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Object Timeline

1988

  • Work on this object began.

1996

  • We acquired this object.

2013

2016

2024

  • You found it!

Poster, Hypotheses

This is a Poster. It was designed by Michael Bierut. It is dated 1988 and we acquired it in 1996. Its medium is lithograph on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Designed for the Architectural League of New York , Hypotheses (1988) is a poster that mixes typography with components of architectural drawings. Michael Bierut, one of America’s premier graphic designers for the last five decades, expertly and precisely lays text on a grid. Mimicking a blueprint, the thin, faint type is combined with line against the deep blue hue of the poster’s background, rendering the poster somewhat illegible (the viewer must examine the announcement closely to discern its message). Although made while Bierut was working at Vignelli Associates at the start of his career, Beirut’s desire to become a graphic designer was apparent much earlier on. Bierut was fifteen-years-old when he discovered the field had a name after he came upon a book about getting commercial work by the graphic designer S. Neil Fujita (1921–2010) in his school library. Now a partner at the award-winning firm Pentagram, Bierut continues to shape current graphic design discourse.

This object was donated by Michael Bierut. It is credited Gift of Michael Bierut.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 43.3 x 86.5 cm (17 1/16 x 34 1/16 in.)

It is inscribed

Printed in black ink, lower right: Michael Bierut, Vignelli Associates

Cite this object as

Poster, Hypotheses; Designed by Michael Bierut (American, b. 1957); USA; lithograph on paper; H x W: 43.3 x 86.5 cm (17 1/16 x 34 1/16 in.); Gift of Michael Bierut; 1996-86-3

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18654181/ |title=Poster, Hypotheses |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=24 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>