Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut|Essays

Donal McLaughlin’s Little Button

In 1945, architect-turned-graphic-designer Donal McLaughlin designed a lapel pin for a conference in 1945 that became one of the most widely seen symbols in the world: the emblem for the United Nations. Tomorrow is his 100th birthday.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Why a Book?

Introducing 79 Short Essays on Design, a 272-page book about design with 80 typefaces and no pictures.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface

Why choose a particular typeface for a particular situation? Here are thirteen reasons.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Our Little Secret

The documentary Helvetica premieres in a world where everyone knows how to do something that once only very few did: how to set type.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Good at Art

Growing up in the sixties, I couldn’t throw or catch a baseball with authority, punch someone in the face, or shoplift. But I had something I could call my very own. I was good at art.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Jean Baudrillard Dies

Michael Bierut|Essays

Cheap Music and Commercial Art

You wouldn’t know it from Dreamgirls, but Motown staff songwriters Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland were examples of how art is created under pressure.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The It Factor

In their 1983 book Quintessence: The Quality of Having It, Owen Edwards and Betty Cornfeld created an elegant and influential treatise in what makes something the real thing, a lesson that Steve Jobs has obviously absorbed.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Graphic Glass Ceiling

A week ago, I was the moderator of a panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y with Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers. Afterwards, someone asked, "Why do you — all three of you — suppose there are so few female graphic …

Michael Bierut|Essays

New House

In 1967, just after my tenth birthday, we moved from a cramped 1940s bungalow in an older Cleveland suburb to up-and-coming Parma, Ohio. I had been walking the earth for a full decade, but that fall I felt I was finally assuming my …

Michael Bierut|Essays

Onserved: CR on Alan Fletcher

Alan Fletcher at the Design Museum: some thoughts. "Anybody struggling with a career plan couldn't wish for a better template." [MB]

Michael Bierut|Essays

Vinyl Fetish

A meditation on the joys of vinyl.