Pentagram: Five Decades of Star-studded Design

Learn about one of the most famous design companies in the world

Pentagram is ‘the world’s largest independently-owned design studio.’

Founded in Notting Hill, London, in 1972 by artists and designers Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange, and Mervyn Kurlansky, the company also has offices in New York City, San Francisco, Berlin and Austin, Texas.

A unique structure

Pentagram's idea was to create a collaborative interdisciplinary group of designers working together in an independently-owned design firm, in which everyone was equal. From the start, the power structure in the company has been simple: there is no hierarchy. The partners share income equally and own an equal portion of the total firm.

Portfolio

With a portfolio that spans five decades, Pentagram's work encompasses graphics and identity, products and packaging, exhibitions and installations, websites and digital experiences, advertising, and communications.

A short film called The Forty Story was created in 2012 to celebrate Pentagram's 40th anniversary. The film presents a selection of the company's most iconic designs from their first 40 years by telling the story of a boy born on the day Pentagram opened.

Watch the video below:

Star-studded designers

Over the last five decades, the studios at Pentagram, both in London’s headquarters and around the world, have been graced by influential and established designers. Many have been judges in the prestigious AIGA medal awards. We have compiled a list of some of the most notable partners, past and present.

Theo Crosby

One of the founding partners, Theo Crosby, (3 April 1925–12 September 1994) made a remarkable contribution to the art world as an architect, editor, writer, and sculptor. His influence in British architecture and design, both at the forefront and behind the scenes, spanned four decades. His most notable work includes the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe theater in London, a project on which he worked for 17 years, although he did not live to see its completion.

Michael Bierut

A partner of Pentagram since 1990, Michael Bierut's design work is in permanent collections in the most prestigious museums in the world. His monograph, 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 was published in 2015. Bierut treats us to over 35 of his best designs, projects, and visionary creative processes.

One of the most influential designers of our times, he is also a lecturer at Yale School of Art, a writer for the New York Times, and co-founder of online design publication Design Observer. He designed Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign logo.

Paula Scher

The first female principal at Pentagram, she joined the New York studio in 1991. She started her career in the 70s and 80s as an art director at CBS and Atlantic Records, designing album covers, and developed an influential eclectic approach to typography. Noteworthy brand identities and designs include The Public Theater in New York, Citibank, and Tiffany & Co.

As a creator of branding systems, promotional material, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs, she built a remarkable portfolio of clients including Bloomberg, Microsoft, Coca Cola, MoMA, the Metropolitan Opera, as well as parks in New York City, to name but a few. She is described as a 'master conjurer of the instantly familiar' and is one of the most influential graphic designers in the world. She features in the documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. We talked to her in the following video:

Marina Willer

Marina Willer is a graphic designer and filmmaker, who joined Pentagram in 2012. She led in creating ground-breaking brand identities for Tate, Amnesty International, Oxfam, and many others. She grew up in Brazil, where her family had emigrated from Prague. Her first feature film, Red Trees, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017, is a sensitive documentary about the life of her family (one of the 12 surviving Jewish families in Prague during World War 2) and the work of her father.

Her multi-faceted production includes designing exhibitions. She designed Mangasia for the Barbican in London, and for the Design Museum, also in London, the Ferrari and Stanley Kubrick exhibitions.

Jody Hudson-Powell

Jody Hudson-Powell joined Pentagram as a partner with his brother Luke Powell in 2015. He started out at Nokia, developing motion and generative visual identity. In the video below, the brothers describe what it’s like to become a Pentagram partner.

Latest work

From updating the title sequence of Killing Eve to creating posters to highlight the work of the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic, Pentagram designers and their teams are keeping busy even in a time of uncertainty. Giorgia Lupi and her team created a speculative chart, redesigning the infographics from daily press conferences by New York's Governor Cuomo. These improved visuals communicate a stronger message to citizens and have consequently been making their way around social media.

Pentagram continues to inspire with its philosophy, vision, incredible body of work, and passionate teams. Year on year, the company continues to receive accolades from all over the creative world, confirming their winning formula: a unique structure and designers who ‘whether working independently or collaboratively, always do this in friendship.’

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