Parsing Pentagram

Bierut: Make sure you are hiring the people who will really be doing the work. Make sure you have good rapport with them and that you will have access to them. I've actually turned away jobs because I thought that the chemistry in the initial meeting wasn't good enough, and I just couldn't see the relationship proceeding. That kind of veto power cuts both ways.

FC: How do you ensure that clients buy into your design solutions, though?

Bierut: Frequently, we take them through the process we used to come to their solution. Designers can get addicted to the drama of the darkened room, the rabbit in the hat, and the gasp of surprise that attends that sort of revelation. That can be effective, but showing the step-by-step process helps people understand it -- and helps them internalize the rationale.

FC: How important is originality?

Bierut: Designers are taught that the main function of design is to create brand-new things that are 100% original from a blank slate. But what you learn is that 100% originality doesn't actually help a lot of times. As much as everyone extols innovation, if you come up with a 100% original way to package spaghetti sauce, for example, when you put it on the grocery store shelf, it's quite likely no one will buy it because no one will understand that it's spaghetti sauce.

FC: How do you keep up on trends?

Bierut: I occasionally force myself to do things that I wouldn't ordinarily do. I'll explore a part of the bookstore that I usually don't look in. Or I'll tune into a TV channel I don't ordinarily watch. With magazines, in addition to Vanity Fair, Vogue, the New Yorker, I.D., and the late, great Nest, I'll also read Harper's or browse through something really outside my experience, like Vice -- now there is a world that I didn't know existed.

FC: Getting out of your comfort zone brings up an interesting point. How dogmatic are you about your personal likes and dislikes?

Bierut: I've actually lost a bit of my faith in my own taste. There are things I once really felt strongly about. I thought you had to do things a certain way because if you didn't it would be just awful. It's not quite as clear as all that. For example, there are more than 10,000 typefaces. I once felt that if most people can only distinguish between about five, why waste even a second musing over 30 subtle variations of Garamond? Now, though, I am open to the idea that meaningless choice gives people pleasure. I agree with Virginia Postrel that taking pleasure in simple cosmetic change is very human.

FC: This fall, you participated in an exhibition that focused on re-imagining voting booths. How does the idea of cosmetic change tie into the presidential election?

Bierut: One of the things we saw in the campaign and the election is that people think they are listening to statements about policy. Actually, they watch facial expressions, gestures, winces, and stammers -- all the stuff that we're not supposed to care about because it's just cosmetic. In fact, these things are seen as external manifestations of inner grace -- as is design, in a way.

FC: Leading up to Google's IPO, a lot of people concentrated on the Web site's clean graphics, as though that unique design characteristic added value in the stock offering. You might think that this would lead to competitors copying Google. But when you look at the other major search engines, they are about as much of a jumble as possible. What's your take on this?

Bierut: I don't think Google's design is particularly clean -- or even handsome. It definitely has an admirable sense of restraint and confidence about why people use it, however. When the Internet came along, the last inhibition against excess fell away because everything was free. You need more pages? Fine; they're free. More colors? Fine; as many as you want. Thousands of colors, millions of colors. It used to be that everything cost money. You had to boil your message down to one postcard to go through the mail. Every larger size cost more. Every added color cost more. There was some kind of control. With the Internet, all the restraint bets are off, and it's hard to sober up.

People love Google because it's incredibly simple, fast, and ruthlessly effective. And the design speaks confidence. They aren't saying to you, well just in case you're also looking for something else, here's what the temperature is and here's who's winning the baseball game and here's where the Dow closed. They are very focused. But they could improve their design typographically, and I know a lot of designers who are conflicted about their logo.

Steve Kroeter is the founder of Design Paradigm, which delivers executive education seminars, and Archetype Associates, a business development, brand management, and design advocacy consulting firm.