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In 1957 in Cleveland Ohio Michael Bierut was born. During the time in Ohio, Graphic Design wasn’t promoted to young adults. His love of fine art, music, and drawing that united in the form of album covers led him to the only two books in the library at the time on design, the Graphic Design Manual by Armin Hofman and Milton Glaser: Graphic Design. He didn’t need any more convincing and studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. While in school he did an internship that allowed him to study under Chris Pullman, another AIGA medalist. They worked together at a Boston public television station, WGBH. Michael Bierut graduated in 1980 from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Before becoming partners with Pentagram in 1990 he worked ten years Vignelli Associates, as a vice president. When he was working for Vignelli Associates he had serious industry clout but it also implanted a keystone principle of his <a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="javascript:void(0)"><a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="javascript:void(0)">career</a></a>. “Probably the most interesting thing I learned is that a lot of the things about design that tend to get designers really interested aren't that important,” Bierut once said to Steven Heller. Bierut acknowledges that people might not actually read the annual reports and corporate brochures that designers make. So he strives to make things that people are able to read and want to read. Pullman has even stated that, “He has a quality that I have much respect for in the kind of work that we do” and “He's a person who's <a class="ktg6us78hf8vdu7" href="javascript:void(0)">very</a> easy to understand, both when you talk to him and when he's doing his work. He's accessible, humane, funny when it's appropriate, and witty almost all of the time. And that's a very important quality for someone who wants to be a communicator.” While at Pentagram Bierut has had numerous clients such as Alliance for Downtown New York, Benetton, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Alfred A. Knopf, the Walt Disney Company, Mohawk Paper Mills, Motorola, MillerCoors, the Toy Industry Association, Princeton University, Yale School of Architecture, New York University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Library of Congress, the Museum of Sex, and the New York Jets. Michael Bierut has done projects like “I Want To Take You Higher” which was an exhibition on the psychedelic era for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and even serving as a design consultant to United Airlines. Dwell turns to him for design book recommendations and Fast Company gets his opinion on corporate branding. Recently he has developed a new signage and identity for the expanded Morgan Library Museum. He has also developed the environmental graphics for the New York Times building, as well as designed for Phillip Johnson’s Glass House and redesigned the magazine “The Atlantic.” Along with that he has created marketing strategies for William Jefferson Clinton Foundation and developed a new brand strategy and packaging for Saks Fifth Avenue. With over a 100 awards won his work is in permanent collections in various museums in New York, Washington D.C., Germany, and Montreal. From 1988 to 1990 Michael Bierut served as president emeritus of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and is president of AIGA national. He is presently serving as director of both Architectural League of New York and New Yorkers for Parks. Bierut in 1989 was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale, and in 2003 he was named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. He received highest honor in the profession in 2006, the AIGA medal, which recognizes his illustrious achievements and contributions to the field. In 2008 he received the Design Mind Award that was presented by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. He has published a book called Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design, which was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2007. Bierut is a senior critic at the Yale School of Art in Graphic Design and co-edits the anthology series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design, published by Allworth Press. Bierut is the co-founder of the blog Design Observer and his commentaries about graphic design can be heard nationally on the Public Radio International program Studio 360. In 1998 he co-edited and designed a monograph Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist. His signage that he created has helped millions of tourists navigate the streets of Lower Manhattan. In an essay on Design Observer Michael Bierut said it took him half of his career to figure out that design is about making connections to other things. He cautions everyone to remember this. “Not everything is design,” he writes. “But design is about everything. So do yourself a favor: be ready for anything.” In an article on AIGA, Bierut states that when he graduated from Ohio he started working for Vignelli Associates in New York. He says that there was not a computer and that the office didn’t even have a fax machine, making design in an office in those days very different. Spending most of his days putting thinner in rubber cement and taping tissue paper over mechanical boards, he would on occasion get to do a mechanical himself. He was able to get an apartment that was three blocks from the Vignelli office. He had a key to the office and would go work another shift after tucking his wife into bed. This shift lasted from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. and this went on for four years. He credits his achievements to those four years. While at the office he would design things like invitations for his friends' parties, packaging for mix tapes, one-of-a-kind birthday cards, and freebies for non-profits. After Massimo Vignelli noticed that Bierut had extra time he started giving him more work. The extra work that would normally take two days took one day because of the night shift. The more work he got, the faster he became and better he became at doing it. His advice to any beginning a career in design is to stay while you can.

