Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and Village type director Chester Jenkins talk about their collaboration on the Sherman typeface designed as the linchpin of the new identity for Syracuse University. The typeface revived a design created by Frederic Goudy in 1912 which ended up in the possession of the University. Michael and Chester will discuss Sherman's history in the context of Goudy's career, and how it came to represent the University globally.

This event is free, but reservations are requested.

Chester Jenkins was born in Montéal, and attended Dawson College there. After graduation he spent two years at Newell & Sorrell in London and Utrecht, working on identity projects and saw the publication of his first typeface by Font Shop International. In 1995 Chester moved to Chicago to work with Rick Valicenti and eventually become a partner in his digital type foundry, Thirstype. In 2004 he decamped to New York City and formed Village with his wife and partner Tracy Jenkins. His published designs have been used for branding programs for AT&T, Nike and more as well as cultural and educational clients such as San Francisco Ballet. He has created bespoke typefaces for Blackberry, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, and the National Football League, amongst many others. 

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, graduating summa cum laude in 1980. He worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates before joining Pentagram as a partner in 1990. His clients at Pentagram have included The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Robin Hood Foundation, Princeton University, the New York Jets, and more. As a volunteer to Hillary Clinton’s communications team, he designed the H logo that was ubiquitous throughout her 2016 presidential campaign.

Bierut served as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1988 to 1990 and is president emeritus of AIGA National. He was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003, and was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in 2006. Bierut is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art and a lecturer in the practice of design and management at the Yale School of Management. He is a cofounder of the website Design Observer and is the co-editor of the five-volume series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design published by Allworth Press. A monograph on his work, How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry and (every once in a while) change the world was published in 2015 by Harper Collins.