OK, this fits my impression of designers and the graphic design industry perfectly. It’s a story from Michael Bierut’s first job internship.

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There’s a great interview with Michael Bierut over at Adaptive Path. Michael’s the former president of AIGA, and a frequent critic of business as usual in the design world.

It’s a dirty secret that much of what we admire in the design world is a byproduct not of “strategy” but of common sense, taste and luck. Some clients are too unnerved by ambiguity to accept this, and create garganuan superstructures of bullshit to provide a sense of security.

I love it when designers at least talk about holding themselves accountable, rather than having “an almost allergic reaction to demonstrating explicit business value”.