Michael Bierut

AIGA NY Holiday Party to be PC-Compatible - Posted December 4, 2007
AIGA NY has opened their annual holiday party up to the masses, so what was once a simple party for AIGA members will now be the THE/ NEW/ BIGGER/ ANNUAL/ AIGA/ NY/ HOLIDAY/ DANCE/ PARTY/ FUNDRAISER/ SPECTACULAR on December 9. And might we also add FREE FOOD/ GRIND-O-RAMA/ PASS OUT ON... [UnBeige]

MUJI Takes Manhattan - Posted November 16, 2007
This is the day that New York designers, and Michael Bierut especially, have been saving their paychecks for. The first stateside MUJI threw open its SoHo doors this morning with a little press preview, then got bombarded by the regular peeps at noon. Initial reports are positive. Apartment Therapy's been stalking... [UnBeige]

Pick the Winner of Print's Student Cover Competition - Posted October 23, 2007
Which of these would you like to see in your mailbox come April 2008? For the first time ever (and that's since 1964, when they started doing such things), Print is opening up the decision-making for its Student Cover Competition, putting the three finalists--Brandon Maddox, Katty Maurey and Blaz Porenta--online. You... [UnBeige]

Heller Good! Two New Books to Celebrate Steven Heller Week - Posted October 23, 2007
It's fitting that during Steven Heller Week, the one person who has written more design books than any man or machine on this planet would have two new books coming out. Add titles #3,124,342 and #3,124,343 to your library today: Becoming a Digital Designer, which he co-authored with one of the... [UnBeige]

Heller Good! It's Steven Heller Week on UnBeige - Posted October 22, 2007
To commemorate his induction into the equivalent of the School of Visual Arts Hall of Fame, we're declaring this week Steven Heller Week here on UnBeige. While we believe that we're the blog with the most Heller Love™ in the universe, it turns out our devotion is not alone. AI-AP's DART... [UnBeige]

Official UnBeige AIGA NEXT Roundup - Posted October 16, 2007
Even though we still can't get that Command X theme music out of our head (damn you all, Open, Agoraphone and The Plasticines!), we've finally had a few days to contemplate the AIGA NEXT conference in its entirety. Although we had a slight peek at the innerworkings while serving on the... [UnBeige]

Command X: Get Out the Vote - Posted October 13, 2007
Here we are at the final round of Command X, the world's first graphic design reality show held live at the AIGA NEXT conference in Denver, Colorado. Because we know you're wondering, yes, judge Brian Collins is back, and got to hang out with Nobel Prize-winning Al Gore yesterday in San... [UnBeige]

Dirty Dancing Observer Party - Posted October 13, 2007
Sometimes at these conference things it's nice to escape the pristine white hallways for a hot, filthy little basement packed thick with grinding graphic designers. Where legends of print, stage, screen, the airwaves, and a movie about graphic design take the stage for guest DJ sets. Where you not only don't... [UnBeige]

Command X Adds Major Comic Relief and Insults Denver Football Fans - Posted October 11, 2007
No surprise at all, but Michael Bierut is extremely funny when takes the stage as the Heidi Klum or Tim Gunn of graphic design (you take your pick) in his hosting duties for the design reality show "Command X" which will unfold throughout the AIGA conference. Judges are Brian Collins, Noreen... [UnBeige]

Luke Hayman Divulges Pentagram's Wicca-like Traditions - Posted October 2, 2007
In preparation for Thursday night's Golden Boa Awards, mb.com tossed a few questions to the honorees, including design's resident boa-wearer, Luke Hayman. Greg Lindsay asks Hayman "How'd You Reach The Design World's Pinnacle?" although we can't say that sounds like a very comfortable place to work. Hayman doles out advice and tells... [UnBeige]

Four or Five Things You Need to Know About the AIGA NEXT Conference - Posted September 27, 2007
In a few weeks we'll be maneuvering the ole UnBeige wagon over the Rocky Mountains and into Denver, Colorado, home of AIGA's NEXT Conference. There's still time to register, although at this point if you haven't convinced your boss you're worth the $1050 ($850 for members) there's not much time left... [UnBeige]

John Margolies on Abandonded Gas Stations and Giant Freshwater Fish - Posted July 24, 2007
If in NYC, the Architectural League has another of its thought-provoking panels coming up tomorrow night, featuring photographer of Americana, John Margolies: Over 30 years, John Margolies has logged more than 100,000 miles, and taken some 75,000 photographs of about 15,000 buildings, signs, storefronts, and other commercial and civic structures, relics of... [UnBeige]

Newsweek Copy Editors Invent New Typeface - Posted July 20, 2007
Forget Helvetica if you're looking to win the presidency in 2008. This election, it's all about Ventura. You heard us right, Ventura. Interviewing our poor misunderstood friend Michael Bierut, the brilliant editors at Newsweek have named Ventura the hot font of campaign bumper stickers: "Rudy's logo is like a brick wall," Bierut says. "It... [UnBeige]

