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: Genialitatea hărții metroului din Londra

Filmed:
1,052,555 views

Designerul legendar Michael Bierut povestește despre succesul accidental al uneia dintre cele mai renumite hărți din lume - harta de metrou a Londrei.
- 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 historyistorie of civilizationcivilizaţie,
in some waysmoduri, is a historyistorie of mapshărţi:
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Istoria civilizației, în anumite privințe,
este o istorie a hărților:
00:16
How have we come to understanda intelege
the worldlume around us?
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Cum am ajuns să înțelegem
lumea din jurul nostru?
00:19
One of the mostcel mai famouscelebru mapshărţi workslucrări
because it really isn't a mapHartă at all.
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Una dintre cele mai faimoase hărți
funcționează deoarece nu e deloc o hartă.
00:23
[SmallMici thing. BigMare ideaidee.]
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[Lucru mic. Idee mare.]
00:27
[MichaelMichael BierutBierut on
the LondonLondra TubeTub MapHartă]
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[Michael Bierut
despre harta de metrou din Londra]
00:29
The LondonLondra UndergroundÎn subteran
camea venit togetherîmpreună in 1908,
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Metroul din Londra a luat ființă în 1908,
00:32
when eightopt differentdiferit
independentindependent railwayscăile ferate mergedfuzionat
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când opt căi ferate independente
au fuzionat
00:35
to createcrea a singlesingur systemsistem.
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pentru a crea un singur sistem.
A fost nevoie de o hartă,
00:37
They neededNecesar a mapHartă to representreprezinta that systemsistem
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astfel încât oamenii
să știe încotro călătoresc.
00:39
so people would know where to ridecălătorie.
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00:41
The mapHartă they madefăcut is complicatedcomplicat.
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Harta pe care au făcut-o este complexă.
00:44
You can see riversrâuri,
bodiesorganisme of waterapă, treescopaci and parksparcuri --
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Se pot observa râuri,
acumulări de apă, copaci și parcuri;
00:47
the stationsstații were all crammedticsit togetherîmpreună
at the centercentru of the mapHartă,
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stațiile au fost înghesuite
în centrul hărții,
00:50
and out in the peripheryperiferie, there were some
that couldn'tnu a putut even fitpotrivi on the mapHartă.
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iar la periferie au existat unele
care nici măcar nu au încăput pe hartă.
00:53
So the mapHartă was geographicallypunct de vedere geografic accurateprecis,
but maybe not so usefulutil.
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Din punct de vedere geografic
harta era corectă, însă nu prea utilă.
00:58
EnterIntroduceţi HarryHarry BeckBeck.
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Intră în scenă Harry Beck.
00:59
HarryHarry BeckBeck was a 29-year-old-de ani
engineeringInginerie draftsmanproiectant
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Harry Beck era un inginer proiectant
în vârstă de 29 de ani,
01:03
who had been workinglucru on and off
for the LondonLondra UndergroundÎn subteran.
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care lucrase pentru metroul din Londra.
01:06
And he had a keycheie insightînțelegere,
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El a înțeles atunci
01:07
and that was that people
ridingcălărie undergroundSubteran in trainstrenuri
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că oamenilor care călatoresc
în subteran cu trenul
01:11
don't really careîngrijire
what's happeninglucru abovegroundsupraterane.
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nu le pasă de ceea ce se întâmplă
la suprafață.
01:13
They just want to get
from stationstatie to stationstatie --
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Ei vor doar să ajungă
de la o stație la alta.
01:16
"Where do I get on? Where do I get off?"
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„Unde mă urc? La ce stație cobor?”
01:18
It's the systemsistem that's importantimportant,
not the geographyGeografie.
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Sistemul este important, și nu geografia.
01:21
He's takenluate this complicatedcomplicat
messdezordine of spaghettispaghete,
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El a luat această harababură
ca niște spaghete
01:24
and he's simplifiedsimplificată it.
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și a simplificat-o.
01:25
The lineslinii only go in threeTrei directionsdirectii:
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Liniile merg doar în trei direcții:
01:27
they're horizontalorizontală, they're verticalvertical,
or they're 45 degreesgrade.
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ele sunt orizontale, verticale
sau de 45 de grade.
01:31
LikewiseDe asemenea, he spaceddistanţate the stationsstații equallyin aceeasi masura,
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De asemenea,
a distanțat stațiile în mod egal,
01:34
he's madefăcut everyfiecare stationstatie colorculoare
correspondcorespundă to the colorculoare of the linelinia,
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a făcut ca fiecare culoare a stației
să corespundă cu culoarea liniei,
01:38
and he's fixedfix it all
so that it's not really a mapHartă anymoremai.
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și a rezolvat totul
