I had heard so much about Michael Bierut, a Pentagram partner, that I had been waiting all morning - since 6am - to hear him speak. Unfortunately, being a venue manager has it's duties too so I walked in only midway into the speech, but I was not disappointed.

Beirut touched on the importance of graphic design in large scale projects, such as the L!BRARY INITIATIVE and how design is about a lot more than just creating something for yourself, but creating something for other people. He showed how graphic design and being a graphic designer was about more than just creating a logo, but at times going beyound your boundaries and doing than is required of you on the job.

He discussed working on the L!BRARY INIATIVE and how even though he was only told to create a logo, he ended up working on the inside of the libraries for schools who previously had never experienced a library. He explains the more important aspect of the project was understanding that he was designing for people and for an audience and while he may hold preconceptions about certain aspects of life, this may not be the case when it comes to the audience he is designing for.

Each library, designed within New York schools, was spearheaded by a multitude of architects who brought their own initiatives to the project and in doing so created customised libraries, different experiences and a new concept behind what a library is.

Essentially, Beirut speaks of creating a stage on which people can perform and as a graphic designer or any designer, it is important that you be thoughtful, that you consider more than what is in the scope of your work and that sometimes, you need to ask yourself, is a design project just that?