Michael Bierut

@michaelbierut.bsky.social

Graphic designer, teacher, writer, since forever

Jane Davis Doggett, a Yale MFA graduate who studied under Albers and Rand, began work in the late 1950s that basically invented the wayfinding language of the modern airport we all know today, from color-coded terminal routes to the standardization of carrier name displays. She died last year at 93.

Terminal routing signs at Houston International AirportStandardized United Airlines branding at Tampa International AirportDoggett and her wayfinding plans for Jacksonville International Airport

I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. That meant going to a movie theater. Afterward I was obsessed, but no rentals, no streaming. Just feverish memories. Then I found this paperback book, not a quickie exploitation play but a 368-page, dense-packed treasure trove, edited by Jerome Agel. Price: $1.50

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René Magritte, La corde sensible (Heartstring), 1960. "I cannot paint before I have the whole picture in my head. It happens slowly…I want to paint a cloud. So I draw some clouds, maybe a hundred of them. And each time I surround them with shapes whose meaning remains hidden from me." Hello Bluesky!

Painting by surrealist artist Rene Magritte of a white cloud floating in a champagne glass against a blue sky