Please join us in New York as we kickoff the 2016 US season of Conversations | Conversazioni: From the American Academy in Rome, featuring a discussion between two leading figures in design, Michael Rock (2000 Fellow) and Michael Bierut (2016 Resident), at the Museum of Art and Design. They will discuss how design has both reflected and shaped perceptions of American culture.

Rock is a founding partner and creative director of 2x4 and professor of design at the Yale University School of Art. At 2x4, he leads a wide range of projects including design strategy, environmental graphics and media design. Previously, he was cofounder of Information Incorporated in Boston. From 1984 to 1991 he was adjunct professor of graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design. In addition he was a fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, the Netherlands, and a contributing editor and graphic design journalist at I.D. Magazine in New York. His writing on design has appeared in a variety of publications including the New York Times, Print, AIGA Journal, and the British journal Eye. He holds a BA in humanities from Union College and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the recipient of the 2000 Rome Prize in Design from the American Academy in Rome.

Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, graduating summa cum laude in 1980. Prior to joining Pentagram’s New York office in 1990 as a partner, he was vice president of graphic design at Vignelli Associates. Bierut’s projects at Pentagram have included: identity and branding; environmental graphics and signage; exhibition design; packaging; and publication design. He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in many museum collections. His monograph How To was published by Thames and Hudson and Harper Design in 2015. He was a 2016 Resident in design at the American Academy in Rome.

This event is at capacity, but you can watch this event live at https://livestream.com/aarome.

Support for Conversations/Conversazioni: From the American Academy in Rome is provided by the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation.