full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Chip Kidd: The art of first impressions -- in design and life
Unscramble the Blue Letters
["'Perfidia' a novel by James Ellroy"] Okay, James Ellroy, amazing crmie writer, a good feirnd, I've worked with him for many years. He is probably best known as the author of "The Black Dahlia" and "L.A. Confidential." His most recent novel was called this, which is a very mysterious name that I'm sure a lot of ppleoe know what it means, but a lot of people don't. And it's a story about a Japanese-American deivtctee in Los Angeles in 1941 ingvtinetiasg a murder. And then Pearl hoarbr happens, and as if his life wasn't difficult enough, now the race relations have really ratcheted up, and then the Japanese-American internment camps are quickly created, and there's lots of tsnoien and horrible stuff as he's still trying to solve this murder. And so I did at first think very literally about this in terms of all right, we'll take Pearl Harbor and we'll add it to Los Angeles and we'll make this aplctiyoapc dawn on the horizon of the city. And so that's a picture from Pearl Harbor just grafted onto Los alneges. My editor in chief said, "You know, it's irittenseng but I think you can do better and I think you can make it simpler." And so I went back to the drawing board, as I often do. But also, being alive to my surroundings, I work in a high-rise in Midtown, and every night, before I laeve the office, I have to push this bottun to get out, and the big heavy glass doors open and I can get onto the elevator. And one night, all of a sudden, I looked at this and I saw it in a way that I hadn't really noticed it before. Big red cclire, danger. And I thought this was so oiuobvs that it had to have been done a zillion times, and so I did a Google image sercah, and I couldn't find another book cover that looked quite like this, and so this is really what solved the problem, and gclliaarhpy it's more interesting and creates a bigger tension between the idea of a certain kind of sunrise coming up over L.A. and aeirmca.
Open Cloze
["'Perfidia' a novel by James Ellroy"] Okay, James Ellroy, amazing _____ writer, a good ______, I've worked with him for many years. He is probably best known as the author of "The Black Dahlia" and "L.A. Confidential." His most recent novel was called this, which is a very mysterious name that I'm sure a lot of ______ know what it means, but a lot of people don't. And it's a story about a Japanese-American _________ in Los Angeles in 1941 _____________ a murder. And then Pearl ______ happens, and as if his life wasn't difficult enough, now the race relations have really ratcheted up, and then the Japanese-American internment camps are quickly created, and there's lots of _______ and horrible stuff as he's still trying to solve this murder. And so I did at first think very literally about this in terms of all right, we'll take Pearl Harbor and we'll add it to Los Angeles and we'll make this ___________ dawn on the horizon of the city. And so that's a picture from Pearl Harbor just grafted onto Los _______. My editor in chief said, "You know, it's ___________ but I think you can do better and I think you can make it simpler." And so I went back to the drawing board, as I often do. But also, being alive to my surroundings, I work in a high-rise in Midtown, and every night, before I _____ the office, I have to push this ______ to get out, and the big heavy glass doors open and I can get onto the elevator. And one night, all of a sudden, I looked at this and I saw it in a way that I hadn't really noticed it before. Big red ______, danger. And I thought this was so _______ that it had to have been done a zillion times, and so I did a Google image ______, and I couldn't find another book cover that looked quite like this, and so this is really what solved the problem, and ___________ it's more interesting and creates a bigger tension between the idea of a certain kind of sunrise coming up over L.A. and _______.
Solution
- obvious
- harbor
- button
- apocalyptic
- interesting
- america
- crime
- leave
- people
- angeles
- investigating
- search
- detective
- circle
- tension
- friend
- graphically
Original Text
["'Perfidia' a novel by James Ellroy"] Okay, James Ellroy, amazing crime writer, a good friend, I've worked with him for many years. He is probably best known as the author of "The Black Dahlia" and "L.A. Confidential." His most recent novel was called this, which is a very mysterious name that I'm sure a lot of people know what it means, but a lot of people don't. And it's a story about a Japanese-American detective in Los Angeles in 1941 investigating a murder. And then Pearl Harbor happens, and as if his life wasn't difficult enough, now the race relations have really ratcheted up, and then the Japanese-American internment camps are quickly created, and there's lots of tension and horrible stuff as he's still trying to solve this murder. And so I did at first think very literally about this in terms of all right, we'll take Pearl Harbor and we'll add it to Los Angeles and we'll make this apocalyptic dawn on the horizon of the city. And so that's a picture from Pearl Harbor just grafted onto Los Angeles. My editor in chief said, "You know, it's interesting but I think you can do better and I think you can make it simpler." And so I went back to the drawing board, as I often do. But also, being alive to my surroundings, I work in a high-rise in Midtown, and every night, before I leave the office, I have to push this button to get out, and the big heavy glass doors open and I can get onto the elevator. And one night, all of a sudden, I looked at this and I saw it in a way that I hadn't really noticed it before. Big red circle, danger. And I thought this was so obvious that it had to have been done a zillion times, and so I did a Google image search, and I couldn't find another book cover that looked quite like this, and so this is really what solved the problem, and graphically it's more interesting and creates a bigger tension between the idea of a certain kind of sunrise coming up over L.A. and America.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
collocation |
frequency |
digestive system |
4 |
visual vernacular |
3 |
los angeles |
3 |
pearl harbor |
3 |
human digestive |
3 |
deft strokes |
2 |
diet coke |
2 |
blih blah |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
collocation |
frequency |
human digestive system |
3 |
Important Words
- add
- alive
- amazing
- america
- angeles
- apocalyptic
- author
- big
- bigger
- black
- board
- book
- button
- called
- camps
- chief
- circle
- city
- coming
- confidential
- cover
- created
- creates
- crime
- danger
- dawn
- detective
- difficult
- doors
- drawing
- editor
- elevator
- ellroy
- find
- friend
- glass
- good
- google
- grafted
- graphically
- harbor
- heavy
- horizon
- horrible
- idea
- image
- interesting
- internment
- investigating
- james
- kind
- leave
- life
- literally
- looked
- los
- lot
- lots
- means
- midtown
- murder
- mysterious
- night
- noticed
- obvious
- office
- open
- pearl
- people
- picture
- problem
- push
- quickly
- race
- ratcheted
- red
- relations
- search
- simpler
- solve
- solved
- story
- stuff
- sudden
- sunrise
- surroundings
- tension
- terms
- thought
- times
- work
- worked
- writer
- years
- zillion