Earlier this week, Michael Bierut, Sonia Williams, and I spent an hour on the phone together. Michael is an influential graphic designer living in New York, Sonia is a high school student in Paintsville, Kentucky, and I am a designer at Automattic, living outside Boston.
Sonia came up with a great set of questions. He encouraged Michael to tell us about his career, and took us through some of his favorite projects. We talked about designing this website. Michael describes how he used a photograph of the earth to represent a house: he aimed to show the most universal representation of a house. We all live very different lives, in very different homes, but this giant and fragile planet is our common home.
At the end of the call, Sonia went to her next class. I started working at WordPress.com and Longreads, and Michael turned his attention to his work at Pentagram.
Michael, Sonia, and I are different ages, at different stages of our careers, and in different parts of the country, but we take the time to share stories and work together. Our conversations felt natural and we learned a lot from each other. I was surprised by how intense — yet seemingly normal — this project experience was.
When I was Sonia’s age, I went to a wonderful high school: Buffalo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts. I majored in art there, which meant I had two art periods every day, in addition to my normal coursework. I took extensive classes in painting, sculpture, pottery, photography, art history, and more. I love art, and I know I want to involve it in my future, but I don’t know any more specifically.
At some point in my senior year, one of our teachers arranged for a graphic designer to visit his class. He showed us an advertising campaign for a local art museum where he worked. This involves billboards, printed materials, and websites. I remember being very interested in his presentation, and talking to him for a few minutes afterward. Until then, I don’t think I had a good idea of what graphic design actually was. I know a little about designing individual things – an advert in a magazine, a website, etc. – but that was my first real exposure to the idea of (and the challenges around) designing identities that span multiple single applications.
A few months later, I took my art portfolio to a college portfolio review day in Syracuse, New York. I applied to a number of colleges, and ended up in Brooklyn, studying graphic design at Pratt Institute. In my design history class, we learned about Michael Bierut.
I have been working in the field for over a decade now. I’ve worked on branding, ad campaigns, websites, t-shirts and more. I currently do all of this while working from home. When I was in high school, I didn’t know this kind of job existed until I met this graphic designer.
When John Maeda invited me to take part in this project, I thought back to when I met the designer in high school, and realized the impact he would have on my future. Sharing what we do with the next generation is the primary responsibility of all of us. As I have learned from Michael Bierut’s work throughout my career, I hope that Sonia and her classmates will benefit from this experience with a better understanding of art and design.
Thank you to John Maeda for organizing it, thank you to Michael Bierut for your art, insight, and perspective, and thank you to Sonia for all the preparation and effort you put into this project.
Gaming Hub
A gaming hub can refer to a central platform or space dedicated to gaming, where players can access games, interact with other gamers, and enjoy related content.