03.27.20
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors


This week, Jessica and Michael celebrate composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, whose may 90th birthday events have been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Michael talks about three precepts that guide Sondheim’s creative practice:
The first one is: Less is more.
The second is: Content dictates form.
And the third one is: God is in the details.

If you heard someone had built their practice around those three precepts, would you not think they were a designer? I mean, he really thinks like a designer, which is why he's so appealing to me as an artist.
Also mentioned this week:
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Posted in: The Observatory




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

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