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

邁克爾比魯特: 倫敦地鐵地圖的天才構想

Filmed:
1,052,555 views

設計傳奇人物邁克爾比魯特訴說全球知曉的倫敦地鐵地圖意外成功的故事。
- 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 history歷史 of civilization文明,
in some ways方法, is a history歷史 of maps地圖:
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就某些方面來說,
文明的歷史就是地圖的歷史:
00:16
How have we come to understand理解
the world世界 around us?
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我們如何漸漸了解我們周遭的世界?
00:19
One of the most famous著名 maps地圖 works作品
because it really isn't a map地圖 at all.
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最有名的地圖之一,之所以很有用,
是因為它其實完全不是地圖。
00:23
[Small thing. Big idea理念.]
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〔小東西。大點子。〕
00:27
[Michael邁克爾 BierutBierut on
the London倫敦 Tube Map地圖]
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〔邁克爾比魯特談倫敦地鐵地圖〕
00:29
The London倫敦 Underground地下
came來了 together一起 in 1908,
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倫敦地鐵在 1908 年蓋好,
00:32
when eight different不同
independent獨立 railways鐵路 merged合併的
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八條不同的獨立鐵路被結合在一起
00:35
to create創建 a single system系統.
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成為單一運輸系統。
00:37
They needed需要 a map地圖 to represent代表 that system系統
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他們需要一張地圖來呈現這個系統,
00:39
so people would know where to ride.
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民眾才能知道要坐到哪裡。
00:41
The map地圖 they made製作 is complicated複雜.
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他們做的地圖很複雜。
00:44
You can see rivers河流,
bodies身體 of water, trees樹木 and parks公園 --
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你會看到河流、水體、樹木、公園-
00:47
the stations were all crammed臨時抱佛腳 together一起
at the center中央 of the map地圖,
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地鐵站都擠在地圖上的中心區域,
00:50
and out in the periphery周邊, there were some
that couldn't不能 even fit適合 on the map地圖.
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在外圍地區,有些車站
位置甚至跟地圖不吻合。
00:53
So the map地圖 was geographically地理 accurate準確,
but maybe not so useful有用.
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所以,這個地圖在地理上
是精確的,但不見得有用。
00:58
Enter輸入 Harry掠奪 Beck招手.
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哈利貝克出場了。
00:59
Harry掠奪 Beck招手 was a 29-year-old-歲
engineering工程 draftsman起草者
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哈利貝克是二十九歲的工程繪圖員,
01:03
who had been working加工 on and off
for the London倫敦 Underground地下.
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他偶爾會為倫敦地鐵做些工作。
01:06
And he had a key insight眼光,
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他提出關鍵性的洞見,
01:07
and that was that people
riding騎術 underground地下 in trains火車
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那就是,在地下搭火車的人,
01:11
don't really care關心
what's happening事件 aboveground地上.
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其實不在乎地面上有什麼東西。
01:13
They just want to get
from station to station --
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他們只想從一站到達另一站-
01:16
"Where do I get on? Where do I get off?"
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「我要在哪站上車?在哪站下車?」
01:18
It's the system系統 that's important重要,
not the geography地理.
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重要的是系統,不是地理。
01:21
He's taken採取 this complicated複雜
mess食堂 of spaghetti意大利面,
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他把像義大利麵一樣
一團亂的複雜線路
01:24
and he's simplified it.
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拿來做了簡化。
01:25
The lines only go in three directions方向:
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線只有三個方向:
01:27
they're horizontal, they're vertical垂直,
or they're 45 degrees.
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水平、垂直,或 45 度。
01:31
Likewise同樣, he spaced間隔 the stations equally一樣,
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同樣的,他把站間的距離做平分,
01:34
he's made製作 every一切 station color顏色
correspond對應 to the color顏色 of the line,
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他把每個站的顏色對應到線的顏色,
01:38
and he's fixed固定 it all
so that it's not really a map地圖 anymore.
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他把整張圖修過後,
其實已經算不上是地圖了。
01:42
What it is is a diagram,