79 short essays on graphic design covers a wide range of topics such as: Why designers can’t think and The real and the fake. The book was given a 4.04 on Good Reads, a 4.1 on Amazon, and a 4 on Books.Google. “Why Designer’s Can’t Think” pp 14-17 Graphic designers get to participate in as many fields as clients. In one day they can talk to a construction worker, a dentist, and an accountant. The originators of graphics were self-taught as no specialized schools existed back then. In light of that they managed for four years without Typography, Visual Problem Solving, and Advanced Aesthetics. Graphic design programs in America fall into two broad categories: process schools and portfolio schools. Process schools favor a problem solving approach while the portfolio schools try to provide students with polished “books” that will land them jobs after graduation. The problem with graphic design schools is that they are the same claim Michael Bierut. He goes on to say that the visual aspect of graphic design is valued not its meaning. Even though a graphic designer might not need to know any other stuff right out of college, down the road however it can cause problems. Clients are not designers nor are there designers in the audiences our work eventually finds. “They must be touched with communication that is genuinely resonant, not self-referential.” “How to Become Famous” pp 23-27 Being famous in the graphic world means to be famous among other graphic designers. The thing to remember is that being famous might not actually count for anything. Since the judging process in competitions take less than a second there are simple rules that will help increase your odds of winning. How to Win Graphic Design Competitions There are 4 things to do when entering a graphic design competition. The first enter things that win graphic design competitions. These things are generally cool looking and solve simple problems, if something is brilliant but cannot be understood in less than a second will not win. The only exception to this is if something is so cool looking then it might not need to be understandable. It should also be noted that competitions that require you to fill out long forms should not be entered as very few judges read them. The second thing is do not rely on things that require overly complicated unfolding or unwrapping. The first couple of judges wont bother with it and the judge who does will not bother putting it back together. Other things not to enter are things that involve festival materials. The third thing that should be done is make sure whatever you enter in the competition is the biggest in its category. Something that is small but looks good will fail in comparison to something that is much larger to it. The final step is do not enter slides unless they will be projected. How to give a speech There are five rules in giving a speech. The first rule is when in doubt show to trays of 80 slides each, the first then the next. The reason behind this is that dissolve units break down, side-by-side images get out of sequence, and 160 slides or more make people’s butt hurt. Though there is still plenty that can go wrong. Rule number two is never describing the slide people are looking at. Describe the problem you are solving, give the audience a couple of seconds to think of what they would do to solve it, then show them how you did it. Making the audience guess what they are going to see next is a good way to go about things as telling someone what they are looking at is boring. The third rule is never read your speech no matter how tempting it is. Doing this can cause your audience to dislike you. You should instead use comprehensive notes instead. The fourth rule is avoid slides that show annual report spreads and/or slides that were created with presentation software. The thing is you cannot tell jokes about the projected images in the annual report and you might scare people that you might bore them with presentation slides. Finally the fifth rule is choosing the last slide of the first tray with care. It should either be funny, surprising, or great. The reason behind this is that you need to ensure a satisfied buzz in the audience during the time it takes to change from the first tray to the second. How to Do Great Design Work Effectively communicating your work and solving your client’s problems will get you rich but not famous. There are seven things that can be done to help you do great work. First, do lots of work as you need about three great pieces to become famous. Though it depends on talent and you might need to design lots of pieces on the off chance that one of them turns out great. You should design anything and everything you can get your hands on. The only thing that should be avoided are designing clever wedding and birth announcements. These are sacred events and should not be cheapened with clever concepts, unless the design concept is really, really clever. Secondly do lots of posters. Posters still look good produced at a fraction of their size in the pages of a design annual. The third thing that can be done is doing lots of freebies. It should be noted that doing work for “charitable causes or large cultural institutions can be even more cumbersome and bureaucratic than corporate clients.” Fourth rule is make your paying work as good as possible. Rule number five is always have something cool looking to do when you are not able to come up with other solutions. When chosen carefully enough can be seen as your signature style, which famous designers have. When in doubt make it big and when in more doubt make it red. This rule is embraced by many famous graphic designers. It is real important to be nice is the final rule.