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Michael Bierut: A Journey to Ten Locations and Ten Projects

Michael Bierut began his talk in a similar way to how Tony Brooks ended his: innocent and humorous. He started his presentation in Ohio Cleveland, where he grew up. Some early pictures of family and sketches in his school books lead to some first drawings of words and – essentially – his start into typography and graphic design. Encounters with publications such as Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual and Milton Glaser’s Graphic Design inspired Bierut to continue a career and life in graphic design.

Photo: Gerhard Kassner

Michael BierutThe Only Important Decision

His early career-decision dealt with, he swiftly moved on to The Only Important Decisions – decisions about typography it seems. The audience was taken on a journey to ten locations and ten projects that Bierut has conducted in recent years. All of these describe his fondness of making typographic decisions, be they the choice of an existing typeface, the commissioning of a custom type or laying type out in new and exciting ways. The audience travelled with him to Florida, New York City, Virginia, Wisconsin, New Jersey and other places and saw themselves inspired by signage systems, public lettering, logotype design and forensic typographic research and development. We saw clients ranging from real estate developers and newspapers to football teams and motorcycle manufacturers. We saw technical and aesthetic challenges and were captivated by Bierut’s natural ability to introduce humour into serious subjects.

Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Prior to joining Pentagram’s New York office as a partner in 1990, he was Vice President of Graphic Design at Vignelli Associates. His clients at Pentagram have included The Council of Fashion Designers of America, The New York Times, The Museum of Arts and Design, United Airlines, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Harley-Davidson, Princeton University, the Morgan Library and Museum, Saks Fifth Avenue and the New York Jets. He has won hundreds of design awards, and his work is represented in the permanent collections of museums around the world. In 2002, Michael Bierut co-founded Design Observer, a blog of design and cultural criticism. Today, the site is the largest design publication in the world. In 2008, he was named winner in the Design Mind category of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.

Speaker page

As an experienced speaker Bierut managed to go through his life and ten projects in only one hour, keeping his audience captivated and interested throughout. We expected a sharp, sleek talk, similar to his appearance in Helvetica. We got it. Thanks Michael.

Text — Paulus Dreibholz — Graphic BirdWatching