Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read
Michael Bierut: Cómo diseñar una biblioteca en la que los chicos quieran leer
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.
de las consecuencias imprevistas.
sobre el tema.
las consecuencias imprevistas.
consecuencias intencionales,
consequences that they really intend,
a alcanzar esas consecuencias.
to help them achieve those consequences.
of unintended consequences.
de las consecuencias imprevistas.
intencionales e imprevistas.
consequences intended and unintended.
called Robin Hood
que se llama Robin Hood
es una organización filantrópica genial
a wonderful philanthropic organization
para darle a los pobres.
give it to poor people.
al Sistema Escolar de Nueva York,
was the New York City school system,
a millones de estudiantes a la vez,
more than a million students at a time,
edificios en mal estado,
that are in disrepair,
that could use a renovation.
requieren renovaciones.
mejorar los edificios en cierta forma,
to improve these buildings in some way,
no sería práctico y además sería muy caro.
too expensive and impractical.
what one room they could go into
en qué espacio podían entrar
edificios pudieran,
in as many buildings that they could,
de los niños que ahí vivieran
the lives of the children inside
de la biblioteca escolar,
was the school library,
called the Library Initiative.
la Iniciativa Biblioteca.
debían pasar por la biblioteca.
have to pass through the library.
y el corazón de la escuela.
and soul of the school is.
where they brought in
después más arquitectos,
para repensar ese espacio.
to rethink what a library was.
mejorando sus bibliotecas.
by improving these libraries.
"¿Puedes hacer una pequeña contribución?"
"Could you make a little contribution?"
seas el diseñador gráfico
to be the graphic designer
Significa diseñar un logo.
That means I get to design a logo.
con la arquitectura
compared with architecture
una contribución y listo,
and then you're out,
bien conmigo por hacer estos favores.
good about myself when I do these favors.
más de lo prometido.
all based on this one idea.
en función de esta única idea.
elijan la que quieran.
pick any of the three.
these would be new school libraries
bibliotecas escolares
que necesitaba un nombre.
a new idea that needs a new name.
de la biblioteca vieja y mohosa,
that these were musty old libraries,
that everyone is bored with,
sí se puede hablar y hacer ruido.
do talk, do make loud noises.
sería como un espacio libre de "shh".
it's like a shush-free zone.
OK, option number two.
Bien, la opción número dos.
Meet you after school down at OWL.
Nos vemos en la OWL luego de las clases.
Bueno, ¿y qué significa OWL?
Now, what does OWL stand for?
Biblioteca Mundial,
Abre. Pregunta. Aprende.
podrían pensar otras opciones
could figure out other things it could be
de un búho, "owl" en inglés.
It's like the eye of the owl.
was based actually on language.
"read" en ambos casos.
is the past tense of "read,"
"red" en ambos casos.
this place The Red Zone?
Enrojece. -lee-
enfocado en la idea
interested in spelling and I don't know.
interesados en la ortografía y demás.
es más importante que la ortografía,
is more important than spelling,
podría ser uno de esos casos.
one of those instances.
estas presentaciones
and the question should be,
the question was more like,
with old libraries, musty old libraries.
de las viejas bibliotecas.
have never really seen a library.
nunca habían visto una biblioteca.
if they're there at all,
to bore anyone at all.
about giving it a new name.
un último intento, bibliotecas.
the Library Initiative.
ahí está el logo.
there's your logo.
como consecuencia imprevista,
an unintended consequence,
necesitaban mi diseño
they didn't really even need my design
tipo de letra, o escribirse a mano,
you could write it by hand,
sending emails around,
just right out of the thing.
on the real rollout of this thing --
principal de la biblioteca.
of their own library. Right?
with different architects.
con los arquitectos.
Now these architects were my client.
ahora lo eran estos arquitectos.
Put it on the door."
Ponlo en la puerta".
Put it off to the side."
repetido de arriba a abajo".
repeated all over to the top."
