Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read
Michael Bierut: Cum să proiectați o bibliotecă pentru a-i face pe copii să iubească lectura
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.
legea consecințelor neintenționate.
consequences that they really intend,
fiindcă „intenționează” anumite rezultate,
to help them achieve those consequences.
să le îndeplinească.
of unintended consequences.
de consecințe neintenționate.
consequences intended and unintended.
atât intenționate, cât și neintenționate.
called Robin Hood
numită Robin Hood,
a wonderful philanthropic organization
uimitoare din New York,
give it to poor people.
was the New York City school system,
sistemul școlar din New York,
more than a million students at a time,
peste un milion de elevi,
that are in disrepair,
de o renovare.
that could use a renovation.
to improve these buildings in some way,
de a le îmbunătăți cumva,
too expensive and impractical.
prea scumpă și nepractică.
what one room they could go into
ce sală ar fi putut să repare
in as many buildings that they could,
în cât mai multe dintre ele,
the lives of the children inside
was the school library,
called the Library Initiative.
Proiectul Biblioteca.
have to pass through the library.
pe la bibliotecă.
and soul of the school is.
where they brought in
au adus mai întâi 10,
to rethink what a library was.
pe care s-o regândească.
by improving these libraries.
îmbunătățind bibliotecile.
"Could you make a little contribution?"
și m-au întrebat: „Poți contribui și tu?”
to be the graphic designer
That means I get to design a logo.
Va trebui să proiectez o siglă.
pentru chestia asta.
compared with architecture
and then you're out,
good about myself when I do these favors.
mulțumit când le fac altora favoruri.
all based on this one idea.
toate pornind de la o singură idee.
pick any of the three.
these would be new school libraries
aveau să fie niște biblioteci noi
a new idea that needs a new name.
are nevoie de un alt nume.
that these were musty old libraries,
unor biblioteci vechi și prăfuite,
that everyone is bored with,
de care toată lumea s-a plictisit.
de pe vremea bunicilor.
do talk, do make loud noises.
unde poți vorbi și poți face zgomot.
it's like a shush-free zone.
E ca o zonă lipsită de șâșâieli.
OK, option number two.
Opțiunea a doua.
Meet you after school down at OWL.
Ne întâlnim după ore la OWL.
Now, what does OWL stand for?
(Biblioteca Întregii Lumi)
(Deschide. Minunează-te. Învață.)
could figure out other things it could be
bibliotecarii să știe ce-ar putea fi,
It's like the eye of the owl.
E ca un ochi de bufniță.
was based actually on language.
is the past tense of "read,"
al verbului „read” (a citi)
this place The Red Zone?
Red Zone (Zona Roșie)?
interested in spelling and I don't know.
și s-ar putea să nu le placă.
is more important than spelling,
decât ortografia,
one of those instances.
și în acest caz.
and the question should be,
iar aceasta este:
the question was more like,
întrebarea a fost mai degrabă:
with old libraries, musty old libraries.
de bibliotecile vechi și prăfuite.
have never really seen a library.
nu văzuseră niciodată o bibliotecă.
if they're there at all,
dacă existau de fel,
to bore anyone at all.
about giving it a new name.
să nu-i mai căutăm un nume nou.
bibliotecă (library).
să nu-i dăm puțină emfază?
the Library Initiative.
there's your logo.
Iată sigla.
an unintended consequence,
o consecință neintenționată,
they didn't really even need my design
n-au avut nevoie de designul meu
font, ba chiar și de mână,
you could write it by hand,
sending emails around,
să-și trimită e-mailuri
just right out of the thing.
on the real rollout of this thing --
of their own library. Right?
propriei biblioteci.
cu diferiți arhitecți.
with different architects.
Now these architects were my client.
Robin Hood. Acum, erau arhitecții,
Put it on the door."
„Uite sigla. Pune-o pe ușă.”
Put it off to the side."
repeated all over to the top."
"Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
„Uite sigla. Uite sigla.”
from one of the architects,
and he says, "I've got a problem.
și mi-a spus: „Am o problemă.
