ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Bierut - Designer, critic
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.

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. 


More profile about the speaker
Michael Bierut | Speaker | TED.com
Small Thing Big Idea

Michael Bierut: The genius of the London Tube Map

Michael Bierut: Il genio della metropolitana di Londra

Filmed:
1,052,555 views

Michael Bierut, una leggenda internazionale del design, racconta la storia del successo accidentale di una mappa fra le più famose nel mondo -- la mappa della metropolitana di Londra.
- Designer, critic
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.

00:12
The historystoria of civilizationciviltà,
in some waysmodi, is a historystoria of mapsmappe:
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La storia della civilizzazione,
per certi versi, è una storia di mappe:
come siamo arrivati a comprendere
il mondo attorno a noi?
00:16
How have we come to understandcapire
the worldmondo around us?
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Una delle mappe più famose funziona
perché in realtà non è affatto una mappa.
00:19
One of the mostmaggior parte famousfamoso mapsmappe workslavori
because it really isn't a mapcarta geografica at all.
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[Piccole cose]
00:23
[SmallPiccolo thing. BigGrande ideaidea.]
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[Grandi idee.]
[Michael Bierut su
"La Mappa della Metro di Londra"]
00:27
[MichaelMichael BierutBierut on
the LondonLondra TubeTubo MapMappa]
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La Metropolitana di Londra
cominciò a prendere forma nel 1908,
00:29
The LondonLondra UndergroundMetropolitana
cameè venuto togetherinsieme in 1908,
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quando otto linee ferroviarie
indipendenti si unirono
00:32
when eightotto differentdiverso
independentindipendente railwaysFerrovie mergedfuse
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per creare un sistema unico.
00:35
to createcreare a singlesingolo systemsistema.
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Per rappresentarlo, serviva una mappa
00:37
They needednecessaria a mapcarta geografica to representrappresentare that systemsistema
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affinché la gente sapesse dove andare.
00:39
so people would know where to ridecavalcata.
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Realizzarono una mappa complessa.
00:41
The mapcarta geografica they madefatto is complicatedcomplicato.
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Si vedevano i fiumi,
i corsi d'acqua, gli alberi e i parchi.
00:44
You can see riversfiumi,
bodiescorpi of wateracqua, treesalberi and parksparchi --
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Le stazioni erano tutte
ammassate al centro della mappa
00:47
the stationsstazioni were all crammedzeppo togetherinsieme
at the centercentro of the mapcarta geografica,
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e alcune stazioni periferiche
neanche rientravano nella mappa.
00:50
and out in the peripheryperiferia, there were some
that couldn'tnon poteva even fitin forma on the mapcarta geografica.
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La mappa, precisa geograficamente,
non era forse così utile.
00:53
So the mapcarta geografica was geographicallygeograficamente accuratepreciso,
but maybe not so usefulutile.
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00:58
EnterImmettere HarryHarry BeckVasca di tintura.
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Arriva Harry Beck.
Harry Beck era
un disegnatore tecnico di 29 anni
00:59
HarryHarry BeckVasca di tintura was a 29-year-old-anni
engineeringingegneria draftsmanrelatore per parere
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che ogni tanto lavorava
per la metropolitana di Londra.
01:03
who had been workinglavoro on and off
for the LondonLondra UndergroundMetropolitana.
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Lui considerò un aspetto importante
01:06
And he had a keychiave insightintuizione,
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01:07
and that was that people
ridingequitazione undergroundmetropolitana in trainstreni
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e cioè che le persone
che prendono la metropolitana
non sono realmente interessate
a ciò che accade in superficie.
01:11
don't really carecura
what's happeningavvenimento abovegroundfuori terra.
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01:13
They just want to get
from stationstazione to stationstazione --
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Vogliono solo recarsi
da una stazione all'altra:
"Dove salgo? Dove scendo?"
01:16
"Where do I get on? Where do I get off?"
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01:18
It's the systemsistema that's importantimportante,
not the geographyGeografia.
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Ciò che importa è il sistema,
non la geografia.
Così, Harry Beck ha preso
questo groviglio di spaghetti
01:21
He's takenprese this complicatedcomplicato
messpasticcio of spaghettispaghetti,
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e l'ha semplificato.
01:24
and he's simplifiedsemplificato it.
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Le linee seguono solo tre direzioni:
01:25
The linesLinee only go in threetre directionsindicazioni:
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sono orizzontali, verticali
o inclinate di 45 gradi.
01:27
they're horizontalorizzontale, they're verticalverticale,
or they're 45 degreesgradi.
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01:31
LikewiseAllo stesso modo, he spaceddistanziati the stationsstazioni equallyugualmente,
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Le stazioni sono disposte
in modo equidistante,
01:34
he's madefatto everyogni stationstazione colorcolore
correspondcorrispondono to the colorcolore of the linelinea,
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e il colore di ogni stazione
corrisponde a quello della linea.
