Designed to Go The Distance

Mitch Dowell is a marketing and creative director in the Baltimore/DC metro area and has been involved in visual branding, graphic design and creative marketing for over 20 years. As Founder & former Creative Director of Branding Experiences, a marketing, branding and design company in the Baltimore/DC metro area, Mitch spent nearly a decade helping U.S. and Canadian small businesses in a wide range of business sectors leverage a mindset to better make a connection with their target audiences. We have conducted an interview with him about his book Designed to Go The Distance.

How long did you take to write your book? What inspires you to write this book?

This book had been brewing my entire career. There are many books on the topic of creative careers, but I wanted to take a very different approach than most of the others. I wanted to deliver more of an honest pep-talk, delivered directly to the creative soul of the reader, not so much their creative mind. And like any honest pep-talk, I wanted to cover a lot of ground while at the same time keeping it short and to the point.

Creative professionals are emotional creatures, and for those who have been in their career fields for some time are likely to have accumulated their fair share of bumps and bruises. This book hopefully can provide some mid-career validation that will help inspire creatives to keep going.

What is your key message and who do you want to reach with your book?

Historically, there seems to be an increasing amount of fall-out in creative career fields among those who have been at it for 10 years or more. Professional creativity should never just be considered a “younger person’s game.” It simply doesn’t have to be that way, and it sends the wrong message to younger talent just starting out. So, while this book can certainly benefit any creative professional - regardless of career stage - it is primarily written for those at the mid-career and later stages.

A secondary audience that I hope the book makes a connection with are actually non-creatives. These may include spouses, partners, friends, or co-workers of career creatives - those who may feel the need to understand the creative professional lifestyle and mindset a bit more - for other, more indirect reasons.

How much do you think the design industry will change in the next 5 to 10 years? What affects or cause the changes?

Primarily due to advancements in design technologies - and in the digital world in general - professional design has become a very crowded, competitive and noisy place. While one would think that this would bring more creativity into the design world, it has actually brought an increased amount of mediocrity. Career designers will have to work extra hard in the coming years to separate themselves from the herd, creatively. More so than ever before.

Over your previous speaking engagements, what are some of your favorite topics you have spoken about and why?

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed giving presentations on branding and design, and more specifically about the psychology and creativity used behind visual branding. But in recent years I have focused more on topics related to where the creative world meets the non-creative world, and overcoming the challenges that exist there. There is too much “we vs. them” that exists on the front lines of the creative process that simply doesn’t need to exist there. Hopefully, some of the presentations that I’ve given on these topics have introduced some new perspectives to both creatives and non-creatives alike.

Where can our readers find your book?

The book is available from most online booksellers including Amazon, Amazon Kindle, and Barnes & Noble to name a few. The audiobook version is available on both Apple iTunes and Audible.com. Seamus Michael Maley does the voiceover narration on the audiobook version, and did a wonderful job - he captured the vibe of the book perfectly.

More info:

Website: http://www.designedtogothedistance.com/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designed-Go-Distance-Survival-Professional
Twitter: https://twitter.com/distancebook
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designedtogothedistance
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/distancebook/