John Kudos is an interdisciplinary designer whose work embraces strategy, design, and technology. His practice focuses on collaboration and experimentation informed by diverse cultural backgrounds and technological resources in brand identities, publications, exhibitions, many of which span across multiple media. He has been working closely with architects for branded spaces. He is the graphic mastermind behind the AIA Brooklyn Chapter, Cornell University AAP, and Princeton University Art Museum to name a few.
Here’s his 5 go-to books on running a successful graphic design firm in New York City, Jakarta, and Bandung.
- E-Myth Revisited, by Michael E. Gerber
The E-Myth Revisited explains why 80% of small businesses fail, and how to ensure yours isn’t among those by building a company that’s based on systems and not on the work of a single individual.
- Business of Expertise, by David C. Baker
This passionate expertise manifesto is intended to elevate the impact of advisors who sell insight as entrepreneurs. Three foundational chapters form the basis of the entire book: experts develop insight by isolating patterns in data; they convert those insights to wealth by crafting a unique positioning for which few available substitutes exist; and their confidence grows as the marketplace embraces their application of expertise.
- Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg
The Power Of Habit helps you understand why habits are at the core of everything you do, how you can change them, and what impact that will have on your life, your business and society.
- Alibaba, by Duncan Clark
The story — told by China expert, former investment banker, and onetime Alibaba advisor — of how Jack Ma founded the country’s online shopping juggernaut and built it into a growing global force.
- How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul, by Adrian Shaughnessy
Designers are quick to tell us about their sources of inspiration, but they are much less willing to reveal such critical matters as how to find work, how much they charge, and what to do when a client rejects three weeks of work and refuses to pay the bill.
- * BONUS LIST* The Essential Art of War, by Ralph D. Sawyer
The Art Of War has been considered the definitive text on military strategy and warfare ever since being written in ancient China around 500 BC, inspiring businesses, athletes, and of course generals to beat their opponents and competition the right way until today.