Can you solve it?"
that there's a space
„că există un spațiu între raft și tavan.”
an architectural issue to me,
o problemă de arhitectură,
so I'm, "Go on."
așa că am zis „Continuă”.
the top shelf has to be low enough
ultimul raft trebuie să fie destul de jos
iar tavanele sunt foarte înalte,
and the ceilings are really high,
all this space up there
you know, I'm a logo designer.
de sigle”, am spus eu.
think of anything?"
m-a întrebat el.
took pictures of the kids in the school
cu copiii din școală
the top of the thing,
„Dorothy, n-avem buget.
in east New York, take these pictures?"
New Yorkului, să faci niște poze?”
în biblioteca lui Richard,
of, like, the heroes of the school,
cu eroii școlii,
of the real library, right?
care e biblioteca.
hand-selected by the principals
aleși special
this heroic atmosphere in this library,
în bibliotecă,
and the joy of the children above.
și bucuria copiilor de deasupra.
in the other schools see this
din celelalte școli au văzut acest lucru
it can't be the same mural every time,
aceeași pictură mereu,
and then she did another one,
apoi încă una,
pe care o cunosc, Lynn Pauley,
named Lynn Pauley,
paintings of the kids.
foarte frumoase cu copiii.
at a place called Automatic Design.
Charles Wilkin, de la Automatic Design,
asking for words,
care îi spuneau cuvinte,
delirious kind of constellation
of things that are in books.
about their favorite books
as a frieze up there.
manga-style statement,
în stil manga,
un ilustrator extraordinar,
into the faces and characters
în fețele și personajele,
that you find in the books.
pe care le găsești în cărți.
of objects and words
de cuvinte și imagini
and will fascinate students
și va continua să fascineze elevii
a series of dimensions to these artists,
o serie de dimensiuni artiștilor.
any problem with that."
It just was the greatest thing.
A fost extraordinar.
made of construction paper,
câte o invitație colorată,
la deschiderea noii noastre biblioteci.”
to the opening of our new library."
say, you'd go to PS10,
there'd be a student ambassador,
din partea elevilor,
specifically for the opening,
pentru deschidere,
with certificates,
was just a delirious, fun party.
și foarte amuzantă.
obviously not belonging,
evident neintegrându-mă deloc,
"What are you doing here, mister?"
„Ce căutați aici, domnule?”
that designed this place."
din echipa care a proiectat acest loc.”
"You took the pictures up above."
„Ați făcut pozele de sus?”
The sign over the door?"
Semnul de pe ușă?”
"OK. Nice work if you can get it."
„OK, decât nimic...”
going to these little openings
să merg la aceste mici deschideri,
kind of largely ignored or humiliated,
m-am simțit cam ignorat sau umilit,
going to the openings,
to get the people in my office
la mine în birou pe oamenii
get the illustrators and photographers,
ilustratori și fotografi,
the five boroughs of New York
din New York
putem vizita într-o zi.
going to be 60 of these libraries,
maybe half a dozen in one long day.
was meeting these librarians
că i-am cunoscut pe bibliotecarii
took possession of these places
care le stăpâneau
upon which they were invited
pe care fuseseră invitați
and bring the books to life,
și să aducă volumele la viață.
this really exciting experience
see these things in action.
în acțiune.
făcând asta
because it got dark early,
deoarece se întuneca repede,
So really nice having you here.
Mă bucur că v-am văzut.
how I turn off the lights?"
cum sting luminile?”
this special way that I do it."
în care procedez.”
every light one by one by one by one,
the kids' faces,
pe care o sting în fiecare seară,
I turn off every night,
why I come to work."
de ce vin la serviciu.”
about designing that logo
să-mi asum meritele,
the experience to that extent,
la ea încă de la început,
as far as I could reach with my own hands.
apropiat, pe ce puteam atinge cu mâna.
the chain of consequences
lanțul consecințelor
could do her work really well.
cât mai bine.
are affected by these libraries.
de aceste biblioteci în fiecare an.
for more than 10 years now,
de mai bine de 10 ani,
a generation of children to books
o întreagă generație de copii spre cărți.
are the best consequences.
sunt cele mai bune consecințe.
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