Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut|Essays

When Design is a Matter of Life or Death

When structural engineer William LeMessurier realized that his work on Manhattan’s Citicorp Center was flawed, he was faced with a choice: he could keep quiet and gamble with thousands of lives, or he could speak up. What would you …

Michael Bierut|Slideshows

Variations on a Theme: New York's High Priorities

A half-page weekly feature in New York magazine has become a showcase for some of the world's best graphic designers.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content

Design is that it is almost always about something else. The more things you're interested in, the better your work will be.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Persistence of the Exotic Menial

25 years ago, writer Ralph Caplan said that designers are exotic menials: exotic because of the presumed mystery inherent in what we do, and menial because whatever we do is required only for relatively low-level objectives. Has anything …

Michael Bierut|Essays

Design by Committee

"Design by committee" is usually thought to be a bad thing, but it has produced one great piece of architecture, the United Nations Headquarters Building.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Wilson Pickett, Design Theorist, 1942 - 2006

Wilson Pickett's advice on hitmaking, "Harmonize, then customize," would make good advice for any designer.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Unbearable Lightness of Fred Marcellino

Remembering Fred Marcellino, the designer and illustrator who dominated the look of quality fiction dustjackets in the 1980s.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Innovation is the New Black

Innovation is the latest buzzword to overtake the design profession. What does it mean?

Michael Bierut|Essays

Designing Twyla Tharp's Upper Room

Jennifer Tipton's lighting design for Twyla Tharp's dance piece, In the Upper Room, creates a magical experience for the audience and brings her often unseen art to the foreground.

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Final Days of AT&T

The acquisition of AT&T by SBC will result in, among other things, the retirement of one of Saul Bass's most well-known logos. Does anyone care?

Michael Bierut|Essays

The Great Non-Amber-Colored Hope

A student design for a prescription pill bottle takes a metoric rise to mass production and becomes an instant icon in the world of graphic design.

Michael Bierut|Essays

Looking for Celebration, Florida

An assessment of Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company on "New Urbanist" planning principles in its tenth anniversary year.