How To…
(Michael Bierut, 2015)
Lessons from a designer’s life.
Michael Bierut’s How To… is a masterclass in honesty and perspective.
It’s less a how-to manual and more a designer’s autobiography told through the lens of process — how to think, present, persuade, and, most importantly, listen.
Bierut’s stories unfold with warmth and precision, revealing how design lives not in theory but in dialogue.
What makes the book resonate is its humanity. It celebrates imperfection, humor, and the messy collaboration behind good work. Bierut doesn’t romanticize design — he demystifies it, showing that insight often comes from empathy rather than genius.
How To… feels like sitting in a studio with a mentor — one who’s been through every pitch, every failure, every small victory, and still believes design is about connecting ideas to people.
If you can’t explain your ideas to your mother-in-law in sixty seconds, maybe you don’t really understand them yourself.