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它是一張示意圖,
01:44
just like circuitry電路,
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就像電路圖,
01:45
except the circuitry電路 here
isn't wires電線 conducting開展 electrons電子,
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差別只是這裡的電路圖
不是傳輸電子的電線,
01:49
it's tubes containing trains火車
conducting開展 people from place地點 to place地點.
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而是火車走的地鐵道,
把人從一個地方傳輸到另一個地方。
01:53
In 1933, the Underground地下 decided決定, at last,
to give Harry掠奪 Beck's貝克 map地圖 a try.
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1933 年,倫敦地鐵終於決定,
至少試試看哈利貝克的地圖。
01:59
The Underground地下 did a test測試 run
of a thousand of these maps地圖, pocket-size口袋大小.
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地鐵做了一千張這種地圖,
口袋大小,做為測試用。
02:02
They were gone走了 in one hour小時.
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一小時就被拿光了。
02:04
They realized實現 they were onto something,
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他們發現他們似乎掌握到了關鍵,
02:05
they printed印刷的 750,000 more,
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於是又多印了七十五萬份,
02:08
and this is the map地圖 that you see today今天.
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這就是你們現今看到的地圖。
02:10
Beck's貝克 design設計 really became成為 the template模板
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貝克的設計變成了樣板,
02:13
for the way we think of metro地鐵 maps地圖 today今天.
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我們現今的捷運地圖都是參考它。
02:15
Tokyo東京, Paris巴黎, Berlin柏林, São Paulo聖保羅,
Sydney悉尼, Washington華盛頓, D.C. --
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東京、巴黎、柏林、
聖保羅、雪黎、華盛頓特區-
02:20
all of them convert兌換 complex複雜 geography地理
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它們都把複雜的地理
02:23
into crisp geometry幾何.
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轉變成清爽的幾何。
02:25
All of them use different不同 colors顏色
to distinguish區分 between之間 lines,
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它們都用不同的顏色
來區分不同的線,
02:28
all of them use simple簡單 symbols符號
to distinguish區分 between之間 types類型 of stations.
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它們都用簡單的符號
來區別不同類型的站。
02:32
They all are part部分
of a universal普遍 language語言, seemingly似乎.
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它們似乎都是這個
通用語言的一部分。
02:35
I bet賭注 Harry掠奪 Beck招手 wouldn't不會 have known已知
what a user用戶 interface接口 was,
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我打賭哈利貝克並不知道
使用者介面的概念,
02:39
but that's really what he designed設計
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但他設計的就是使用者介面,
02:41
and he really took that challenge挑戰
and broke打破 it down to three principles原則
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他接受了那個挑戰,
並將它分解成三條原則,
02:45
that I think can be applied應用的
in nearly幾乎 any design設計 problem問題.
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我認為這些原則幾乎
可用於所有的設計問題。
02:47
First one is focus焦點.
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第一:聚焦。
02:49
Focus焦點 on who you're doing this for.
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聚焦在你做這東西的目的上。
02:51
The second第二 principle原理 is simplicity簡單.
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第二條原則是簡單。
02:53
What's the shortest最短 way
to deliver交付 that need?
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達成目的最簡單的方法是什麼?
02:56
Finally最後, the last thing is:
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最後一項原則:
02:58
Thinking思維 in a cross-disciplinary跨學科 way.
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用跨學科的方式來思考。
03:00
Who would've會一直 thought
that an electrical電動 engineer工程師
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誰會想到一名電子工程師
03:03
would be the person to hold保持 the key
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會持有一把鑰匙,
03:05
to unlock開鎖 what was then one of the most
complicated複雜 systems系統 in the world世界 --
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將當時世上最複雜的一個系統解鎖。
03:10
all started開始 by one guy
with a pencil鉛筆 and an idea理念.
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一切都始於一個人、
一支筆、一個想法。
Translated by Lilian Chiu
Reviewed by Adrienne Lin

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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