How I became a graphic designer
Advice from the man behind Hillary’s iconic “H.”
Regularly I’ll find myself ...
thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m
here.’
Michael Bierut
Our series “How I became a …” digs into the stories of accomplished and influential people, finding out how they got to where they are in their careers. (Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
In the midst of a landscape of iconic logos and branding work sits Michael Bierut, a graphic designer responsible for immediately recognizable pieces of art like the Saks Fifth Avenue and Mastercard logos, graphics for the New York Jets, and even the graphics on the side of the New York Times building in midtown Manhattan.
In a career spanning almost 40 years, Bierut has created pieces of art that represent little pieces of millions of people’s lives. The award-winning graphic designer is a partner at the New York office of Pentagram, as well as a senior critic in graphic design at Yale University, an author and a TED speaker.
USA TODAY caught up with Bierut to talk about everything from being in rooms with Hillary Clinton and Justin Timberlake to the surreal feeling of seeing your own work in the world and the importance of contributing your talents to causes you believe in.
Q: What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
I’m a graphic designer, and when I do my work people sometimes get the idea that in order to do it well – to design a logo for them or a promotional campaign or an architectural installation for them – I need to kind of get immersed in what it is they do, what their business is. So, even though what I imagined what I was doing for my life’s work was sitting in a studio coming up with designs, I spend just as much time kind of out submerging myself in other people’s worlds.
Regularly I’ll find myself in a situation where I’m sort of thinking, “I can’t believe I’m here.” That would include being at The New York Times in the room where they talk about what’s going to be on the front page; being in a room with the Hillary Clinton campaign with Secretary Clinton, President Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and everyone else sitting around talking about what their logo would be; being in a room with Justin Timberlake because we were designing the book he has coming out later this month; being in the locker room of the New York Jets because we were redesigning all of their graphics.
Even though I’m just a guy who’s good at art, I’ve managed to be in NFL locker rooms, political strategy sessions, rooms with pop stars and editors, and things like that that I never would have imagined.
Q: Who’s your biggest mentor?
Bierut: When I left Ohio and moved to New York to take my first job, I didn’t know anything – I was just an unformed piece of soft clay. My first job, fortunate- ly for me, was with a legendary designer named Massimo Vignelli. He was the exact opposite of me: He was worldly, dashing, debonair, magnetic, knew everyone, knew everything. To sort of sit at the very back of that studio, trying to not get fired, just trying to keep my head low, just doing whatever menial tasks were assigned to me, but absorbing everything like a sponge changed my life, from the first day on that job.
Q: What does your career path look like, from the beginnings until now?
Bierut: I have a boring career path – I knew what I wanted to do with my life before I knew it was possible to do that with someone’s life. I wanted the job I have before I knew that it had a name, basically.
I was good at art as a kid back in Ohio, but I didn’t want to do paintings: I wanted to do things like logos and album covers and movie posters. Growing up in suburban Cleveland, I had no idea how those things came to be, and if I had had to guess, I would have said that ‘real artists,’ like museum artists like Picasso or Rene Magritte or Degas would, on the side, knock out posters and album covers and logos for corporations. I had no idea that you could do that professionally, and some people who had my background really wanted to be artists and they only did that for the money. I never wanted to be an artist – I always wanted to do the part where you did the commercial work.
I studied that in school, moved to New York, got a job with one of the best graphic designers in history. Then, I became a partner in a firm with some of the other best designers in history, at a firm called Pentagram, which is a collective of independent designers who work side by side: sometimes in collaborations, sometimes independently. I joined here in 1990, so I’ve been here for 28 years.
Q: Do you have a project that sticks out to you?
Bierut: The projects I like the best are ones that I actually see out in the world.
About 15 years or so ago, I was asked to redesign the logo and all of the packaging for Saks Fifth Avenue. It was a hard project to do. I realized it was going to be pretty visible, so I was worried about it, but we hit on a solution that we liked and that the client really liked.
Q: What has been your biggest career high and your biggest career low?
Bierut: I designed Hillary Clinton’s logo, the “H” with the arrow in it. So, election night, I got a really good floor pass to Javits Center (in New York) for what was going to be the celebration. I was 15 feet from the stage – suspended from the stage was that logo, two stories high. I couldn’t believe that an art nerd from suburban Cleveland – I just couldn’t believe this was happening – I was stunned by the whole thing. That was probably 6, 7 p.m., and it was really a great, exciting moment. Then, of course, three, four hours later, everything had turned around completely. I was questioning whether I had any talent at all, whether everything I knew was wrong, whether everything I ever thought about not just myself but about the whole country was wrong, and started that long road to trying to figure out ‘what next?’ that a lot of people who were on that side of the aisle (were). I embarked on starting that evening and the next day.
Q: What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned during your career?
Bierut: Being an artist is sort of a solitary activity. You spend a lot of time trapped in your own head, and you begin by thinking that your job is to convince other people of the rightness of your vision. I think I started out that way, and it took me a long time to realize that if you stop talking, and you listen to other people, you can learn so much more. If you like to talk, it’s torture to shut up and listen, but that’s the only way you learn anything. The things you learn are the things that make you better as an artist and better as a person.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
Bierut: First, be really curious about the world, because my profession is a great way to learn about that world. Second, doing this sort of work can be addictive, and I think it’s one of the most beneficial and positive addictions you can have. So, overdose as much as you want on it. You’ll be all the better for it.