Steve Mouzon Is At It Again: New Media for Designers + Builders

Steve Mouzon is always thinking one step ahead of the rest of us and at the same time providing us with practical information we can integrate into our daily practices, whether it be urban design, architecture or building. The author of Original Green and numerous other publications has done it again with the release of New Media for Designers + Builders, which is available in as a PDF or iBook.

You can purchase the book on its web site.

A few highlights from the book:

1. Learning a New Way of Doing Business: The old way of doing business (prior to 2005) is over; a new, more effective way of doing business is necessary. Are you ready for these changes?
2. Shifting Resources from Traditional Marketing to New Media: Firms should spend around 10% of their net time on New Media nodes versus traditional marketing. Which tools should you focus your company’s time and energy on?
3. Rethinking the Way Books are Read and Utilized: Whereas Internet marketers are most interested in clicks and orders, designers and builders work in the world of bricks and mortar. The book reinforces these concepts from various starting points.
4. Building a Shared Dialogue Among Readers: Each section in the book has a comment button that takes you to a comment page on the companion website where you can discuss the section and see comments from other readers. This allows the sharing of information to be “alive” and continuously increasing, as opposed to what a typical, “static” publication would do. Steve quotes, “Many readers make comments in the margins of paper books they read, but nobody else sees the comments unless they pick up that reader’s copy of the book. I built this website to host those comments in a large community where everyone can see everyone else’s comments, and where conversations can break out unexpectedly.”
5. Ensuring Your Work is Remarkable: Being remarkable, rather than faster and cheaper, is important to differentiate you from competition.
6. Entering The Age of Ideas: We are entering the age of ideas, which is based on three virtues: patience, generosity, and connectedness.

As an architect, designer, or builder, especially one who is managing a business or thinking about starting one, you should buy this book or you may be left behind.

– Daniel Parolek

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