"Este es tu logo, este es tu logo".
"Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
de uno de los arquitectos,
from one of the architects,
and he says, "I've got a problem.
"Tengo un problema.
¿lo puedes resolver?"
Can you solve it?"
that there's a space
a un tema de arquitectura,
an architectural issue to me,
pero igual lo escuché.
so I'm, "Go on."
the top shelf has to be low enough
tiene que ser suficientemente bajo
and the ceilings are really high,
y los techos son muy altos,
all this space up there
you know, I'm a logo designer.
think of anything?"
de los niños en la escuela
took pictures of the kids in the school
the top of the thing,
de Nueva York a tomar fotos?
in east New York, take these pictures?"
como de héroes escolares,
of, like, the heroes of the school,
que es la biblioteca, ¿no?
of the real library, right?
elegidos por los directores
hand-selected by the principals
this heroic atmosphere in this library,
heroica en esta biblioteca,
y la alegría de los niños abajo.
and the joy of the children above.
de las otras escuelas vieron esto
in the other schools see this
usar siempre el mismo mural,
it can't be the same mural every time,
and then she did another one,
llamado Lynn Pauley,
named Lynn Pauley,
pinturas de los niños.
paintings of the kids.
at a place called Automatic Design.
en un lugar llamado Automatic Design.
buscando palabras,
asking for words,
delirious kind of constellation
que hay en los libros.
of things that are in books.
de sus libros preferidos
about their favorite books
como un mural.
as a frieze up there.
manga-style statement,
un ilustrador brillante,
en las caras de los personajes
into the faces and characters
that you find in the books.
que encuentras en los libros.
críptica de objetos y palabras
of objects and words
que fascinará a los estudiantes
and will fascinate students
a series of dimensions to these artists,
de dimensiones a estos artistas;
any problem with that."
It just was the greatest thing.
hecha de papel de construcción:
made of construction paper,
de nuestra nueva biblioteca".
to the opening of our new library."
digamos que vas a la escuela 10,
say, you'd go to PS10,
there'd be a student ambassador,
specifically for the opening,
para la inauguración,
with certificates,
was just a delirious, fun party.
obviously not belonging,
"Qué hace aquí, señor?"
"What are you doing here, mister?"
que diseñó este espacio".
that designed this place."
"Entonces tomó las fotos".
"You took the pictures up above."
el letrero sobre la puerta?"
The sign over the door?"
"OK. Nice work if you can get it."
going to these little openings
por estas inauguraciones
se me ignoraba o humillaba,
kind of largely ignored or humiliated,
going to the openings,
que la gente de mi oficina
to get the people in my office
get the illustrators and photographers,
ilustradores y fotógrafos
the five boroughs of New York
barrios de Nueva York
podíamos visitar cada vez.
going to be 60 of these libraries,
unas seis en un día largo.
maybe half a dozen in one long day.
a todos los bibliotecarios
was meeting these librarians
tomado posesión de estos lugares
took possession of these places
upon which they were invited
y darle vida a los libros,
and bring the books to life,
this really exciting experience
see these things in action.
se hacía de noche temprano,
because it got dark early,
Fue bueno recibirlos.
So really nice having you here.
como apago las luces?"
how I turn off the lights?"
especial de hacerlo".
this special way that I do it."
every light one by one by one by one,
los rostros de los niños,
the kids' faces,
que apago cada noche,
I turn off every night,
por qué vengo a trabajar".
why I come to work."
de diseñar ese logo
about designing that logo
¿inventar un nuevo nombre?
tener el crédito
the experience to that extent,
en lo que pudiera alcanzar con las manos.
as far as I could reach with my own hands.
the chain of consequences
hacer muy bien su trabajo.
could do her work really well.
a 40 000 niños al año.
are affected by these libraries.
por más de 10 años,
for more than 10 years now,
a los libros a una generación de niños
a generation of children to books
son las mejores consecuencias.
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