Michael Bierut lecture
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- jrust
Michael Bierut (partner, Pentagram NY) gave a lecture at DAAP in Cincinnati on Thursday. All I have to say is that if you ever get an opportunity to see him present, do it.
He wasn't an amazing speaker, not the greatest voice in the world, but the content of his lecture was amazing. He summarized his entire life, starting off the lecture with a map of Ohio showing his hometown of Parma, as well as showing a drawing from his 6th grade report on the sinking of the Titanic. He went through selected projects from Vignelli Associates and Pentagram that he's worked on to show the evolution of design that he has been involved with.
It amazes me when one of the 19 partners in a hugely well-known firm begins by showing the hand-drawn poster he made for a high school play.
His Pentagram bio is here:
http://www.pentagram.com/people-…If anyone else has ever seen him speak and was equally amazed, feel free to comment. It makes me smile, as someone pursuing a career in design, to see someone so down-to-earth. Plus, he studied at DAAP, and started off his lecture by announcing that this would be a quick one because he knew we were all eager to get to Skyline, a local chili restaurant. We actually went there afterwards, and he showed up about 15 minutes later!
That's the end of my fan girl rant. Thought I'd share my experience.
- instantok0
http://www.designobserver.com/
read and enjoy...i was just looking at this and reading michael bierut's bio when you posted...wierd
- unknown0
thats a great story Jen.
thats what design is all about sometimes, inspiration and goodness.id love to hear him speak.
i had a similar experiene when i first heard josh davis speak.
yay for our profession.
:))
- jrust0
Derek -
On the "inspiration" vein, one of the people I was seeing the lecture with asked him "If you had to give one golden rule of design, what would it be?"
His answer: Spell everything correctly.
I was expecting something like how many fonts you typically should use, readability, colors, etc... and he says to spell-check. Those of us remaining in the auditorium to see the q&a period all burst into applause.
That's designers for you. :)
- unknown0
thats awesome!
haha!
yaaay for that.
your comments have made my day Jen.
:)))
- unknown0
what are you studing at UC?
- jrust0
Digital design.
I originally was intimidated by the program, so I applied to be a French major (what can I say, I just got back from France, I know the language, and they make good cheese)... When I got there and spent about two months talking to people in it, watching them create, I decided to stop thinking I couldn't do it and applied to the program. It's still intimidating when I see the latest project that one of my friends who's years ahead of me in the program has churned out, but I've figured out how to just be inspired by it rather than think "Holy christ, will I ever be that good?" I think that's the most important thing I've learned so far.
Wow! A much more long-winded answer than either of us were expecting, I'm sure. How about you? In school, out of school, profession?
- chimchim0
Stupid janitors or someone stole my DAAP books I had stashed by the food and goodies.
Do you know if any students went with Michael to Skyline chili as advertised? It would have been nice to do a little networking ...
take a look at the bio for Lisa Strausfeld...I would love to get a co-op working under her...
- chimchim0
skyline..hmm..I guess I could have read all your post...
any networking luck?
- jrust0
Yeah, he absolutely came to Skyline! Him and... Heinz, I think it was? They both came down to the one on Ludlow. He had a 3-way and a cheese coney.
Not much networking, unfortunately. His conversation was pretty much dominated by one of the fan-girls sitting behind him that nearly jumped him when he walked in. I sorta felt bad for him, since it looked like he just wanted to have his chili in peace, but he was pretty good-natured about it.