself. There are actually a lot of products you can self-produce. And not actually “yourself” in the garage, but using appropriate low volume producers. I don’t know how big the book market is, but I think a lot more designers will be making stuff in the future.

6

Yes, write one! I’ve been looking into going in this direction as it seems like a no-brainer for designers to push out their own smaller run products than trying to appeal to big megacorps. It’s kind of hard finding good info that isn’t geared for the typical “inventor” market.

7

I have this book and have recommended it to clients and friends looking to start their own product.

From Concept to Consumer - How to Turn Ideas into Money
Phil Baker

It has insights into manufacturing costs, distribution issues, working with industrial designers, outsourcing, and the benefits and pitfalls of off-shore manufacturing.

It’s also quite affordable at $16 on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0137137478?ie=UTF8&tag=httpblogphili-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0137137478

8

This is perfect; just what I was looking for.