Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read
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.
consequences that they really intend,
to help them achieve those consequences.
of unintended consequences.
consequences intended and unintended.
called Robin Hood
a wonderful philanthropic organization
give it to poor people.
was the New York City school system,
more than a million students at a time,
that are in disrepair,
that could use a renovation.
to improve these buildings in some way,
too expensive and impractical.
what one room they could go into
in as many buildings that they could,
the lives of the children inside
was the school library,
called the Library Initiative.
have to pass through the library.
and soul of the school is.
where they brought in
to rethink what a library was.
by improving these libraries.
"Could you make a little contribution?"
to be the graphic designer
That means I get to design a logo.
compared with architecture
and then you're out,
good about myself when I do these favors.
all based on this one idea.
pick any of the three.
these would be new school libraries
a new idea that needs a new name.
that these were musty old libraries,
that everyone is bored with,
do talk, do make loud noises.
it's like a shush-free zone.
OK, option number two.
Meet you after school down at OWL.
Now, what does OWL stand for?
could figure out other things it could be
It's like the eye of the owl.
was based actually on language.
is the past tense of "read,"
this place The Red Zone?
interested in spelling and I don't know.
is more important than spelling,
one of those instances.
and the question should be,
the question was more like,
with old libraries, musty old libraries.
have never really seen a library.
if they're there at all,
to bore anyone at all.
about giving it a new name.
the Library Initiative.
there's your logo.
an unintended consequence,
they didn't really even need my design
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.
Put it on the door."
Put it off to the side."
repeated all over to the top."
"Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
from one of the architects,
and he says, "I've got a problem.
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
and the ceilings are really high,
all this space up there
you know, I'm a logo designer.
think of anything?"
took pictures of the kids in the school
the top of the thing,
in east New York, take these pictures?"
of, like, the heroes of the school,
of the real library, right?
hand-selected by the principals
this heroic atmosphere in this library,
and the joy of the children above.
in the other schools see this
it can't be the same mural every time,
and then she did another one,
named Lynn Pauley,
paintings of the kids.
at a place called Automatic Design.
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,
any problem with that."
It just was the greatest thing.
made of construction paper,
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,
was just a delirious, fun party.
obviously not belonging,
"What are you doing here, mister?"
that designed this place."
"You took the pictures up above."
The sign over the door?"
"OK. Nice work if you can get it."
going to these little openings
kind of largely ignored or humiliated,
going to the openings,
to get the people in my office
get the illustrators and photographers,
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
took possession of these places
upon which they were invited
and bring the books to life,
this really exciting experience
see these things in action.
because it got dark early,
So really nice having you here.
how I turn off the lights?"
this special way that I do it."
every light one by one by one by one,
the kids' faces,
I turn off every night,
why I come to work."
about designing that logo
the experience to that extent,
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,
a generation of children to books
are the best consequences.
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