Category Archives: 79 Short Essays on Design

Michael Bierut looks at design through several different lenses.  When he wrote about Nabokav’s novel as being a well-designed piece of literature, it made me think of one of the designer interviews that I watched earlier in the semester.  One … Continue reading →

I read through all of these and found essay #4 to be the most humorous and most interesting. I need to print this one out and tape it on my bathroom mirror to read in the mornings. The insights on … Continue reading →

I decided to check out three essay but was drawn to one in particular.  The “Information Design & the Placebo Effect” article was pretty funny and pretty sad.  This particular essay revealed that most of the buttons utilized in New … Continue reading →

Out of the four selected essays, my favorite was, “How to Become Famous.” While I have no desire to become famous, I feel Michael Bierut’s advice will make me a better designer. His advice on How to Design Great Work … Continue reading →

“There is no guarantee that being famous counts for anything,” says Michael Bierut a “famous” graphic designer whom I’ve never heard of. But I’m assuming in the world of graphic artist, who is someone that a lot of people know. … Continue reading →

How to do Great Design Work: I found these suggestions in to be helpful and motivating. I agree that doing lots of design work will only make you a stronger designer. Practice makes perfect, right? I also appreciated the suggestions … Continue reading →

For this weeks’ blog post, we had to read excerpts from 79 Short Essays on Design by  Michael Beirut.  Although they ranged to everything from hating Garamond font to Plagairism, I enjoyed the discussion about the New York City subway … Continue reading →

I seem to be forming a theme for myself, the use of quotes. So this time lets just let Bierut’s words speak for themselves: 65, I am a Plagiarist: “The challenge is even more pronounced in design, where we manipulate more generalized visual forms … Continue reading →

I enjoyed Michael Bierut’s piece. It was kind of a “Wear Sunscreen” type of stream of consciousness. His main take-a-ways below… Good, simple design is the key – it’s not necessary to have a ton of bells and whistles, because … Continue reading →

The short essay by Beirut I took to heart was of Information design and the Placebo effect. It factors into a discussion I had in a previous Philosophy class about Pavlov’s dogs. The relevance of the color coded terror alert … Continue reading →