
(Pictures taken from inthenews.co.uk and Pentagram respectively. With great thanks, usual stuff applies.)
I was listening to Howard Wilkinson talking about Alex Ferguson on Football Focus this morning and something he said reminded me of something Paula Scher said about Michael Bierut recently. And what struck me was the common thread running through both the quotes below and how that's often missing in young design students I meet.
Let's look at the two quotes:
"You talk to him about a league, a club, a player in any country in the world and he'll know about it. He's a walking football encyclopedia."
Howard Wilkinson on Alex Ferguson
"Michael Bierut knows every one of you, no matter what your age is. He knows your names, where you’re from, where you work, what you’ve designed, and whether it’s better or worse than the last thing you did. If he liked something you designed along the way, he probably sent you a little note telling you so. He may have even saved a design of yours that he came across, and it’s downstairs in his basement with the million other things he’s saved.
If he runs into you, he might reference something that influenced you, or he may know one of your clients, or he read an article that had direct bearing on something that involved you somehow, or he knew who you competed against on a project you just won. Maybe it was even him, and if it was, he’ll tell you so.
He seems to know all this stuff very naturally, like a guy who just coincidentally, has exactly the same interests that you do.
At Pentagram, he is an indispensible resource. Every partner relies on him for information, no matter how trivial. Mention a book to him and he’s read it and he’ll recommend two others like it that you will also enjoy. Bring up a song, he knows all the words and might entertain you with a stanza or two, and he manages to carry a tune. Reference a movie to him and he’s always seen it and can quote some relevant piece of dialog VERBATIM as if he had spent his entire life rehearsing for that moment when you’d bring it up. Mention a potential new project to him and he’ll know more than a bit about it and recommend the two three things he’s read in The Times on that subject, and then he’ll forward the articles to you.
Michael’s brain is a massive compendium that’s been carefully edited to contain the world’s most interesting stuff. Political stuff, cultural stuff, humanistic stuff, things all about you and me. Stuff that makes up the American experience."
Paula Scher on Michael Bierut (read the full speech here).
OK, there's several things here. Remember this? Look at point number one - find inspiration in everything. Both Fergie and Michael are demonstrating that above. Let's take Ferguson, do you think, at the level he's at, he really needs to know about every league in every country in the world? Probably not. Firstly he's probably got people to do that for him and secondly I imagine (like most professions) potential Man U players are selected from a fairly small pool. The same pool Arsenal, Chelsea, Madrid, Barcelona, etc are fishing from. But yet he's still following the minutiae of global football. Why? Because he has a real passion for the sport. And I'll bet he's inspired by some kid in an obscure league in Corsica.
The Michael Bierut example is more obvious. Books, songs, blogs, news articles, all this stuff is essential to a designer. It's one of the things I like about blogging. You can store stuff in your personal online archive and then come back to it whenever you like. It's easier to search than your brain. I don't really know Michael Bierut but we have shared the odd email conversation. And, like Paula says, he has sent me the odd note when I've written something that strikes a chord.
We get lots of students coming to see us. Portfolio surgeries, placements, friends of friends coming for a look around. One question we always ask is, what designers to you like at the moment? I'd say probably 60-70 percent can't name a single designer. Of the 30 odd percent that can name a designer or a design firm, it's always something really, really obvious or slightly off key like, 'Saatchis' or 'Phillipe Stark' or 'Richard Rogers' or something. Nothing wrong with those, but I want to hear NB Studios or Made Thought or GTF or Mark Farrow or even Peter bloody Saville would do.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Being interested in stuff matters. And it keeps on mattering even when you're as successful as Ferguson. Knowing your industry, being really, genuinely passionate about your industry matters. It really matters.
Both these men are senior in their fields. Both of them have achieved enough to sit back and take the plaudits. Both don't do that. Both of them have a passion for their work. Do you think it's a coincidence they're both still successful?
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