Michael Bierut

Jordan Cartwright
About

Born in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio

Studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati

He worked 10 years at Vignelli Associates

Joined Pentagram as a partner in 1990

Vignelli

After Graduation Bierut began working for Vignelli Associates in New York

No Computer in the office at all

Spent most of his days putting thinner in rubber cement and taping tissue paper over
mechanical boards

Here he designed things like invitations for his friends parties, packaging for mix tapes, birthday
cards, and freebies for non-profit organizations
Pentagram

Worked with numerous clients such as:

Alliance for Downtown New York Princeton University

Benetton Yale School of Architecture
The Council of Fashion Designers of America New York University
Alfred A. Knopf The Fashion Institute of Technology
The Walt Disney Company The Brooklyn Academy of Music,
Mohawk Paper Mills The Library of Congress
Motorola The Museum of Sex
MillerCoors The New York Jets
The Toy Industry Association
Portrait of jazz saxophonist Sam Rivers

Copied from photographs on his album The

Complete Blue Note Sessions

Realism inspired by the style of Bernie

Fuchs, Bob Heindel and especially Mark
English

Personal project from school

Moved away from literal illustration to
become a student of the new Swiss
movement that swept across the country
around 1972

This is an interpretation of a Rand quote

from "Design and the Play Instinct."

Designed around trendy European design

gestures: dots, lines, diagonals, and
simulated light to dark gradiations
Demonstration on how Bierut learned to
render letterforms in a black and white poster
paint called Plaka

Plaka is imported from Switzerland

Bierut says that hand painted typography is an

obsolete skill however admits was truly
character building
Response to a competition held by the Cincinnati
Ballet to design a poster to promote their holiday
show

This did not win the competition

Assignment to design a brochure for
commercial label papers
Prints annual student cover design competition
submission (1979)

Self portrait based on an old black and white

picture Bieruts mother took of him when he
was 5
 Hillary Clinton

Recent Work Presidential

Campaign Logo

Redesign Packaging
of Saks Fifth
Avenue

Redesigned The Atlantic magazine

More Recent Work
Publications
How To

Seventy-nine Short essays on Design

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bierut

http://designobserver.com/feature/may-i-show-you-my-portfolio/5807

https://www.pentagram.com