Dark Matter and: A Strategic Design Vocabulary Paperback – 1 July 2014

This book was recommended to me by a LinkedIn futurist associate. It affected my mental model for strategy work in minor, felt, and valuable ways. I read it in a day, during a busy time when I would have rather put it down. I also watched the author's YouTube presentation of some overlapping material. The book was meaningfully different and more effective, but the presentation is colorful, picture rich, dynamic. These ideas and arguments take time to steep. It's good, and different.

Amazing book

Dan Hill masterfully lays out how Design can play a role in shaping the world through large and small moves.The case studies bring the often intangible nature of some Strategic Design practice to life, and helps the reader to see how it can play out in real life projects. A must read for anyone who claims to be working in Strategic Design.

This series of short books or long essays from Russian publishers Strelka is a mixed bag. Some are very very short, whereas this is actually quite hefty in comparison. Oddly for a book on design, where you might expect a clarity of thought and structure, this is rather a mishmash of fairly random writings, some unconvincing theory, and some insightful observations from some high profile experience, such as working on iPlayer. This is the sort of thing that Deyan Sudjic does and makes seem effortless. In this case the effort shows, and although it is an interesting read, it does remain something of a curate’s egg.However for the price, it is well worth getting.

I've bought this book over 50 times now and given it to many people I respect in business. Dan's Dark / Observable Matter mental model helped me to understand what was happening when my Design firm was bought by a big 4 auditor. Anyone interested in effecting change in complex systems and answering the big questions being posed by society should read this book.