Michael Bierut

Graphic Designer / United States / Pentagram

Michael Bierut’s Book List

Among my favorite authors are George Lois, Paul Rand, Tom Wolfe.

18 books
Nicholson Baker

My favorite book of product design criticism.

Jim Bouton

My favorite book as a kid, not so much about baseball as about the loneliness and absurdity of practicing a skill under pressure and in front of an audience—themes that are common to many of the books in my list.

Jerry Della Femina

Real-time account of the advertising world of the “Mad Men” years (along with George, Be Careful and Where the Suckers Moon—also on my list).

F. (Francis) Scott Fitzgerald

In what other book does a billboard get to be a main character?

S. Neil Fujita

The book in my high school library that launched me on my career at the age of 15, by the man who designed the Columbia Records logo and the book cover for Mario Puzo’s 1968 novel The Godfather.

Veronica Geng

Humor writing as a design exercise.

One of two books I owned when I graduated from high school that have almost identical titles but couldn't be more different. (See also Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice.)

William Goldman

An account of screenwriting, creativity, and collaboration, by a master (along with Act One—also on my list).

Moss Hart

An account of playwriting, creativity, and collaboration by a master (along with Adventures in the Screen Trade—also on my list).

Armin Hofmann

One of two books I owned when I graduated from high school that have almost identical titles but couldn't be more different. (See also Milton Glaser: Graphic Design.)

Lewis Hyde

What art is for?

Real-time account of the advertising world of the “Mad Men” years (along with From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor and Where the Suckers Moon—also on my list).

Vladimir Nabokov

The most elegantly structured, perfectly resolved book ever written. Endlessly mystifying.

Ayn Rand

The designer as hero. (See also Learning from Las Vegas.)

Paul Rand

His first book and still the most concise and accessible.

Randall Rothenberg

Real-time account of the advertising world of the ironic 1990s (along with From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor and Where the Suckers Moon—also on my list).

The designer as anti-hero. (See also The Fountainhead.)

Tom Wolfe

This is how to write about pop culture.

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