--- title: Design Is a Job description: In the past few weeks I’ve been trying to catch up with all the reading that I haven’t been doing in the past few months. One of the books in my to-read pile that I was particularly eager to read was Mike Monteiro’s “Design Is a Job”, published by A Book Apart. I was not […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/design-is-a-job?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Inayaili de León Persson](https://canonical.com/blog/author/inayaili-de-leon-persson "More about Inayaili de León Persson") 20 July 2012 # Design Is a Job [Book](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/book) [Design](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/design) --- Share the article In the past few weeks I’ve been trying to catch up with all the reading that I haven’t been doing in the past few months. One of the books in my to-read pile that I was particularly eager to read was [Mike Monteiro’s “Design Is a Job”](http://www.abookapart.com/products/design-is-a-job), published by A Book Apart. I was not disappointed. Mike writes about what he has learned throughout his career, running his own design studio, and giving precious insight on subjects such as giving feedback, client interaction, getting paid, and working with other people. I think this is a book of particular relevance to any designer as it explains in a very clear and concise way why and how we should stand up for ourselves, stop blaming everyone else around us for the things that are our responsibility and, in the process, do better work. Here are a few of my favourite quotes: > “You can roll your eyes at how much they don’t understand about design or you can roll up your sleeves and begin practicing your craft by helping them clarify what they need.” > “When people get anxious they fall back into the terrible habits that make up their comfort places. And, by definition, problem solving and innovation don’t happen in our comfort places.” > “Being scared is generally a good sign that you’re doing the right thing.” At the risk of copying and pasting the entire book into this post, I’ll stop now and let you find out more for yourself. [Get in touch Interested in running Ubuntu in your organization?](https://ubuntu.com/about/contact-us/form) ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Challenges designers face in open source (and how to fix them)](https://canonical.com/blog/challenges-designers-face-in-open-source-and-how-to-fix-them) Open source powers up to 90% of modern software, yet many projects lack usability. Canonical’s Design team surveyed 115 cross-functional professionals to uncover the 4 core... [Kola Ojoodide](https://canonical.com/blog/author/kola-ojoodide) 26 June 2026 [### Why web engineering is great](https://canonical.com/blog/why-web-engineering-is-great) Hi, I’m Johann! I’m an engineering manager in Canonical’s web team. For the larger part of my 15 years of work experience as engineer, I’ve been working in web development.... [Johann Wolf](https://canonical.com/blog/author/johannwolf) 27 April 2026 [### Canonical’s recipe for High Performance Computing](https://canonical.com/blog/canonicals-recipe-for-high-performance-computing) In essence, High Performance Computing (HPC) is quite simple. Speed and scale. In practice, the concept is quite complex and hard to achieve. It is not dissimilar to what... [Igor Ljubuncic](https://canonical.com/blog/author/igorljubuncic) 24 January 2024 [### Web team – hack week 2023](https://canonical.com/blog/web-team-hack-week-2023) Today, around 96% of software projects utilize open source in some way. The web team here at Canonical is passionate about Open source. We lead with an open-by-default approach... [Anthony Dillon](https://canonical.com/blog/author/ya-bo-ng) 25 October 2023