Michael Bierut's Life as a Font

Last week, I listened to Michael Bierut present “My Life as a Font” at a UMBC/AIGA Baltimore event. He worked his way through the alphabet, showcasing a project for each letter and discussing the typeface used. But what I really enjoyed hearing were all the lessons he seemed to pick up along the way.

A
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)
Design is important.
Bierut posed the question, “Does graphic design hurt?” and then reminded us of the 2000 presidential election butterfly ballot fiasco, quickly proving the importance of graphic design.

 

B
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)
No need to waste space.
Bierut proposed chopping off the bottoms of letters to show BAM is over the horizon, but this also helped make ad space never feel wasted. The large letters create breath for the branding.

 

 

C
Celebration, Florida
When something has no history, consider creating a back-story.
Celebration, Florida was a new, but old style town created by Disney. Bierut found his inspiration for signage and branding through developing a back-story. He imagined the town sign maker only having access to a single old typeface (Cheltenham, 1896) and therefore using it and a silhouette style throughout.

 

 

D
Downtown New York
Think of the space.
I tend to try to avoid the obvious solution, but for New York, Bierut felt putting bright colorful signage would be too out of character. So he went for the obvious and used black and white, kept the typeface to Interstate and added black and white photography.

 

 

E
Eero Saarinen
Type can create a frame.
Bierut found inspiration from Eurostile. The rounded rectangle from the letterforms establishes the overall colored block style for Eero Saarinen’s branding.

 

 

F
The Fashion Center
Subtlty can be grand when enlarged.
The logo Bierut created for the Fashion Center is nicely subtle but when enlarged as an enormous button in New York City, it takes on a more impressive form.

 

 

G
Guitar Hero
Create a strong foundation.
Bierut took the current Guitar Hero logo and only adjusted it. By doing this, he created a strong base for other names to be used like DJ Hero and Band Hero. He also showed the client how the logo could be changed and manipulated into different textures, similar to the approach of Chicago’s album covers.

 

 

H
Harley Davidson
Consider the history.
Bierut created a book and signage for Harley Davidson during their 100th anniversary. Throughout the process, he found ways to recognize their longevity in the motorcycle industry.

 

 

I
I Want to Take You Higher
Allow the design to get crazy and wild.
For this exhibition in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Bierut used Cooper Black and let loose with color and type, which was only appropriate for this psychedelic show on music from 1965–1969 era.

 

 

J
New York Jets
Restrictions can be inspiring.
The one limitation was the logo could not change. Bierut revitalized the Jets identity through a refreshed branding campaign, including their own typeface based of the four letters in their logo.

 

 

K
Knopf
You can create scale even in a small space.
This book cover was on a big topic, God. Bierut made the topic feel big by keeping the type so large it couldn’t all fit on the front cover.

 

 

L
Lever House
Don’t throw everything out.
Bierut used the original signage to create a custom font for Lever Brothers. The typeface was then used throughout the signage, keeping the history, but giving Lever House a refreshed look.

 

 

M
Museum of Arts & Design (MAD)
Get an outside perspective.
This logo was inspired by the square shape of the MAD building and Columbus Circle. Combining a circle and square, the logo adapts well with different patterns used within it.

 

 

N
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Sometimes your design should not be the star.
Bierut designed the identity and signage for the Philip Johnson Glass House to be modern, but blend with the spaces. He did not want the identity to detract from the space.

 

 

O
Democrats’ Artists for Obama
Have fun with words.
I think the image shows what I mean.

 

 

P
Princeton Athletics
Inform the client.
Princeton wanted a tiger head for their logo, but Bierut explained the problem with this approach. He said they’d probably never get to a satisfactory tiger head because each person would have their own concerns: “It looks sleepy…It looks too mean…It doesn’t look mean enough.” Bierut proposed the use of a silhouette instead. He developed a silhouette for each tiger stature on campus and established guidelines for creating various shields.

 

 

R
Robin Hood Foundation
Consider your resources.
Bierut branded libraries in Brooklyn that were being redesigned. But, one day, an architect came to him asking what could be done with the extra wall space above the bookshelves. Bierut enlisted the help of other artists (Stefan Sagmeister and his wife included) to create different murals for each library.

 

 

S
Saks Fifth Avenue
The beauty might already be there.
Saks wanted a new logo, but Bierut found a new approach to their old identity instead. He sliced their logo into a grid, creating interesting forms. The shapes within the squares were then reconfigured into patterns.

 

 

T
The New York Times
Bring back the dead.
Bierut created signage for the New York Times. Many of the interior signs incorporated old photos from the newspaper’s photo morgue. For example, instead of a traditional bathroom sign with a little man, an old photo of men happily running was used.

 

 

U
University of Cincinnati
Don’t forget your roots.
Bierut had the opportunity to design a book for his alma mater, the University of Cincinnati.

 

 

V
Voting Booth Project
Some things have to be destroyed.
The Parsons School of Design acquired voting booths from the 2000 presidential election and invited Bierut and other artists to turn the booths into anything they wanted for an exhibit. Bierut and James Biber steamrolled their booth many times until it was flattened. Then they placed a small toy elephant on top.

 

 

W
Wave Hill
Pull from nature.
Wave Hill is a public garden in the Bronx. Bierut took the shapes and forms from nature to develop a W and H logo.

 

 

X
Museum of Sex
Let the letters do the work.
Bierut used the letterforms to describe the Museum of Sex. By using a bold X and rotating type, sex is subtly described without any use of photography or illustrations.

 

Y
Yale School of Architecture
The concept can be the logo.
Many of us are taught to establish branding, you need to maintain a consistent logo and color scheme. But for Yale, the idea is the logo. Bierut makes the Y in a circle concept be the logo, therefore it can be any kind of Y.

 

 

Z
American Center for Design
Only kids can do kid handwriting.
I can’t recall why this was for Z, but I still gained something from it being discussed. Bierut asked his four-year-old daughter to write a statement he wrote about design. He found that only a child can do childlike handwriting, so he instilled the help of his four-year-old daughter.

 

 

Q
Questions
Don’t multitask while driving.
There were many questions afterwards, but during one of Bierut’s responses, we learned a good reason why we shouldn’t practice a resignation speech while driving!