Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read
Michael Bierut: Sådan designer du et bibliotek, hvor børn får lyst til at læse
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.
utilsigtede konsekvenser.
konsekvenser.
consequences that they really intend,
konsekvenser de virkelig tilsigter,
to help them achieve those consequences.
hjælpe dem med at opnå de konsekvenser
of unintended consequences.
konsekvenser.
consequences intended and unintended.
tilsigtede og utilsigtede konsekvenser.
called Robin Hood
af organisationen Robin Hood
en skøn filantropisk organisation.
a wonderful philanthropic organization
give it to poor people.
og giver til de fattige.
was the New York City school system,
skolesystemet i New York,
more than a million students at a time,
millioner af elever på samme tid,
that are in disrepair,
vedligeholdte bygninger,
that could use a renovation.
der kunne bruge renovering.
to improve these buildings in some way,
at forbedre de her bygninger på en måde,
too expensive and impractical.
og være upraktisk.
what one room they could go into
hvilket enkelt rum de kunne gå ind i
in as many buildings that they could,
i så mange bygninger de kunne,
the lives of the children inside
for eleverne inden i,
was the school library,
var skolebiblioteket,
called the Library Initiative.
der hedder biblioteks-initiativet.
have to pass through the library.
and soul of the school is.
where they brought in
at de fik fat i
to rethink what a library was.
og skulle gentænke hvad et bibliotek er.
by improving these libraries.
forbedre deres biblioteker.
"Could you make a little contribution?"
"Kunne du hjælpe os en smule?"
to be the graphic designer
dig som den grafiske designer,
That means I get to design a logo.
Det betyder, jeg skal designe et logo.
Jeg designer logoer.
compared with architecture
sammenlignet med arkitektur
and then you're out,
hjælp lidt og så er du færdig,
good about myself when I do these favors.
med mig selv, når jeg hjælper andre.
alle baseret på én idé.
all based on this one idea.
pick any of the three.
vælg én af de tre.
these would be new school libraries
skolebiblioteker
a new idea that needs a new name.
en ny idé som har brug for et nyt navn.
that these were musty old libraries,
at det var gamle, klamme biblioteker,
that everyone is bored with,
bibliotek.
som et bibliotek,
do talk, do make loud noises.
hvor man må tale og lave høje lyde.
it's like a shush-free zone.
OK, option number two.
Okay, mulighed nummer to.
Meet you after school down at OWL.
Lad os mødes efter skole ved OWL.
Now, what does OWL stand for?
Men hvad står OWL for?
could figure out other things it could be
kunne finde på noget,
It's like the eye of the owl.
Det ligner en ugles øje.
hvis du spørger mig.
was based actually on language.
er faktisk baseret på sprog.
is the past tense of "read,"
this place The Red Zone?
den røde zone.
fokuseret på idéen,
interested in spelling and I don't know.
hvordan man staver. Jeg ved ikke.
is more important than spelling,
end stavning,
one of those instances.
ville være en af de gange.
præsentationer,
and the question should be,
the question was more like,
var spørgsmålet mere,
with old libraries, musty old libraries.
klamme, gamle biblioteker.
have never really seen a library.
aldrig havde set et bibliotek.
if they're there at all,
at de er der,
to bore anyone at all.
about giving it a new name.
at give dem et nyt navn.
for et bibliotek.
det et lille pift.
the Library Initiative.
biblioteksinitiativet.
her er jeres logo.
there's your logo.
en utilsigtet konsekvens.
an unintended consequence,
rigtig ville have mit design,
they didn't really even need my design
alle skifttyper eller skrive det i hånden,
you could write it by hand,
sending emails around,
just right out of the thing.
on the real rollout of this thing --
med alle arkitekterne på,
of their own library. Right?
eget bibliotek. Okay?
with different architects.
Now these architects were my client.
Nu var arkitekterne mine klienter.
Put it on the door."
døren."
længere til siden."
Put it off to the side."
repeated all over to the top."
dit logo."
"Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
en af arkitekterne,
from one of the architects,
sagde, "Jeg har et problem."
and he says, "I've got a problem.
