THE DAMN RULES
Book Cover and Illustrations
Here's the premise of The Damn Rules: Your business is playing a rigged game. And it's losing. But you are not trapped. There's a new set of rules.
This book didn't need artwork that tells you The Damn Rules. It needed to show you The Damn Rules.
Client | Nick Richtsmeier |
Date | July 2026 |
Scope | Creative Direction |
| Book Cover Design | |
| Illustration |
"Working with Kyle at Middlename on this has been a dream come true. He took the time to understand what the book was about, how to present it in a way that both differentiated it and advanced its POV. He knows how design works with voice and how to bring the history of font and color and image in to create a subtext that is so powerful. Couldn’t have asked for more."
Nick Richtsmeier,
Author of The Damn Rules, Founder at CultureCraft®
Creative Direction
There's a way business gets done. It feels like it's just the water we swim in. Nick Richtsmeier calls it the Trustbroken Economy. And it's a system where everyone suffers, businesses and customers alike. But we can play a different game by following The Damn Rules. This isn't merely a critical, punk-rock middle finger to the establishment. It's a different way of being. A new game.
The Damn Rules isn't an angry counter-culture, revolutionary manifesto. No flags, or spray paint, or safety pins, or ransom note collages. The book is a call for vulnerability, humanity, and love; in short, to give a damn. So the goal was a creative direction that reflected that humanity. We landed in the ornate world of Art Nouveau as a philosophical north star. A simple, yet maximalist, illustration made up of natural elements representing each of the seven rules, physically made and printed by hand.
Illustrations
We created illustrations for each of the seven damn rules. These illustrations are used to mark each of the rule chapters in the book. But since the rules are a part of Nick Richtsmeier's business consulting framework, we needed these illustrations pull double duty and function as future brand assets.
To that end, we designed these illustrations to be like your average logo, with the detail turned up a notch or two. Simple. Iconic. And, like we all are, slightly imperfect.
The Damn Rules by Nick Richtsmeier out now.
If you're a business leader or owner and are looking for healthy growth without losing your values, this book is for you. If you're just interested in wanting to learn more, visit Nick's website at nickrichtsmeier.com.
If you're already on board, you can get your copy of The Damn Rules today wherever you like to buy books.
