What’s the Secret Behind Pentagram’s Stellar Work? The Agency Has No CEO or Creative Directors

Pentagram has been around for nearly 50 years, but the structure—set up by an architect, a product designer and three graphic designers in 1972—has allowed for the design firm to continue its growth. Today, Pentagram has 21 partners in four cities. Each partner jointly owns a piece of the firm, and there are no managing directors or CEOs. “It’s a completely flattened collectivist utopia,” explained Michael Bierut, a partner in New York. “Each of us runs, on any typical day, what feels to us like our own studio.”