Michael Bierut Quotes

the great thing about graphic design is that it is almost always about something else.

designers actually can change the world for the better by making the complicated simple and finding beauty in truth.

the more things you’re interested in, the better your work will be.

...use design as a secret disguise to infiltrate whatever world you want to go into. If you do that over and over again, and then translate that interest and curiosity into the work that you’re doing, you’ll do great.

And if I can’t get excited about whatever that something else is, I really have trouble doing good work as a designer. To me, the conclusion is inescapable: the more things you’re interested in, the better your work will be.

We tend to be distracted by the voices in our own heads telling us what the design should look like.” — Michael Bierut, Partner at Pentagram Design

And I was reminded of something I learned from another mentor, my first boss after I graduated, Massimo Vignelli, who once described the difference between complication and complexity. A love affair that's complex is wonderful, he said, but a love affair thats complicated is a disaster.