Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read
مايكل بيروت: طريقة تصميم مكتبة تجعل الأطفال يرغبون في القراءة
Michael Bierut is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram, a founder of Design Observer and a teacher at Yale School of Art and Yale School of Management. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
the law of unintended consequences.
"قانون العواقب غير المقصودة".
consequences that they really intend,
عواقب يقصدون حدوثها حقًا،
to help them achieve those consequences.
على تحقيق تلك العواقب.
of unintended consequences.
consequences intended and unintended.
المقصودة وغير المقصودة.
called Robin Hood
a wonderful philanthropic organization
وهي منظمة خيرية مذهلة
give it to poor people.
was the New York City school system,
هو نظام (نيويورك) المدرسي،
more than a million students at a time,
أكثر من مليون طالب كل عام،
that are in disrepair,
وأحيانًا مباني بحاجة إلى ترميم،
that could use a renovation.
to improve these buildings in some way,
إلى تحسين تلك المباني بطريقة ما،
too expensive and impractical.
سيكون مرتفع الثمن وغير عملي،
what one room they could go into
أي غرفة يمكنهم دخولها
in as many buildings that they could,
في أكثر عدد من المباني،
the lives of the children inside
للأطفال بالداخل
was the school library,
هي المكتبة المدرسية،
called the Library Initiative.
"مبادرة المكتبة".
المرور عبر المكتبة.
have to pass through the library.
and soul of the school is.
حيث أحضروا
where they brought in
من المهندسين المعماريين،
to rethink what a library was.
تغيير مفهوم المكتبة
by improving these libraries.
عن طريق تحسين المكتبات التي بها.
"Could you make a little contribution?"
"أيمكنك المساهمة بعض الشيء؟"
to be the graphic designer
ذلك يعني أنني سأصمم شعارًا
That means I get to design a logo.
compared with architecture
مقارنة بالهندسة المعمارية
and then you're out,
راضيًا عن نفسي بفعل خدمات كهذه.
good about myself when I do these favors.
كلها مستوحاة من الفكرة ذاتها.
all based on this one idea.
pick any of the three.
these would be new school libraries
أن تلك ستكون مكتبات مدرسية جديدة
a new idea that needs a new name.
فكرة جديدة بحاجة إلى اسم جديد.
that these were musty old libraries,
أن تلك المكتبات قديمة وعتيقة،
that everyone is bored with,
do talk, do make loud noises.
تتكلم وتحدث ضجيجًا.
it's like a shush-free zone.
OK, option number two.
حسنًا، الخيار رقم اثنين.
Meet you after school down at OWL.
قابلني بعد اليوم الدراسي في (آوول).
Now, what does OWL stand for?
والآن، ما الذي تعنيه (آوول)؟
could figure out other things it could be
يمكنهم التوصل لمعاني أخرى لها
It's like the eye of the owl.
was based actually on language.
is the past tense of "read,"
"المنطقة الحمراء"؟
this place The Red Zone?
interested in spelling and I don't know.
يهتمون بالإملاء وما شابه.
is more important than spelling,
أكثر أهمية من الإملاء.
one of those instances.
وهذا السؤال ينبغي أن يكون،
and the question should be,
the question was more like,
with old libraries, musty old libraries.
من المكتبات القديمة العتيقة.
have never really seen a library.
هؤلاء الأطفال لم يروا مكتبة قط.
if they're there at all,
to bore anyone at all.
about giving it a new name.
لا تكترث بإعطائها اسمًا جديدًا.
the Library Initiative.
there's your logo.
أن العاقبة غير المقصودة،
an unintended consequence,
they didn't really even need my design
وبوسعك كتابتها بخط اليد،
you could write it by hand,
sending emails around,
just right out of the thing.
on the real rollout of this thing --
of their own library. Right?
with different architects.
Now these architects were my client.
ثم أصبح هؤلاء المهندسون هم عملائي.
Put it on the door."
Put it off to the side."
repeated all over to the top."
ها هو شعاركم".
"Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
from one of the architects,
and he says, "I've got a problem.
وقال لي "لدي مشكلة".
Can you solve it?"
that there's a space
an architectural issue to me,
so I'm, "Go on."
the top shelf has to be low enough
أن يكون منخفضًا بما يكفي
والأسقف مرتفعة للغاية،
and the ceilings are really high,
all this space up there
you know, I'm a logo designer.
think of anything?"
صورًا للأطفال بالمدرسة
took pictures of the kids in the school
the top of the thing,
in east New York, take these pictures?"
في شرق (نيويورك) والتقاط بعض الصور؟"
of, like, the heroes of the school,
لأبطال المدرسة،
of the real library, right?
hand-selected by the principals
this heroic atmosphere in this library,
ذلك المناخ البطولي على المكتبة،
and the joy of the children above.
