Description
79 Short Essays on Design
by Michael Bierut, 2007
Softcover, 240 pages
Published 2007 by Princeton Architectural Press
Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design brings together the best of designer Michael Bierut's critical writingserious or humorous, flattering or biting, but always on the mark. Bierut is widely considered the finest observer on design writing today. Covering topics as diverse as Twyla Tharp and ITC Garamond, Bierut's intelligent and accessible texts pull design culture into crisp focus. He touches on classics, like Massimo Vignelli and the cover of The Catcher in the Rye, as well as newcomers, like McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and color-coded terrorism alert levels. Along the way Nabakov's Pale Fire; Eero Saarinen; the paper clip; Celebration, Florida; the planet Saturn; the ClearRx pill bottle; and paper architecture all fall under his pen. His experience as a design practitioner informs his writing and gives it truth. In Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, designers and nondesigners alike can share and revel in his insights.
Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design by Pentagrams Michael Bierut has become a popular classic of design writing that The Atlantic has called a graphic extravaganza and Very Short List has said is an excellent introduction to a world where almost everything can be seen in terms of design. This spring the book has been reissued by Princeton Architectural Press in a new paperback edition. The volume collects 20 years of Bieruts wide-ranging writings on subjects related to design, from Nabokovs Pale Fire to paper architecture, from Stanley Kubrick to the vileness of ITC Garamond, from Twyla Tharp to falling off a treadmill. Many of the essays first appeared on Design Observer, the blog Bierut edits with Bill Drenttel and Jessica Helfand, as well as in other design publications.
The new paperback version preserves Abbott Millers original design for Seventy-nine Short Essays, with each essay set in a different typeface; the cover is now a cool blue
Editorial Reviews
I.D.:
...Essays on such subjects as ITC Garamond or the new corporate buzzword innovation poke at sacred cows without lacerating them and walk the tricky line between wise and wiseass... ; Mark Lamster
Our Favorite Books of 2007, Newsday:
This sampling of the graphic designer's witty, affable contributions to Design Observer, a blog he co-founded in 2003, include meditations on Paul Rand, Ed Ruscha, Moss Hart, Vladimir Nabokov, the Yes Men, Wilson Pickett and much more, suggesting that viewing the world through a design perspective might not be reductive but expansive.
FORM:
Short and swift. Michael Bierut hates ITC Garamond, is annoyed by banal ad slogans and considers the design of the legendary New Yorker magazine simply boring. The renowned Pentagram designer and critic calls a spade a spade. As is shown by his 79 essays, some of which are cutting, others humorous or quite serious, addressing all the different aspects of design. Bierut wrote most of the essays originally for the online magazine Design Observer, and each is set in a different font. Recommended reading for students and professionals alike!
Adage:
I was rewarded every time I dipped into this elegant, thoughtful compilation of stand-alone essays.
Architect:
His musings will delight and suprise...
The Approval Matrix, New York Magazine:
Highbrow and brilliant.
The Atlantic:
a graphic extravaganza
STEP Inside Design:
Topics range from design-related discourses on how to become famous or deal with a client to art, economics, history, war, politics and books. Even the redesigned Food Pyramid gets a section. Regardless of the topic, Bierut's sometimes-bemused voice and piercing intelligence illuminate the central role of design in our lives.
Photography Annual:
Bierut looks at ordinary circumstances of design that have the ability to create extraordinary consequences in life. ; R.H.
Dwell:
In this lively
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