is a blog about design, technology and culture written by Khoi Vinh, and has been more or less continuously published since December 2000 in New York City. Khoi is currently Principal Designer at Adobe. Previously, Khoi was co-founder and CEO of Mixel (acquired in 2013), Design Director of The New York Times Online, and co-founder of the design studio Behavior, LLC. He is the author of “How They Got There: Interviews with Digital Designers About Their Careers”and “Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design,” and was named one of Fast Company’s “fifty most influential designers in America.” Khoi lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
“How They Got There” is a collection of interviews I conducted with designers of prominence like Geoff Teehan, Erika Hall, Nicholas Felton, Naz Hamid, Karen McGrane, and more—fourteen in all (see the full list). Each extensive interview is focused specifically on how these design superstars got their first big breaks, how they navigated the peaks and valleys of the industry, and how they charted their professional journeys.
The response to the book has been so gratifyingly positive; I said when I launched it that this was the book I wish I had had when I was starting out—it’s full of invaluable tales of how big careers are made. Since its release I’ve gotten so many enthusiastic emails from readers in just that position, complimenting me—or really my interview subjects—on all of the wisdom that they impart in its pages. It’s really proven to be a fantastic manual of sorts for starting out in the design field, or even making a mid-career switch.
When I started writing the book it was a bit of a lark; I wanted to do it as quickly and simply as I could, hence my decision to go for a digital-only release. But I secretly hoped that it would do well enough to justify a print edition. Thanks to the strong sales response and with expert help from “book developer” extraordinaire Adam Robinson I’ve been able to make that a reality.
This physical edition has been produced to be printed in batches at Bookmobile, specialists in short run books. This minimizes the cash investment that I have to make upfront while also keeping the cost-per-unit low enough (dramatically lower than at print-on-demand services like Blurb or Lulu) for me to offer it at a reasonable price. This explains the pre-order scenario: ordering now helps me get the first batch sized just right.
Important update: Please note new shipping information below.
The first batch will be printed in early December and will ship out to customers by the middle of that month. This should be plenty of time to get orders out to customers in the U.S. in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, for international orders, we can’t guarantee shipping in time for Christmas despite my earlier belief that that would be possible—many apologies if you were counting on that. However, digital orders are always available for instant download, and if you pre-order a hardcover edition you get the digital versions too. Order now at howtheygotthere.com.
