full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Michael Bierut: How to design a library that makes kids want to read

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Then I got a call from one of the architects, a guy named Richard Lewis, and he says, "I've got a problem. You're the graphics guy. Can you solve it?" And I said, OK, sure." And he said, "The problem is that there's a space between the selhf and the cileing." So that sounds like an aactceutirhrl isuse to me, not a graphic design issue, so I'm, "Go on." And Richard says, "Well, the top shelf has to be low enough for the kid to reach it, but I'm in a big old building, and the ceilings are really high, so actually I've got all this space up there and I need something like a mural." And I'm like, "Whoa, you know, I'm a logo designer. I'm not Diego Rivera or something. I'm not a muralist." And so he said, "But can't you think of anything?" So I said, "OK, what if we just took pictures of the kids in the school and just put them around the top of the thing, and maybe that could work." And my wife is a prhohpgtaoer, and I said, "Dorothy, there's no budget, can you come to this school in east New York, take these pictures?" And she did, and if you go in Richard's library, which is one of the first that opened, it has this giruloos frziee of, like, the heroes of the school, oezesirvd, looking down into the little dollhouse of the real library, right? And the kids were great, hand-selected by the plriaicpns and the liiarbran. It just kind of created this heroic atmosphere in this library, this very diefigind setting below and the joy of the children above.

Open Cloze

Then I got a call from one of the architects, a guy named Richard Lewis, and he says, "I've got a problem. You're the graphics guy. Can you solve it?" And I said, OK, sure." And he said, "The problem is that there's a space between the _____ and the _______." So that sounds like an _____________ _____ to me, not a graphic design issue, so I'm, "Go on." And Richard says, "Well, the top shelf has to be low enough for the kid to reach it, but I'm in a big old building, and the ceilings are really high, so actually I've got all this space up there and I need something like a mural." And I'm like, "Whoa, you know, I'm a logo designer. I'm not Diego Rivera or something. I'm not a muralist." And so he said, "But can't you think of anything?" So I said, "OK, what if we just took pictures of the kids in the school and just put them around the top of the thing, and maybe that could work." And my wife is a ____________, and I said, "Dorothy, there's no budget, can you come to this school in east New York, take these pictures?" And she did, and if you go in Richard's library, which is one of the first that opened, it has this ________ ______ of, like, the heroes of the school, _________, looking down into the little dollhouse of the real library, right? And the kids were great, hand-selected by the __________ and the _________. It just kind of created this heroic atmosphere in this library, this very _________ setting below and the joy of the children above.

Solution

  1. shelf
  2. glorious
  3. frieze
  4. principals
  5. architectural
  6. issue
  7. dignified
  8. oversized
  9. photographer
  10. librarian
  11. ceiling

Original Text

Then I got a call from one of the architects, a guy named Richard Lewis, and he says, "I've got a problem. You're the graphics guy. Can you solve it?" And I said, OK, sure." And he said, "The problem is that there's a space between the shelf and the ceiling." So that sounds like an architectural issue to me, not a graphic design issue, so I'm, "Go on." And Richard says, "Well, the top shelf has to be low enough for the kid to reach it, but I'm in a big old building, and the ceilings are really high, so actually I've got all this space up there and I need something like a mural." And I'm like, "Whoa, you know, I'm a logo designer. I'm not Diego Rivera or something. I'm not a muralist." And so he said, "But can't you think of anything?" So I said, "OK, what if we just took pictures of the kids in the school and just put them around the top of the thing, and maybe that could work." And my wife is a photographer, and I said, "Dorothy, there's no budget, can you come to this school in east New York, take these pictures?" And she did, and if you go in Richard's library, which is one of the first that opened, it has this glorious frieze of, like, the heroes of the school, oversized, looking down into the little dollhouse of the real library, right? And the kids were great, hand-selected by the principals and the librarian. It just kind of created this heroic atmosphere in this library, this very dignified setting below and the joy of the children above.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
option number 6
unintended consequences 4
robin hood 4
logo put 3
library initiative 2
school libraries 2
guy named 2
long day 2

Important Words

  1. architects
  2. architectural
  3. atmosphere
  4. big
  5. budget
  6. building
  7. call
  8. ceiling
  9. ceilings
  10. children
  11. created
  12. design
  13. designer
  14. diego
  15. dignified
  16. dollhouse
  17. east
  18. frieze
  19. glorious
  20. graphic
  21. graphics
  22. great
  23. guy
  24. heroes
  25. heroic
  26. high
  27. issue
  28. joy
  29. kid
  30. kids
  31. kind
  32. lewis
  33. librarian
  34. library
  35. logo
  36. mural
  37. muralist
  38. named
  39. opened
  40. oversized
  41. photographer
  42. pictures
  43. principals
  44. problem
  45. put
  46. reach
  47. real
  48. richard
  49. rivera
  50. school
  51. setting
  52. shelf
  53. solve
  54. sounds
  55. space
  56. top
  57. wife
  58. work
  59. york