01:38
and he's fixedfisso it all
so that it's not really a mapcarta geografica anymorepiù.
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L'ha migliorata tanto che,
in effetti, non è più una mappa.
È un diagramma,
01:42
What it is is a diagramdiagramma,
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simile a un circuito,
01:44
just like circuitrycircuiteria,
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solo che qui il circuito
non ha cavi che trasportano elettroni
01:45
excepttranne the circuitrycircuiteria here
isn't wiresfili conductingconduzione electronselettroni,
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01:49
it's tubestubi containingcontenente trainstreni
conductingconduzione people from placeposto to placeposto.
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ma tunnel con dentro dei treni che
trasportano gente da un luogo all'altro.
Nel 1933, la Metropolitana di Londra
decise di dare una chance alla sua mappa.
01:53
In 1933, the UndergroundMetropolitana decideddeciso, at last,
to give HarryHarry Beck'sDi Beck mapcarta geografica a try.
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In via sperimentale, pubblicarono
un migliaio di copie in formato tascabile.
01:59
The UndergroundMetropolitana did a testTest runcorrere
of a thousandmille of these mapsmappe, pocket-sizeformato tascabile.
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02:02
They were goneandato in one hourora.
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Andarono a ruba in un'ora.
Capirono di essere sulla strada giusta,
02:04
They realizedrealizzato they were ontosu something,
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così ne stamparono altre 750.000.
02:05
they printedstampato 750,000 more,
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E questa è la mappa che vedete oggi.
02:08
and this is the mapcarta geografica that you see todayoggi.
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Il disegno di Beck è
di fatto diventato il modello
02:10
Beck'sDi Beck designdesign really becamedivenne the templatemodello
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di come concepiamo oggi
le mappe della metropolitana.
02:13
for the way we think of metrometropolitana mapsmappe todayoggi.
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Città come Tokyo, Parigi, Berlino,
San Paolo, Sydney, Washington D.C.,
02:15
TokyoTokyo, ParisParigi, BerlinBerlino, São PauloPaulo,
SydneySydney, WashingtonWashington, D.C. --
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hanno tutte trasformato
la geografia intricata
02:20
all of them convertconvertire complexcomplesso geographyGeografia
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in una geometria precisa.
02:23
into crispcroccante geometrygeometria.
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Tutte usano colori diversi
per differenziare le linee
02:25
All of them use differentdiverso colorscolori
to distinguishdistinguere betweenfra linesLinee,
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02:28
all of them use simplesemplice symbolssimboli
to distinguishdistinguere betweenfra typestipi of stationsstazioni.
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e simboli semplici per distinguere
i tipi di stazione.
02:32
They all are partparte
of a universaluniversale languageLingua, seeminglyapparentemente.
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Tutte sembrano fare parte
di un linguaggio universale.
Scommetto che Harry Beck non sapeva
cosa fosse un'interfaccia utente,
02:35
I betscommessa HarryHarry BeckVasca di tintura wouldn'tno have knownconosciuto
what a userutente interfaceinterfaccia was,
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02:39
but that's really what he designedprogettato
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ma è proprio ciò che ha progettato.
Ha affrontato la sfida
suddividendola in tre principi,
02:41
and he really tookha preso that challengesfida
and brokerotto it down to threetre principlesi principi
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che ritengo applicabili a quasi tutti
i problemi di progettazione.
02:45
that I think can be appliedapplicato
in nearlyquasi any designdesign problemproblema.
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Primo: la focalizzazione.
02:47
First one is focusmessa a fuoco.
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02:49
FocusMessa a fuoco on who you're doing this for.
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Focalizzare il pubblico
a cui ci si rivolge.
Secondo principio: la semplicità.
02:51
The secondsecondo principleprincipio is simplicitysemplicità.
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02:53
What's the shortestpiù breve way
to deliverconsegnare that need?
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Qual è la via più breve
per rispondere a tale esigenza?
Terzo e ultimo:
02:56
FinallyInfine, the last thing is:
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02:58
ThinkingPensando in a cross-disciplinarycross-disciplinare way.
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pensare in modo interdisciplinare.
Chi avrebbe mai pensato
che un perito elettrotecnico
03:00
Who would'veavrei fatto thought
that an electricalelettrico engineeringegnere
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03:03
would be the personpersona to holdtenere the keychiave
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avrebbe avuto in mano l'elemento decisivo
per risolvere quello che allora era
uno dei sistemi più complessi al mondo.
03:05
to unlocksbloccare what was then one of the mostmaggior parte
complicatedcomplicato systemssistemi in the worldmondo --
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Tutto iniziò con un ragazzo
che aveva una matita e un'idea.
03:10
all startediniziato by one guy
with a pencilmatita and an ideaidea.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Michael Bierut - Designer, critic
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.

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. 


More profile about the speaker
Michael Bierut | Speaker | TED.com