Michael Bierut (1957), born in Cleveland, Ohio, is a Graphic Designer and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati. After graduating with honors in 1980, his first job was at the studio of Lella and Massimo Vignelli. He worked there for a decade, eventually becoming Vice President of Graphic Design.
In 1990, he became a partner at Pentagram's New York office. His major clients include Mastercard, Slack, Verizon, Benetton, Disney, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Poetry Foundation, the MIT Media Lab, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
As a volunteer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, he designed the logo featuring the letter "H," which became popular during her presidential campaign, and the monumental typographic inscription he created for the Obama Presidential Center will crown the complex's central tower. Beginning in October 2024, he assumed an advisory role at Pentagram, providing consulting services to its partners on select projects and overall business strategy.
Michael Bierut is co-editor of the five-volume series "Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design" and co-founder of "Design Observer," a website dedicated to design and cultural criticism. His books, including "79 Short Essays on Design" (2007), "How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things, Explain Things, Make Things Look Better, Make People Laugh, Make People Cry, and (Every Once in a While) Change the World" (2015 and 2021), and "Now You See It and Other Essays on Design" (2017), have been translated into German, French, Korean, Chinese, Polish, and Russian.