astfel încât să nu mai arate ca o hartă.
01:42
What it is is a diagramdiagramă,
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Este ca o diagramă,
01:44
just like circuitrycircuite,
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asemenea unor circuite,
01:45
exceptcu exceptia the circuitrycircuite here
isn't wiresfire conductingefectuarea electronselectroni,
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cu excepția că circuitele de aici
nu conduc electroni,
01:49
it's tubestuburi containingcare conţin trainstrenuri
conductingefectuarea people from placeloc to placeloc.
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ci tuburi ce conțin trenuri,
ce conduc oameni dintr-un un loc în altul.
01:53
In 1933, the UndergroundÎn subteran decideda decis, at last,
to give HarryHarry Beck'sBeck's mapHartă a try.
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În 1933, compania de metrou a decis
să îi ofere hărții lui Harry Beck o șansă.
01:59
The UndergroundÎn subteran did a testTest runalerga
of a thousandmie of these mapshărţi, pocket-sizebuzunar.
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The Underground a demarat un test pilot
cu o mie de hărți de buzunar.
02:02
They were goneplecat in one hourora.
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Au dispărut într-o oră.
02:04
They realizedrealizat they were ontope something,
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Astfel și-au dat seama că au avut succes
02:05
they printedimprimate 750,000 more,
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și au mai tipărit încă 750.000,
02:08
and this is the mapHartă that you see todayastăzi.
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și aceasta este harta
pe care o vedeți și astăzi.
02:10
Beck'sBeck's designproiecta really becamea devenit the templateșablon
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Designul lui Beck a devenit un șablon
02:13
for the way we think of metrometrou mapshărţi todayastăzi.
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pentru modul în care folosim astăzi
hărțile de metrou.
02:15
TokyoTokyo, ParisParis, BerlinBerlin, São PauloPaulo,
SydneySydney, WashingtonWashington, D.C. --
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Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, São Paulo,
Sydney, Washington, D.C.,
02:20
all of them convertconvertit complexcomplex geographyGeografie
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toate transformă geografia complexă
02:23
into crispcrocante geometrygeometrie.
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în geometrie pură.
02:25
All of them use differentdiferit colorscolorate
to distinguishdistinge betweenîntre lineslinii,
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Toate folosesc culori diferite
pentru a distinge liniile de metrou,
02:28
all of them use simplesimplu symbolssimboluri
to distinguishdistinge betweenîntre typestipuri of stationsstații.
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și simboluri simple
pentru a face distincția între stații.
02:32
They all are partparte
of a universaluniversal languagelimba, seeminglyaparent.
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Se pare că toate fac parte
dintr-un limbaj universal.
02:35
I betpariu HarryHarry BeckBeck wouldn'tnu ar fi have knowncunoscut
what a userutilizator interfaceinterfață was,
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Pun pariu că Harry Beck nu știa
ce înseamnă o interfață de utilizator,
02:39
but that's really what he designedproiectat
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deși asta a creat,
02:41
and he really tooka luat that challengeprovocare
and brokerupt it down to threeTrei principlesprincipii
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iar el a luat această provocare
și a rezumat-o la trei principii
care pot fi aplicate
în aproape orice problemă de proiectare.
02:45
that I think can be appliedaplicat
in nearlyaproape any designproiecta problemproblemă.
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Primul este focalizarea.
02:47
First one is focusconcentra.
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02:49
FocusFocus on who you're doing this for.
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Nu uita cine e beneficiarul proiectului.
02:51
The secondal doilea principleprincipiu is simplicitysimplitate.
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Al doilea principiu este simplitatea.
02:53
What's the shortestmai scurt way
to deliverlivra that need?
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Care este cea mai scurtă cale
de a furniza o soluție?
02:56
FinallyÎn cele din urmă, the last thing is:
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În sfârșit, ultimul lucru este:
02:58
ThinkingGândire in a cross-disciplinarytrans-disciplinare way.
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modalitatea de a gândi interdisciplinar.
03:00
Who would'vear-am thought
that an electricalelectric engineeringiner
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Cine ar fi crezut că un inginer electric
03:03
would be the personpersoană to holddeține the keycheie
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ar fi persoana care să aibă soluția
03:05
to unlockdebloca what was then one of the mostcel mai
complicatedcomplicat systemssisteme in the worldlume --
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pentru a simplifica unul dintre
cele mai complicate sisteme din lume;
03:10
all starteda început by one guy
with a pencilcreion and an ideaidee.
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toate au început de la un tip
cu un creion și o idee.

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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