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The following is an excerpt from graphic designer Michael Bierut's recently published 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." A Pentagram partner and protege of Massimo Vignelli, Bierut is a longtime friend of Core77 and a voice and advocate for design. On October 7, SVA's Chelsea Gallery in New York City honors Bierut—the youngest inductee into SVA's Masters Series—with an exhibition showcasing three decades of work, sketches, process and inspiration.

On August 12, 1982, I opened up a standard 7 1/2" by 9 3/4" composition book and began taking notes on a phone conversation. I forget where the book came from. I may have found it in the supply cabinet of Vignelli Associates, where I had been working for a little over two months.

This was the beginning of a habit—or a compulsion—that has continued to this day. I cannot walk into a meeting or start a phone call without my notebook. Other designers have amazing sketchbooks. Not me. A few pages look like they belong to a real designer: drawings, type studies, visual ideas being worked out. But most are filled with to-do lists, phone calls to be returned, budget calculations, meeting notes. In college, I discovered that writing down something helped me remember it later.

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Paradoxically, that means that a lot of these notes, taken once, are never referred to again. Although I am (or I used to be) a good draughtsman, drawing may no longer be a relevant skill in the digital world. (Knowing how to read is more important than knowing how to draw.) But looking back through the years, I'm surprised by the occasional visual notes in these books, and how often they anticipated the design work to come. Often, in the midst of a dense list of bullet points, there will sit a quick diagram, an embryonic sketch that represented the first step of what would be months of work.

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When the idea of a personal digital assistant was first described to me, I thought, oh, sort of like my notebook, except a computer. (It's no accident that the iPad is nearly the same size.) Like most designers, I'm dependent on my digital devices. But my notebook is still with me: diary, sketchbook, security blanket, friend. On August 26, 2013, 31 years after the first, I started notebook number 100.

How I would love to fill 100 more.

The Masters Series: Michael Bierut is on view through November 7 at the SVA Chelsea Gallery in Manhattan.

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