وسعادة الأطفال بالأعلى.
in the other schools see this
في المدارس الأخرى ذلك
it can't be the same mural every time,
الجدارية نفسها في كل مرة،
and then she did another one,
واحدة أخرى، وبعدها واحدة أخرى،
named Lynn Pauley,
paintings of the kids.
at a place called Automatic Design.
في مكان ما يسمى (أوتوماتيك ديزاين).
asking for words,
delirious kind of constellation
of things that are in books.
about their favorite books
as a frieze up there.
manga-style statement,
into the faces and characters
that you find in the books.
of objects and words
and will fascinate students
a series of dimensions to these artists,
قراءة سلسلة من الأبعاد لصالح الفنانين،
any problem with that."
كان ذلك أمرًا رائعًا.
It just was the greatest thing.
made of construction paper,
لافتتاح مكتبتنا الجديدة".
to the opening of our new library."
say, you'd go to PS10,
there'd be a student ambassador,
specifically for the opening,
with certificates,
يقدمون شهادات تقديرية للناس،
was just a delirious, fun party.
obviously not belonging,
وأشعر أنني لا أنتمي للمكان،
"What are you doing here, mister?"
الذي صمم هذا المكان".
that designed this place."
"You took the pictures up above."
فيقولون "إذا التقطت الصور التي بالأعلى".
أعلى الباب عند دخولكم؟"
The sign over the door?"
"OK. Nice work if you can get it."
إن كنت تفهم قصدنا"
going to these little openings
إلى تلك الافتتاحات أمرًا مرضيًا
kind of largely ignored or humiliated,
كان يتم تجاهلي أو السخرية مني،
going to the openings,
الذهاب إلى تلك الافتتاحات،
to get the people in my office
get the illustrators and photographers,
أصطحب الرسامين والمصورين،
the five boroughs of New York
going to be 60 of these libraries,
maybe half a dozen in one long day.
was meeting these librarians
كان مقابلة أمناء المكتبات
took possession of these places
ويشعرون وكأنها مِلك لهم
upon which they were invited
الذي تمت دعوتهم إليه
and bring the books to life,
this really exciting experience
see these things in action.
كل تلك الأشياء بأرض الواقع
because it got dark early,
So really nice having you here.
شكرًا على قدومكم إلى هنا".
how I turn off the lights?"
أتريد رؤية كيف أطفئ الأنوار؟"
this special way that I do it."
واحدا تلو الآخر،
every light one by one by one by one,
the kids' faces,
I turn off every night,
why I come to work."
نفسي بسبب مجيئي إلى العمل".
about designing that logo
the experience to that extent,
بهذه التجربة إلى هذا المدى،
الذي أمامي حتى أبعد ما يمكنني أن أرى.
as far as I could reach with my own hands.
the chain of consequences
could do her work really well.
are affected by these libraries.
for more than 10 years now,
لأكثر من 10 سنوات حتى الآن،
a generation of children to books
من الأطفال يرغبون في القراءة
are the best consequences.
أفضل العواقب.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Bierut - Designer, criticMichael Bierut is a partner in the New York office of Pentagram, a founder of Design Observer and a teacher at Yale School of Art and Yale School of Management.
Why you should listen
Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, graduating summa cum laude in 1980. Prior to joining Pentagram in 1990 as a partner in the firm's New York office, he worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design.
His projects at Pentagram have included work for the New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Harley-Davidson, The Museum of Arts and Design, Mastercard, the New York City Department of Transportation, the Robin Hood Foundation, Mohawk Paper Mills, New World Symphony, the New York Jets, the Brooklyn Academy of Music and MIT Media Lab. As a volunteer to Hillary for America, he created the ubiquitous H logo that was used throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.
He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Montreal. He served as president of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) from 1988 to 1990 and is president emeritus of AIGA National. Bierut was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1989, to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 2003, and was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in 2006. In 2008, he was named winner in the Design Mind category of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards. In spring 2016, Bierut was appointed the Henry Wolf Graphic Designer in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.
Bierut is a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art and a lecturer at the Yale School of Management. He writes frequently about design and is the co-editor of the five-volume series Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design published by Allworth Press. In 2002, Bierut co-founded Design Observer, a blog of design and cultural criticism which now features podcasts on design, popular culture, and business.
Bierut's book 79 Short Essays on Design was published in 2007 by Princeton Architectural Press. A monograph on his work, 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 by Thames & Hudson and Harper Collins. This accompanied the first retrospective exhibition of his work, part of the School of Visual Art's Masters Series, which was on view at the SVA Chelsea Gallery in New York City for five weeks in autumn 2015. His next book, Now You See It, is due out from Princeton Architectural Press this fall.
Michael Bierut | Speaker | TED.com