Michael Bierut

By Nick Giordano
 About Michael Bierut

● Born in 1957 in Cleveland Ohio

● Graduated from University of Cincinnati’s College of
Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in 1980
● Internship at Boston public television station WGBH with
Chris Pullman
● Worked at Vignelli associates for 10 years
● Works at Pentagram as a partner since 1990
● Worked with Walt Disney, New York Jets, Motorola and
others
● Typography
 About Michael Bierut

● Notable Positions
○ President of NY Chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts(1988-1990)
○ Current Board member of Architectural League of New York
● Awards
○ Awarded AIGA Medal in 2006
○ Winner of Design Mind category for 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards
● Senior graphic design critic for Yale school of Art
● Lecturer for Design management at Yale school of Management
● Cofounder of Design Observer(news)
Quotes from 2018 in USA Today interview
● “I never wanted to be an artist – I always wanted to do the part where you did the commercial
work.”
● ”The projects I like the best are ones that I actually see out in the world.”
● “Being an artist is sort of a solitary activity. “
 Yale School of Architecture
Posters(1998)

● Worked with Robert

Stern(dean of the school)
● Deep, rich , wide range of
design
● Similar to architecture
posters made by Willi Kunz
at Columbia University’s
School of Architecture
Yale School of Architecture Posters(1998)
 SAKS FIFTH AVENUE bags
(2007)

● Luxury department store

● Cut up logo and shuffled tiles
● For bags, boxes, ads, signs
● “Consistently inconsistent”
 SAKS FIFTH AVENUE bags
(2007)

Asked Yale physicist for total

amount of combinations of 64
squares: 10100 * 98.14 or 98.14
googols
 ● Premium nuts for snacks and cooking
Nuts.com(2012) ● Based on Cooper Black font type
● Hand drew letters
Nuts.com(2012)
Websites

Biography by Alissa Walker September 5. “2006 AIGA Medalist: Michael Bierut.” AIGA,
www.aiga.org/medalist-michaelbierut.

Hutcheson, Susannah. “How I Became a Designer: Michael Bierut Talks about Career and the Clinton Campaign
Logo.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 24 Oct. 2018,
www.usatoday.com/story/money/careers/getting-started/2018/10/24/designer-michael-bierut-career-work-hillary-h-lo
go/1733554002/
.

“Michael Bierut.” Communication Arts, 18 Oct. 2012, www.commarts.com/columns/michael-bierut.

“Michael Bierut.” Pentagram, www.pentagram.com/about/michael-bierut.

“Nuts.com - Story.” Pentagram, www.pentagram.com/work/nutscom/story.

Rawsthorn, Alice. “Logo a Go-Go.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Apr. 2007,
www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/style/tmagazine/04talk.rawsthorn.t.html.

“Yale School of Architecture - Story.” Pentagram, www.pentagram.com/work/yale-school-of-architecture/story.