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How to Do Great Work Without Being an Asshole: (Guides for Creative Industries) Paperback – March 12, 2019
| Paul Woods (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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This is a straight-talking, fun read for all creatives: Director or junior, at an agency or client-side, working in design, advertising, publishing, fashion, or film.
Packed with anecdotes, self-analysis flowcharts (are YOU the asshole?!), exercises and action plans for better working practices.
Simple strategies can easily be implemented to create a happier, more productive team and--importantly--BETTER WORK!.
- Print length144 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLaurence King Publishing
- Publication dateMarch 12, 2019
- Dimensions5.75 x 0.5 x 7.88 inches
- ISBN-101786273918
- ISBN-13978-1786273918
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About the Author
During his career, Paul has been at the helm of projects for companies like Red Bull, Google, The City of Santa Monica, Morgan Stanley, and Time Inc., among many others. An advocate for the importance of user-centric design, Paul places a hyper-focus on the user in his work. A thought leader in the design and technology spaces, his bylines regularly appear in publications such as Fast Company, AdWeek and The Drum.
In his spare time, Paul is an illustrator and co-founder of the satirical industry website Adloids. He lives in Pasadena with his wife Nora and a very stubborn basset hound.
Product details
- Publisher : Laurence King Publishing (March 12, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 144 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1786273918
- ISBN-13 : 978-1786273918
- Item Weight : 9.3 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.5 x 7.88 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #994,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,804 in Communication Skills
- #5,323 in Commercial Graphic Design (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Paul Woods is a Los Angeles designer, author and CEO at global design agency Edenspiekermann. Over the course of his career, Paul has been at the helm of projects for organizations such as Red Bull, Google, Faraday Future, The City of Santa Monica, among many others. An advocate for the importance of user-centric design, Paul places a hyper-focus on the user in his work. His bylines regularly appear in publications such as Fast Company, AdWeek, and The Drum.
Paul's debut book on creative culture, How To Do Great Work Without Being An Asshole, was published worldwide in 2019 via Laurence King and has been translated into 8 languages. His new book, "Shit They Didn't Tell You", a how-to guide for people looking to start a career in the creative industry, will be released in August, 2021.
Paul lives in Pasadena with his wife Nora and a very stubborn basset hound.
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The pearls of wisdom he extracted from his SUPERLATIVE PERFORMANCE AT EDENSPIEKERMANN BERLIN (for why else would the great Erik himself write 3 whole paragraphs? as well as an introductory sentence?) boil down to: (1) you should pay interns (bc ya know, that's where the real heart of any commercial enterprise is); (2) you should all hunker down in the weeds together. Yup, the (newly) paid intern and Steve Jobs, bc you "all contribute to the end product," BUT (3) if sh*t gets real, of course ya gotta do what ya gotta do, even if that includes being the proverbial a-hole of the title.
Thus, after advocating a "flat" management style for 100 pages (which have about 3 paragraphs of actual substantive content, the rest being cutesy stick-figure drawings and pseudo-decision trees demonstrating Paul's fearsome bona fides), he gamely concludes: "No good shop is run as a democracy." True dat. Similarly, while assuring us that Germans & other North (!) Europeans deliver decent product while working less, this REALLY doesn't help a mid-level in LA or NY whose boss is accountable to the Board AND the client AND the NYSE.
All this reads much more like a Glassdoor review "advising" top management what the staff "would like," than any insight into any specific corporate environment. Word up: Management knows. It is not an accident that the 800-lb gorilla with a book in the 8's goes fly-fishing in New Zealand while the young 'uns burn the midnight oil. Paying interns, while delightful, will NOT affect this. Getting your OWN 8-figure book will. And then you can run your shop any way you want. This FACT is in no way unique to ad agencies, or any "creative" field. Things are exactly the same in law, management consulting, accounting, investment banking, and any high-paying service business that is fundamentally built like a Ponzi scheme. Throwing in a few f-bombs to demonstrate your hip-ness won't really change this basic structure.
Am I validating this status quo? No, it is brutal, toxic, and de-humanizing. But unless you had the good sense to be born into the lap of luxury, the ONLY way you are going to claw your way out of soul-crushing financial slavery IN AMERICA is to work like a dog, until YOU are the 800-lb gorilla. And sadly, NOTHING in this book will help you get there.









