Alum Michael Bierut Contributes His Talents to DAAPworks

Michael Bierut, partner in the prestigious international firm Pentagram, is lending his design talents to this year's end-of-year display of senior capstone projects known as DAAPworks.

University of Cincinnati graphic design alumnus Michael Bierut may be a principal at the prestigious international design firm Pentagram but he's still a bit nervous to be designing the poster for UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning's end-of-year show of senior capstone projects. That show, called DAAPworks, will run June 9-13.
DAAPworks poster
The 2009 DAAPworks poster designed by renowned graphic designer and alumnus Michael Bierut, with assistance from current DAAP student Dan Becker.

Said Bierut, "The project is a classic designing for designers assignment. Supposedly, this makes it easier, but I actually think it makes it harder. With a group of designers, everybody's a potential critic."

However, Bierut felt comfortable taking on the challenging assignment with the help of DAAP graphic design student Dan Becker, who was working a cooperative education quarter at Pentagram. (Cooperative education, or co-op as its more commonly called, is the practice wherein students alternate quarters or semester in the classroom with quarters or semesters of paid, professional work related directly to students' majors. UC is the global founder of co-op, having founded the practice in 1906. UC's co-op program is ranked in the nation's Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report, and design student at the university generally graduate with 18 months of paid, professional experience on their resumes.)

Bierut credits Becker for providing important insights for the DAAPworks poster project. Said Bierut, "I really enjoyed working with our co-op, Dan. The college-wide exhibition didn't really take off until after I had graduated, so he was able to give me a much clearer picture of how an effective graphic identity for it would work. Also, Dan is a really good, fast designer, much better than I was at his age, to tell you the truth."

Working on the DAAPworks poster is just the latest partnership between Bierut, a 1981 graduate, and the college. Bierut has lectured at UC and, of course, hired co-op students. He added, "I've also never turned down a chance to interview a recent DAAP graduate."

And it never occurred to him to turn down the opportunity to design the 2009 DAAPworks poster, especially since the request that he do so came from DAAP Dean Robert Probst.

Recalled Bierut, "I was in the first class that Robert taught at DAAP when he arrived at the college from Germany in 1979. I would not say no to him ever!"

That's because the best part of Bierut's education at DAAP was the people he met: classmates, teachers, co-op colleagues and the "friendships I struck up with people in Cincinnati."