We are currently experiencing the onset of design's golden age. Thanks in large part to the successes of design-driven brands and the companies that have built them, design is now gaining the awareness and respect it rightly deserves as a strategic and profit-building business tool. Design-driven brands like Apple, Virgin, Starbucks and Target have proven design's paramount value in driving every moment of consumer engagement, and propelling profits as a result.

Starting a design business is pretty easy. Growing it and then maintaining it is pretty hard. That's something designers don't usually hear in art school. Only later, when they are neck-deep in running their businesses, does the realization really hit them. When designers do talk business, they nearly always focus on design details like layouts, imagery, color palettes or typography rather than the tediousness of project management or the continuous challenges of client relationships. Let's face it—although typography is a complex subject, it's a knowable one for a designer. On the other hand, mastering a business is an ever-changing, endless pursuit.

A good system for budgeting and tracking projects is absolutely essential for every graphic design firm. However, the process of finding the software that's most appropriate for you can be very confusing. There are lots of competing project management systems out there, and each has different strengths and weaknesses. Matching project management software to individual needs and circumstances demands careful analysis. This research guide will help you sort through the options by asking some key questions and sharing comparative information about several of the systems currently available.

In today's publishing world, individuality is as quaint a term as dust jacket. So how can designers make their work stand out? John Gall—the art director of Vintage Books and Anchor Books—employs stylish sensibility, simple but elegant use of typography and quietly rebellious spirit to infuse literary works with an added dimension. Subtle and compelling, his covers play with the perceptions of the viewer in unexpected ways, and to satisfying effect. Collage, photography, typography and art are all grist for the mill, yet no matter how varied the medium, the end result is pure Gall.

Archrival, a full-service branding agency, began as an experiment when its two founders—Clint! Runge and Charlie Hull—were in school. Starting the firm was "more or less a way to avoid getting a real job," they say. Ten years later, Archrival has expanded to a staff of 19; some of the recent client work keeping them busy includes Red Bull's NASCAR program and a full redesign of the Spam website (the lunch meat, not the e-mail). But this is just the tip of the iceberg. This dynamic agency, nestled in Lincoln, Neb., has a remarkable array of projects in the works, all of which have one very important thing in common—youth branding.

In STEP's 3rd Best of Web Design Annual, we'll feature the best sites of 2007 in the categories of advertising, business, self-promotion, entertainment and information. Winners reveal their favorite ideas, tools and tactics that contribute to their successful designs.

• Papers, printing and the environment: Paper and printing companies are leading the way toward improved sustainability practices for the environment. Here's how to take advantage of the trends.
• Brave new world: How are the top design schools preparing students for the real world? From technology to design tools to the best in business practices, STEP inaugurates a new series on which schools are doing what.

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