Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut, writers, graphic designers, and co-founders of Design Observer, will join the Yale School of Management as faculty in design this summer.
In 2003, Helfand and Bierut worked with writer Rick Poynor and author and designer William Drenttel to establish Design Observer, a website with news, features, and essays on design, urbanism, innovation and pop culture.
Helfand and Bierut believe that a quality faculty, solid curriculum, and involvement in the 28-school Global Network for Advanced Management will allow the Yale School of Management to introduce and integrate design across its programs.
“At SOM, we will approach it as one might a second language, introducing theory and practice, defining visual grammar, reframing expression, construction, and craft,” Helfand and Bierut wrote on Design Observer. “Can we move beyond the clichés of whiteboards and Magic Markers, away from Post-It notes and buzzwords, and past the overused promises of ‘design thinking’ to define new ways of exploring the value that design can bring to business—and to a larger world? We think so—and SOM does, too.”
Helfand graduated from Yale with Master of Fine Arts and has taught at the university since 1994. She has written books on subjects like graphic designer Paul Rand and the information wheel. Her book on scrapbooks, titled Scrapbooks: An American History, was named the best visual book of 2008 by The New York Times.
Bierut, a partner with Pentagram, the world’s largest independent design consultancy, is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art. With Pentagram, he has led identity and branding strategies for companies like Benetton, Verizon, and the New York Jets, and his work has been added to permanent collections at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
Related Stories
BIM and Information Technology | Apr 9, 2015
A carboard box by Google can bring virtual reality to architecture
The global search engine giant has launched a new product, Google Cardboard, that easily allows users to experience virtual reality.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Multifaced fitness center becomes campus landmark
A sloped running track and open-concept design put this Building Team to the test.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Nation's first LEED-certified bus depot
A bus garage in Harlem shows that even the most mundane of facilities can strut its environmentally sensitive stuff.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Setting the bar for port-of-entry design
Whenever you eat a tomato from Mexico, there’s a one-in-three chance it came through this LEED Gold gateway.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Big D’s billion-dollar baby: New Parkland Hospital Tops the Chart | BD+C
Dallas’s new $1.27 billion public hospital preserves an important civic anchor, Texas-style.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
IPD-driven fusion facility serves science and student life in Chicago
In dire need of modern science labs and a student union, North Park University built both—in the same building.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
‘Prudent, not opulent’ sets the tone for this Catholic hospital
This Building Team stuck with a project for seven years to get a new hospital built for a faithful client.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
9/11 museum triumphs over controversy
The Building Team for this highly visible project had much more than design, engineering, and construction problems to deal with.
Building Team Awards | Apr 7, 2015
Unique test facility will help make wind power more feasible
A new facility at Clemson University makes it possible to test the huge stresses that large-scale wind turbines must be able to withstand.
Cultural Facilities | Apr 7, 2015
Mies’ Martin Luther King Jr. Library to get makeover
The architects say the modernization aims to improve “Mies in a contemporary Miesian way.”
