Designer Series | Michael Bierut
“Ambivalent about the Logo”
What truly makes a good design? How do you know that your design is communicating your brand's message? World-renowned graphic designer, Michael Bierut, believes that it's all about considering the needs of the people that are going to be living with the design.
Michael Bierut
Born in 1957, Michael Bierut is one of America's leading graphic designers, design critic, and educator. He studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. After graduating, he worked at Vignelli Associates for ten years, where he worked for and learned from the legendary designer Massimo Vignelli.
According to Bierut, "it seemed to me that the whole city of New York was a permanent Vignelli exhibition [around 1981]. To get to the office, I rtook the subway with Vignelli-designed signage, shared the sidewalk with people holding Vignelli-designed Bloomingdale's shopping bags, walked by St. Peter's Church with its Vignelli-designed pipe organ visible through the window. At Vignelli Associates, at 23 years old, I felt I was at the center of the universe."
Early Works and His Graphic Design Achievements
Mastercard Logo designed by Michael Beirut
After leaving Vignelli Associates, Bierut became a partner and vice-president at the New York office of Pentagram in 1991. There he served clients such as Alliance for Downtown New York, Motorola, Alfred A. Knopf, the Walt Disney Company, the Toy Industry Association, Yale School of Architecture, Princeton University, and New York University.
Though he's mostly ambivalent about logos and feels that they're overrated, he's designed some well known and loved logos. He's also won hundreds of awards recognising this work.
He has served as the president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1988 to 1990. In 2006, he was even awarded the profession's highest honor, the AIGA Medal. He was also the winner in the Design Mind category at the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards.
More than just an exceptional designer, he also aims to share his knowledge with the younger generation. Bierut is also a design lecturer at the Yale School of Management.
Hillary Clinton’s Campaign 2016 Logo
Recent Works
Bierut's designs also include Saks 5th Avenue, New York City parking signs, Verizon, Billboard, and, most recently, Hillary Clinton's controversial campaign logo. He is a man looking out for public aesthetic good. He believes that design has improved humans' lives in recent years.
According to him, "people are more aware that anything can look better, function better, improve your life in some small way. Once you've experienced a user interface that's intuitive and pleasant to look at, once you've gone online to fill out a form that's easy to do rather than taxing to do you say, 'why can't everything be like this?' [Design] has been democratized in a way."
He shares five essential lessons that he has learned about graphic design.
1. "don't be so go d darned clever." Being clever is good and will take you to great paths in your career. However, it's still better to be thoughtful and think about your audience.
2. "you get power by giving power away." You can't control everything, so don't try to control everything. If you can invite people in, you will do more and do better.
3. "the real opportunity may not be part of your scope of work." You could be making a list of plans for your design, and it could still be possible that nothing out of that list would be your best work.
4. "consistency does not equal sameness." You can be consistent without making everything look the same. Try to personalise the experience.
5. "the audience is more wonderful than you think." It would be best to think about who's going to see your work and read your messages. If you keep thinking about what makes an excellent experience for your audience, you can never go wrong.