The saying is: Money makes the world go around. Fair enough—the lights have to stay on. The essential emollient, money manages to insinuate itself into all of our lives. And those who refuse to entertain the reminders that design is a business—whether it’s conducted in a studio, in-house or freelance setting—are always welcome to join the Starving Artists Guild. Still, who among us imagined that an infatuation with creative enterprise—saying to ourselves, “I can make things!”—would lead to the arcane world of process diagrams, graphs and MBA talk? Our second STEP Business Annual revolves around such right-brain/left-brain matters. A case in point: This issue’s cover, by Wink of Minneapolis, comments with wit and irony on how design’s idea machine is oiled by the flow of dollars.

Before we figuratively cast our working lives into the grinding maw of Moloch, the unlovely god of commerce (and war), it is fitting to express our appreciation to Shel Perkins, with whom we are fortunate to have a long association. Perkins, a true authority in the business of design, is the guest editor for this 2008 Business Annual. As Perkins explains in his introduction on page 75, he’s selected a set of powerful—and, we hope, highly practical—articles on the intersection of business and design from two perspectives: external, client-facing issues and internal, operational issues that relate to how designers manage the business dimensions of their practices.

Of course, what would the creative life be without madness, mania and their near-relatives? It is surprising to consider the role obsession plays in this issue. In the one-year anniversary of his My First Time columns, Christopher Simmons reflects on his personal preoccupation with getting every word right when it comes to design writing, and how that fixation can be immobilizing; catch his Charlie-Kaufmanesque soliloquy on page 24. Sheree Clark shares the tale of how Steve Sikora (of the firm Design Guys) and his wife took on a wreck of an F.L. Wright home and transformed it with singular devotion (page 28). And we learn on page 110 how Paul Sahre’s chance encounter with a summer rental became a multiyear odyssey in recovering a nearly forgotten chapter in Modernism. “On the one hand, it’s ridiculous,” Sahre says of his journey. “On the other, it’s wonderfully ridiculous.”

What could be a better way of characterizing the dilemma of the working designer who must reconcile the sometimes-demonic creative impulse with the dollar-driven business imperative?

I’m reminded of a question my nonagenarian uncle asked me some years ago. “Tommy,” he said, “do you know what makes the world go around?”

“No, I don’t,” I answered.

He said, “It’s—”

Never mind what my uncle said. Read this issue and see what the experts have to say about keeping the lights on.

The 2008 STEP Design 100 competition is now open for entries! Share the fruits of your magnificent design obsessions with the world by entering at www.stepinsidedesign.com/100. Deadline is Oct. 1.