Make It Now! Creative Inspiration and the Art of Getting Things Done
TITLE AVAILABLE AT
Barnes & Noble
Book Depository
Counter Print
Draw Down
TITLE INFORMATION
Author: Anthony Burrill
Publisher: Virgin Books
Year Published: 2017
Dimensions: 7in. x 9.5in.
Pages: 208
Synopsis
Make it Now is a blend of monograph, advice, and auto-biography by graphic designer, Anthony Burrill. This is his second of four books and includes examples of his work and stories from his life up until 2016. Make it Now offers advice on various topics like finding inspiration, communication, and creating self-initiated work. Burrill weaves his personal experience throughout his advice that provides a glimpse into his life and career.
Content
Make It Now promises two things: advice on creative inspiration and getting things done. Burrill manages to accomplish both of these promises in this book. Burrill shares his process of discovering inspiration through various methods like traveling, seeing, persistence, nonconformity, and being resourceful. He also includes several pages of things that spark inspiration like cheap printing, fragments of type, and hastily scrawled notes.
Burrill also shares his process behind his work and how he manages to complete projects. He offers advice on client communication, self-initiated projects, designing for good, and just showing up.
Similar to other monographs Burrill weaves his narratives throughout the advice he offers to help his readers connect to him. Although his anecdotes aren’t long they offer just enough of a glimpse into his life, career, and behind the scenes on some well-known projects.
Burrill’s writing is sparse but this book is packed with his work. Every spread features his work in one way, shape, or form. The design of this book compliments the style of his typographic work incredibly well. There are some pages where I cannot discern if the visuals are decorative elements created specifically for this book or if they were created separately.
Design
This hardcover book measures 7 inches by 9 inches making it comfortable to hold while reading. There is a limited color palette that helps Burrill’s bold, black, typographic work blend into the typography of the book. Various matte paper stocks of tonal blue, green, tan, and grey emphasize the printed textures of ink on paper, and mimic Burrill's letterpress work. There are a few pages throughout the book that are matte on one side and glossy on the other. It is unknown why this was done because the images printed on the glossy sides are similar to the ones printed on the matte paper. It almost appears as an error, but maybe they were preventing production waste and discard this paper.
One item this book is missing is a table of contents. Although this would make locating specific sections in this book easier, it is almost unnecessary as each section only spans a page or two. There are a handful of stories that carry on longer, but they break the norm. But with the amount of visual work it is easy to become disoriented, and forget what information is located where.
Personal Thoughts
I love this book. I love that the advice is short, sweet, and to the point. Although it is generic at times it is nice to be reminded of the basics. Repetition does make the information more memorable. Since Burrill's writing is concise I read this book within two sittings over the span of a day. I do not doubt that I will go back and reread this one day in the near future because of how short it is.
I also love the bold, graphic nature of Burrill's work. It’s simple in the most complicated way. It is also timeless, and will never go out of style.
Conclusion
I think this book is perfect for almost any graphic designer at any stage in their life and career. Burrill's advice in this book can be applied to anyone at any time. I also think this book is ideal for creatives who have little free time to spend on reading, and are looking for a quick read to satisfy their fix.
If you read Anthony Burrill's Make It Now let me know your thoughts in the comments section!