Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut



Michael Bierut is without doubt one of the most admired and respected designers of our time. Ive had the great fortune to meet Michael twice and both times I have walked away feeling incredibly inspired by his immense knowledge of design. Even with his notoriety and industry standing, he comes across as unassuming, humorous and with a great deal of warmth. He was a real pleasure to speak with about design. He has hosted the Cape Town's Design Indaba for many years and this is where on both occasions I had been lucky enough to meet him.

Micheal Bierut has won many design awards. He previously worked as vice president of graphic design at Vignelli Associates. In 1990 he joined Pentagram's New York office as a Partner where he continues today to run a team of designers, working across many disciplines of design.

I'm a huge fan of Michael’s work and achievements. I’m a regular visitor to the ‘Design Observer’ a website to which he was the founding writer. Bierut's book ‘79 Short Essays on Design’ is at pride of place within my bookshelf. Its a super book that you can either pick it up for a quick read or settle back for the afternoon with. Its one of those books that I never get bored of and I find myself going back to again and again. I often find myself mentioning parts of the book to my team and I am always suggesting they should go out and buy a copy for themselves.

An Overview of the book
A collection of essays by Michael Bierut, Pentagram partner, cofounder of the website Design Observer, and AIGA board member. Bierut is one of the best respected and most-beloved writers within the graphic design field, a spokesman for the profession, and a man pretty much universally admired within the academy and among practitioners. This collection includes writings from the 1980s through today.

Click here to order on Amazon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bass - Trademark No1

Image
In my Classic Brands series, I am going to feature interesting facts and a brief history to some of the world most iconic branding and packaging designs. I couldn't think of a better place to begin the series than with the worlds very first registered Trade Mark. A great conversational piece at any dinner party is the question, ‘what was the world’s first brand identity?’ The answer is the instantly identifiable red-triangle of the Bass Pale Ale logo. This distinctive identity was registered under the United Kingdoms 1875 Trade Mark act. Due to the fact that the act actually came into effect on 1st January 1876, an employee of Bass queued outside the registrar's office for the whole of the New Years Eve night to ensure that they were the very first in line to register the trademark the following day. Thanks to the efforts of that Bass employee, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd received the first two registrations, the Bass Red Triangle for their pale ale and the Bass Red Diamond for
Read more

Symbol by Steven Bateman & Angus Hyland

Image
I am an avid collector of design books. Its a real love of mine. I’ve built up quite a comprehensive library and I am always suggesting or lending my books to my team. Recently, readers of this blog have also been asking for book recommendations, so I thought that I would post a few of my personal favourites. Symbol by Steven Bateman and Pentagram partner Angus Hyland has been a valuable source to me when developing logos and brand identity systems. There are over 1300 logos included with the book divided into groups that relate to their visual characteristics. There is also a number of case studies that give a great back-story to some of the worlds most recognised symbols including that of Apple, Nike and Continental Air by Soul Bass. This is a book that I can really recommend to anyone working in branding and logo development. Its also different to many other tittles I own as I rarely lend it out as it's been such a great source of reference over the years.           An overview
Read more

50 + Designers, Agencies, Books, Websites, Blogs and Conferences!

Image
At the end of 2016, as I draw closer to my final week with CTTC Design, I had been handing over as much information as I could to my then design team, to which I extend you all on this list now. I know that many have often laughed at me being such a design groupie… I promise that it comes from my love of what I do! To this end, before I left, I had decided to note down a few of the things that have helped to bring great joy, learning and passion to my design life over the years, and now wondered if you would also be interested to see what I had written.  Its really a “for what it’s worth” list of designers, books, websites and blogs. I do hope that it is of some interest to you, and also that it maybe even helps to bring some creative passion and inspiration to your lives… I also don’t mind if it’s banished to the 'read later' part of your blog readers - you know the one I mean... AKA the bin ;-). Below is what I had sent to the team at  CTTC Design, a  couple of days before le
Read more