Michael Beirut is an award-winning American Graphic designer, that currently works for Pentagram. He’s known for his many revolutionary, innovative design projects, such as The New York times logo on their building, or the creative recycled design for Saks Fifth Avenue’s brand identity.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Michael had an interest in art from an early age, studied, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Graphic design from DAAP (University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning).
Partnered with Pentagram in 1990, Michael has since then had several clients and changed their brands to what they are today. A few of them that we have seen, either online, on the television, items that we own, even in our wallets. Michael was the brain behind several designs we see today, such as the re-branding of Mastercard, Hillary Clinton’s graphic design in the presidential campaign, the rebranding of slack. The designs we see and adore that don’t have a name on them except the company, or person themselves.
Michael has appeared at several talks, talking about the hardships and the creative journey to solve said issues to reach the expectation of his customers. For example, there was an instance where an organization called Robin Hood asked him for a favor, to be a graphic designer to organize and design libraries for schools in New york. At first, he thought he had to design a logo and the libraries were going to be built around that. But it turned out to be a much larger project than just a logo for a library and make it fun, it was a project to introduce kids that have never had a library or seen one in the first place. The project turned from just making a logo to making the libraries more personal and fun, with several designers and artists helping, including his own wife.
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