International Design Center double invitation

Faced with the task of designing one single invitation for two different events held at the International Design Center (one a lecture by NASA scientists about spacecraft interiors, the other an exhibition of international furniture), Michael Bierut came up with this classic solution, where a hastily scribbled doodle depicts at the same time a cartoonish rocket and a pedestal table (slightly reminiscent of the Italian Memphis style, which was all the rage in 1984).

With its use of Bodoni and its palette of black, white and PMS Warm Red, the design is typical of the work done at the time at Vignelli Associates, which Bierut had joined three years earlier. Bierut has written about this work in his highly recommended book How to (2015), pp. 40–41.