Fifty years ago, All the President's Men was released, starring Robert Redford as Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein. The movie, written for the screen by William Goldman, dramatizes the research, legwork, and reporting done by The Washington Post's Woodward and Bernstein who exposed the Watergate scandal, shedding light on the corruption that stemmed from President Richard M. Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President, known as CREEP. In the movie, released in April 1976, Woodward and Bernstein come across as dedicated, scrappy, and fearless, at times they're even chummy. Designer, author, and teacher Michael Bierut praises William Goldman's screenwriting craft, not only in All the President's Men but also in another Goldman buddy movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which starred Robert Redford alongside Paul Newman. We also discuss Zodiac, The Post, The Social Network, and movies by Charles and Ray Eames. This episode appeared on Season 1 of the show in 2024.

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Michael Bierut graduated from the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in 1980 with highest honors. He worked at the office of Lella and Massimo Vignelli for a decade. In 1990, Bierut became a partner in the New York office of Pentagram designing for Mastercard, Slack, Verizon, Benetton, Disney, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, among a long list of other clients. He designed the “H” logo during Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and presidential run, and also the typographic inscription for the Obama Presidential Center. Beginning in 2024, he shifted into an alternate role at Pentagram, an advisory role, titled Consulting Partner on his LinkedIn. Bierut has earned numerous accolades, was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, received the AIGA Medal, and won the Design Mind category of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. In addition to being a designer, he has been lecturer at the Yale School of Management and senior critic at the Yale School of Art. An accomplished author, Bierut is co-editor of the five-volume design series of books, Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design and he co-founded the site Design Observer. Find more of his writing in these books: 79 Short Essays on Design (2007), 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 (2015 and 2021), and Now You See It and Other Essays on Design (2017). Be sure to check out Bierut in Gary Hustwit's 2007 documentary Helvetica.

https://www.pentagram.com/about/michael-bierut

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLIJ4FzAR3U/

https://www.fastcompany.com/91265497/the-incomparable-michael-bierut-steps-down

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/655-exit-interview-with-michael-bierut/

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All the President's Men (1976)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074119

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074119/releaseinfo/

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Nixon, Watergate

https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/president-resigns-50-years-later

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/nixon.html

https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/exhibits/watergate-files

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Other movies and shows discussed:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

The Conversation (1974)

The French Connection (1971)

The Godfather (1972)

Keepers of the Magic (2016)

Marathon Man (1976)

The Post (2017)

The Princess Bride (1987)

The Social Network (2010)

When Harry Met Sally (1989)

The X-Files (1993-2018)

Zodiac (2007)