Michael Bierut is a graphic designer and partner at Pentagram. He worked on the redesign of The Atlantic.

Here’s a great video where he talks about his creative process that I found on The Design Observer. I thought this quote was particularly poignant:

“I don’t consider myself creative. I don’t have ideas that I want to express that I make up myself. I can’t think of any personal projects that I’ve done. I just don’t work that way. The reason I became a designer is I wanted people to come to me with problems I can solve. I know how to do that, I can be creative then. I feel like I’m a doctor and I can’t just practice medicine on myself, so I need patients who are sick, the sicker the better in fact.”

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13 Comments

  1. First, he is definitely CREATIVE.

    Recently, I was handed my images back with a “that’s nice work for your clients, but what are you passionate about?”

    My response (in my head, of course)
    First, I am passionate about not ending a sentence in a preposition.

    Then, I am passionate about helping my clients tell their stories with better images. Michael has reaffirmed my belief that that is my Passion….Thanks Rob for sharing this video clip

  2. that was awesome, thanks for posting that.

  3. Wow some great insight here!

  4. He redesigned “The Atlantic” and says he is not creative.
    Agreed.

  5. Gustavo Osmar Santos
    Estuvo Aquí…wonderfull.

  6. That was awesome. Great post. He’s funny too, which I didn’t expect.

  7. You may recognize Michael from the documentary “Helvetica”.

  8. Brilliant, great way to start the morning. Thanks Rob

  9. He is absolutely creative, and he’s quite funny and charming.


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