August 2025

Michael Bierut was influenced by the book “Graphic Design Manual” by Armin Hofmann and Milton Glaser, “The Elements of Style” by Strunk & White, and his mentor Mossimo Vignelli. He does much of his logo work in solid colors but also uses only black and white in other compositions. In the past, he has used techniques such as pointillism to create his work, combining it with interesting typography. While a lot of his work uses asymmetrical designs, there are some that are symmetrical as well. Another important aspect of his work is the creative use of negative space.

I ended up choosing Michael Bierut as the artist I would use for my redesign because I was intrigued by his black and white work. Although he does use the primary colors in much of his work, a significant amount of his most popular designs are in black and white only. As someone who did not have much experience using color, this also appealed to my skill level.

As for the original design, this “Gerald’s Game’ cover is not the worst, but it does lack creativity. The typography is slightly interesting, but the handcuffs are lazily placed there. There was not much thought behind what elements to use. The focal point is directly in the center as well which does not help with engagement.

I chose "Gerald's Game" because I felt it would work nicely with Bierut's style. There was one piece I remembered seeing when researching Bierut that was done with the pointillism technique, and I thought it would be perfect for the creepy, unsettling mood I wanted to set with the cover.

When starting the process, I wanted to explore many options with my ideation sketches. I decided to sketch the different books in different styles before making the final decision on which book to choose. After choosing "Gerald's Game", I started my prototype by sketching in pencil the places where the dots would be heavier or lighter. I also marked out where the typography would go and outlined that. Then, I went in with a black fine point marker and added more dots where there were meant to be shadows, making sure to blend the man's head into the shadows as much as possible without losing all sight of him. As previously stated, my inspiration to use pointillism came from one of Bierut's earliest works which is a poster for his high school's production of Wait Until Dark. My intent in using this style is to create an eerie feeling with the different shadows. With this assignment, my goal was to push myself to use the pointillism technique which can be tedious.

As I was sketching, I kept in mind the mood I wanted to set for the audience which was one of uncertainty and fear. I stuck to mainly black and white with some red. Because I wanted to use pointillism, I made sure to document this idea in my sketch by quickly making an outline of the man. I also included the jewelry that he stole from the graves he robbed.

After showing my classmates my ideation sketches, I got helpful feedback that led me to choose the first sketch I did. Professor Behr said that it was the design that stuck out to him the most out of all six. In addition, he mentioned that I could use the pointillism to make the outline of the man fade into the background. Saige also preferred this design because they said it most fit the mood I intended to set. Haley suggested that for my final design I should stick with just black and white to really emphasize the darkness of the night. I used all of this feedback when creating my prototype by making sure the outline of the man was in a good location to fade into the back and sticking with no color.

After presenting my prototype to my classmates, the most mentioned was to fix the perspective on the hallway/door which was said by Karen and Haley. Also, Karen said to choose a more interesting font for the author's name at the bottom to make it stand out a little more. Haley said the left side of the composition felt a bit bland, so she suggested adding something over there. I started fixing my prototype by adjusting the perspective of the hallway, making sure it was visually accurate. I then changed the font for the author's name, opting for the font that is often on his books. Lastly, I agreed with Haley that the left portion of the piece was lacking, so I added a window with billowing curtains for the final design.

I successfully achieved my original intent with this design by creating that eerie feeling which was contributed to by the darkened hallway and open window. While my ideation had details like the jewelry, my prototype did not include this idea as I felt the simplicity lessened confusion and left more to the interpretation of the audience. Something I felt worked with this composition was the typography; the jaggedness of the book title aided in creating the creepy mood. If given the opportunity to do this again, I would make the man's outline slightly bigger and make sure that the typography was straighter and more centered. Overall, I was content with the way the final composition looked and enjoyed going out of my comfort zone by using pointillism.