Michael Bierut

Last Tuesday, SU's School of Architecture hosted a guest lecture by Michael Bierut, called "My Life as a Font." Unfortunately I was unable to attend, BUT because of my position as Co-President of AIGA, I had the privilege of attending in a special Warehouse luncheon instead! Hopefully, we represented AIGA (and CommDesign) well and didn't embarrass ourselves too much, because for those unfamiliar, Michael Bierut is something of a celebrity/hero to design students.


Blurb from the SU events site:
Michael Bierut, partner at full-spectrum graphic design firm Pentagram in NYC, will lecture. In 2006 Bierut received the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) medal, the profession's highest honor. His work is represented in several permanent collections including MoMA and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in NYC. He currently serves as a director of the Architectural League of NY and of New Yorkers for Parks, and is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art.

I think it's safe to say that I wasn't the only student in complete awe, but what really impressed me was how gracious and candid he was with his time and in speaking with us about design. We gave him a small tour of our third floor, and he even signed a poster for us!

I'm still giddy thinking about it.

Later that afternoon, the Warehouse showed "Helvetica," an independent documentary film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Michael was again a special guest speaker and participated in a Q&A after the movie.

I can't think of a better way to christen the renovated Warehouse!