Don't Ever Redesign the New Yorker. Wait. Okay, Maybe the New Yorker Needs a Redesign. - Posted July 12, 2007
Although lately we've been immensely more preoccupied with online-ness when it comes to the design of the New Yorker, we remember a long time ago when someone named Michael Bierut devoted an entire essay to the "slow design" of the publication: "unbelievably, wonderfully, perfectly, exquisitely boring." Today, a designer who used to... [UnBeige]

Bierut Sounding Absolutely Scrumptuous on WNYC Today - Posted July 5, 2007
The man who seems to have no shortage of fabulous ties (one seen here with our blog-mama Laurel Touby), Michael Bierut appeared today on "The Leonard Lopate Show" with guest host Julie Burstein. His segment named "Graphic Design Can Cause Seizures" explained the pervasiveness and importance of graphic design, as Burnstein... [UnBeige]

Command X Deadline Extended to July 16 - Posted July 3, 2007
Thriving as we do on backstabbing, catfights and tears, why else do we think applying for AIGA's Command X, the live graphic design reality show, is such a great idea? · You can get comped admission to the NEXT conference. · You might win a shiny new copy of CS3 and a shiny... [UnBeige]

Live From the Shake Shack, It Might Be Michael Bierut - Posted June 26, 2007
It's time to pull up a chair and gather 'round the computer for a little Must See TV, as we spy on those lucky enough to get a proper invitation to Michael Bierut's book release party at the legendary Shake Shack. We are now going live to the Shack Cam to... [UnBeige]

Niklaus Troxler Takes New York - Posted June 14, 2007
The much-anticipated AIGA NY event starring the quintessential jazz designer himself, Niklaus Troxler, is finally coming to the Cooper Union on June 28. An exhibition features 80 posters from Troxler's career, while Troxler himself will describe his iconic process of marrying music and modernism, posters and passion. Appropriately, live music will... [UnBeige]

Just Like Design, But Without the Danger of Getting Popped - Posted June 11, 2007
We were hoping someone out there would make an intelligent connection between the mafia and design today, just so we could make an excuse to bawl about the end of "The Sopranos." And whaddaya know? Michael Bierut put together a piece that's the equivalent of a hearty homemade manicotti. Connections between... [UnBeige]

Times Introduces New-Look Biz Cards - Posted May 11, 2007
As the New York Times makes its historic move to 620 Eight Avenue, the company is also unveiling newly-designed stationery for its employees, including business cards [above] designed by Michael Bierut, who attempted to create a "simple, dignified, modern expression of a media company with an amazing history." According to the Times... [FishBowlNY]

The U.S.'s First-Ever Design Criticism MFA Program Is Official - Posted May 7, 2007
We heard that SVA would be starting a design criticism program about six months ago and now we've got the official word: "The Master of Fine Arts in Design Criticism will prepare graduates for careers as design critics, journalists, curators, educators and design managers, by providing the intellectual tools for researching,... [UnBeige]

Michael Bierut Ready to Shake Up the Shake Shack - Posted April 25, 2007
We have, at this very moment, been paid a visit by our friendly neighborhood UPS delivery man, who came bearing gifts in the form of the yellow beauty you see above: Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut. As far as we can tell, designer Abbott Miller set each of... [UnBeige]

Complete This Helvetica Statement - Posted April 6, 2007
From here, it certainly seems like Helvetica is going to change the world. We loved it. Alice Rawsthorn, CNN and the Boston Herald can't be wrong. Most screenings so far have sold out. Tonight's NY screening has been sold out for weeks. The LA screening sold out in one day. And... [UnBeige]

Helvetica World Premiere - Posted March 13, 2007
We just barely snagged a seat in an extremely tightly-kerned crowd at the world premiere of Helvetica here at SXSW, where the entire audience sported buttons reading "I love/hate Helvetica." Okay, okay, everybody has been making their little jokes about "the movie about a font." But guess what--this is not really... [UnBeige]

Muji Comes to America; Michael Bierut No Longer Needs to Fly to Tokyo For His Fix - Posted March 5, 2007
We can finally end our letter-writing campaign to Sam Hecht; today, the retail stars have aligned. Muji's first US flagship store has been announced as a tenant in the Renzo Piano-designed New York Times building, says the New York Observer. But it sounds like we won't be the only ones camped... [UnBeige]

Looking Closer Closes Its Eyes - Posted February 15, 2007
The powers that be have informed us that the 5th volume of Looking Closer, out this month, will be the last. Published since 1994, the essays in the Looking Closer series were basically the precursors of the design blogs we know and love today--a sturdy, highly-influential collection of critical writings on... [UnBeige]

UnBeige Can Read: New In 2007 Books - Posted January 31, 2007
Well, boys and girls, it's time for another edition of UnBeige Can Read, where we go through the stacks of books on our desk to recommend the best in pageturning for you, our dear readers. The premise is simple: Forty Posters for the Yale School of Architecture by Michael Bierut. But as... [UnBeige]