79 Short Essays on Design

79

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? 2007 Princeton Architectural Press All rights reserved Printed and bound in China 10 09 08 07 4 3 2 First edition

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Editor: Lauren Nelson Packard Designer: Abbott Miller, Pentagram

Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Sara Bader, Dorothy Ball, Nicola Bednarek, Janet Behning, Becca Casbon, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Pete Fitzpatrick, Wendy Fuller, Sara Hart, Jan Haux, Clare Jacobson, John King, Mark Lamster, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Katharine Myers, Scott Tennent, Jennifer Thompson, Paul Wagner, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press --Kevin C. Lippert, publisher

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bierut, Michael. Seventy-nine short essays on design / Michael Bierut. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-56898-699-9 (alk. paper) 1. Commercial art--United States--History--20th century. 2. Graphic arts--United States--History-- 20th century. I. Title. II. Title: 79 short essays on design. NC998.5.A1B52 2007 741.6--dc22 2006101224

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Michael Bierut

Princeton Architectural Press New York

"Art should be like a good game of baseball--nonmonumental, democratic and humble. With no hits, no runs, and no errors at the bottom of the ninth, we know something historical is happening. Good art leaves no residue."

Siah Armajani, 1985

"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."

Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) to Wilmer Cook (Elijah Cook, Jr.) in The Maltese Falcon, screenplay by John Huston from the novel by Dashiell Hammett, 1941

Contents

9 Preface

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

11 Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content 14 Why Designers Can't Think 18 Waiting for Permission 23 How to Become Famous 28 In Search of the Perfect Client 32 Histories in the Making 35 Playing by Mr. Rand's Rules 39 David Carson and the End of Print 42 Rob Roy Kelly's Old, Weird America 44 My Phone Call to Arnold Newman 46 Howard Roark Lives 49 The Real and the Fake 52 Ten Footnotes to a Manifesto 61 The New York Times: Apocalypse Now, Page A1 63 Graphic Design and the New Certainties 65 Mark Lombardi and the Ecstasy of Conspiracy 67 George Kennan and the Cold War Between Form and Content 70 Errol Morris Blows Up Spreadsheet, Thousands Killed 72 Catharsis, Salesmanship, and the Limits of Empire 75 Better Nation-Building Through Design 77 The T-shirt Competition Republicans Fear Most 79 India Switches Brands 81 Graphic Designers, Flush Left? 84 Just Say Yes 87 Regrets Only 91 The Forgotten Design Legacy of the National Lampoon 93 McSweeney's No. 13 and the Revenge of the Nerds 96 The Book (Cover) That Changed My Life

98 Vladimir Nabokov: Father of Hypertext 100 The Final Decline and Total Collapse of the American Magazine Cover 102 Information Design and the Placebo Effect 104 Stanley Kubrick and the Future of Graphic Design 106 I Hear You've Got Script Trouble: The Designer as Auteur 109 The Idealistic Corporation 112 Barthes on the Ballpoint 114 The Tyranny of the Tagline 116 Ed Ruscha: When Art Rises to the Level of Graphic Design 118 To Hell with the Simple Paper Clip 120 The Man Who Saved Jackson Pollock 123 Homage to the Squares 126 Eero Saarinen's Forty-Year Layover 128 The Rendering and the Reality 130 What We Talk About When We Talk About Architecture 134 Colorama 136 Mr. Vignelli's Map 139 I Hate ITC Garamond 142 1989: Roots of Revolution 145 The World in Two Footnotes 148 Logogate in Connecticut 151 The Whole Damn Bus is Cheering 154 The Best Artist in the World 157 The Supersized, Temporarily Impossible World of Bruce McCall 160 The Unbearable Lightness of Fred Marcellino 164 The Comfort of Style 167 Authenticity: A User's Guide 170 Designing Under the Influence 173 Me and My Pyramid 175 On (Design) Bullshit 178 Call Me Shithead, or, What's in a Name? 181 Avoiding Poor, Lonely Obvious 184 My Favorite Book is Not About Design (or Is It?)

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