Michael Bierut‘s ‘30 Years 90 Notebooks’ at College of Saint Rose
For the past three decades, Pentagram’s Michael Bierut has kept a numbered series of notebooks—plain composition books, filled with rough sketches, notes taken in client meetings, doodles and design ideas—that cumulatively provide a record of his working life. These books are a focus of 30 Years 90 Notebooks, a new exhibition at the Esther Massry Gallery at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. The exhibition juxtaposes original sketches with finished work, giving viewers insight into Bierut’s design process. Over 40 posters are on view, including works for the Yale School of Architecture, The Architectural League of New York, AIGA and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Bierut, with designer Hamish Smyth, has designed a special poster for the exhibition that pictures the covers of 88 existing notebooks (two were lost over the years). Signed copies of the poster will be available for purchase at the gallery during the show’s run. 30 Years 90 Notebooks remains on view through January 22, 2012.
Project Team: Michael Bierut, partner-in-charge and designer; Tracey Cameron, exhibition design and curation; Hamish Smyth, poster design.