Michael Bierut: The genius of the London Tube Map
Michael Bierut: Il genio della metropolitana di Londra
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.
in some ways, is a history of maps:
per certi versi, è una storia di mappe:
il mondo attorno a noi?
the world around us?
perché in realtà non è affatto una mappa.
because it really isn't a map at all.
"La Mappa della Metro di Londra"]
the London Tube Map]
cominciò a prendere forma nel 1908,
came together in 1908,
indipendenti si unirono
independent railways merged
i corsi d'acqua, gli alberi e i parchi.
bodies of water, trees and parks --
ammassate al centro della mappa
at the center of the map,
neanche rientravano nella mappa.
that couldn't even fit on the map.
non era forse così utile.
but maybe not so useful.
un disegnatore tecnico di 29 anni
engineering draftsman
per la metropolitana di Londra.
for the London Underground.
riding underground in trains
che prendono la metropolitana
a ciò che accade in superficie.
what's happening aboveground.
from station to station --
da una stazione all'altra:
not the geography.
non la geografia.
questo groviglio di spaghetti
mess of spaghetti,
o inclinate di 45 gradi.
or they're 45 degrees.
in modo equidistante,
correspond to the color of the line,
corrisponde a quello della linea.
so that it's not really a map anymore.
in effetti, non è più una mappa.
non ha cavi che trasportano elettroni
isn't wires conducting electrons,
conducting people from place to place.
trasportano gente da un luogo all'altro.
decise di dare una chance alla sua mappa.
to give Harry Beck's map a try.
un migliaio di copie in formato tascabile.
of a thousand of these maps, pocket-size.
di fatto diventato il modello
le mappe della metropolitana.
San Paolo, Sydney, Washington D.C.,
Sydney, Washington, D.C. --
la geografia intricata
per differenziare le linee
to distinguish between lines,
to distinguish between types of stations.
i tipi di stazione.
of a universal language, seemingly.
di un linguaggio universale.
cosa fosse un'interfaccia utente,
what a user interface was,
suddividendola in tre principi,
and broke it down to three principles
i problemi di progettazione.
in nearly any design problem.
a cui ci si rivolge.
to deliver that need?
per rispondere a tale esigenza?
che un perito elettrotecnico
that an electrical engineer
uno dei sistemi più complessi al mondo.
complicated systems in the world --
che aveva una matita e un'idea.
with a pencil and an idea.
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