Can you solve it?"
et mellemrum
that there's a space
an architectural issue to me,
"Fortsæt."
so I'm, "Go on."
the top shelf has to be low enough
"Jamen, top-hylden skal være lav nok til,
og der er højt til loftet,
and the ceilings are really high,
all this space up there
you know, I'm a logo designer.
"Orv, jeg er en logodesigner.
think of anything?"
"Men kan du komme på en idé?"
tager billeder af børnene på skolen,
took pictures of the kids in the school
the top of the thing,
"Dorothy, der er ikke nogen penge,
in east New York, take these pictures?"
New York og tage billeder?"
af skolens helte,
of, like, the heroes of the school,
of the real library, right?
hand-selected by the principals
håndvalgt af rektorerne
this heroic atmosphere in this library,
heroiske atmosfære i biblioteket,
and the joy of the children above.
og glæden af børnene ovenover.
in the other schools see this
bibliotekarer det,
være det samme maleri hver gang
it can't be the same mural every time,
and then she did another one,
named Lynn Pauley,
jeg kender, der hedder Lynn Pauley,
paintings of the kids.
af børnene.
fra et sted, der hedder Automatic Design.
at a place called Automatic Design.
asking for words,
spurgte dem om ord,
delirious kind of constellation
konstellationer
der er i bøger.
of things that are in books.
om deres yndlingsbøger,
about their favorite books
derop som en frise.
as a frieze up there.
Yuko Shimizu,
manga-inspieret erklæring
manga-style statement,
into the faces and characters
ansigter og karakterer
that you find in the books.
som man finder i bøger.
of objects and words
installation af objekter og ord,
and will fascinate students
og fascinere elever,
a series of dimensions to these artists,
en serie af dimensioner til kunsterne,
any problem with that."
Det var det bedste.
It just was the greatest thing.
made of construction paper,
lavet af byggeripaper,
åbningen af vores nye bibliotek."
to the opening of our new library."
lad os sige PS10,
say, you'd go to PS10,
there'd be a student ambassador,
der var elevambassadører,
specifically for the opening,
til åbningen,
with certificates,
was just a delirious, fun party.
obviously not belonging,
hørte tydeligvis ikke til,
"What are you doing here, mister?"
"Hvad laver du her, herre?"
that designed this place."
der designede stedet."
"Du tog billederne deroppe."
"You took the pictures up above."
Skiltet over døren?"
The sign over the door?"
"OK. Nice work if you can get it."
"Okay. Godt arbejde, hvis du kan få det."
going to these little openings
at tage til de her små åbninger,
kind of largely ignored or humiliated,
eller ydmyget,
at tage til åbningerne,
going to the openings,
to get the people in my office
folkene ind på mit kontor,
get the illustrators and photographers,
få illustratorerne og fotograferne,
the five boroughs of New York
going to be 60 of these libraries,
af de her biblioteker,
maybe half a dozen in one long day.
på en lang dag.
was meeting these librarians
bibliotekarene,
took possession of these places
og tog ejerskab af stederne
upon which they were invited
hvorpå de var inviteret
and bring the books to life,
og bringe bøgerne til live.
this really exciting experience
rigtig spændende oplevelse
see these things in action.
de her ting i virkeligheden.
because it got dark early,
så det blev mørkt tidligt,
godt at se jer.
So really nice having you here.
jeg slukker lyset?"
how I turn off the lights?"
måde at gøre det på"
this special way that I do it."
et ad gangen,
every light one by one by one by one,
the kids' faces,
I turn off every night,
jeg slukker hver aften,
hvorfor jeg kommer på arbejde."
why I come to work."
about designing that logo
at jeg kan tænke denne oplevelse igennem,
the experience to that extent,
så langt jeg kunne nå med mine hænder.
as far as I could reach with my own hands.
the chain of consequences
udføre sig arbejde virkelig godt.
could do her work really well.
af de her biblioteker.
are affected by these libraries.
i mere end 10 år nu,
for more than 10 years now,
har vendt en generation af børn til bøger,
a generation of children to books
are the best consequences.
de bedste konsekvenser.
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