Michael Bierut Talk Recap

I found this video to be one of the best design videos I've seen thus far. Not only was the video very informative, but I really enjoyed how he went into details about specific projects he worked on. One of my favorite things he talked about was the MAD logo he created. He made this logo he was really excited about, but his clients were not. He stated that he pushed this idea of a blocky single line logo (A+D) for a long time, all because he liked it. He finally gave up and decided to go back to the drawing board, even though he invested a lot of time and energy on the previous logo. He finally came up with a simple solution, a logo created of simple shapes, circles and squares, that spelled out MAD. He not only stopped at the logo, but created a full alphabet using these simple shapes. He created a brand, something the company can use anywhere and people would recognized as being MAD. This really caught my eye because it shows how sometimes you have to move on from the design you like the most and start all over. It also shows that a solution could be really simple, yet effective. Another item I liked from this video was the idea of how important type can be in design. During his New York Transportation project, Micheal remade the Helvetica typeface to Helvetica DOT. The only changes made were the dots on top of the lower case i's. This shows how such a small point has such an important meaning. Details matter. I enjoyed how he used the typeface and its shoulders, descenders, and other parts, to make his icons. This gives a congruent feeling when the icons and type are next to each other. All in all I really liked this video and how Micheal presented his work. I gave me inspiration and a different outlook when looking at my own personal projects.