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
- shelf
- glorious
- frieze
- principals
- architectural
- issue
- dignified
- oversized
- photographer
- librarian
- 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
- architects
- architectural
- atmosphere
- big
- budget
- building
- call
- ceiling
- ceilings
- children
- created
- design
- designer
- diego
- dignified
- dollhouse
- east
- frieze
- glorious
- graphic
- graphics
- great
- guy
- heroes
- heroic
- high
- issue
- joy
- kid
- kids
- kind
- lewis
- librarian
- library
- logo
- mural
- muralist
- named
- opened
- oversized
- photographer
- pictures
- principals
- problem
- put
- reach
- real
- richard
- rivera
- school
- setting
- shelf
- solve
- sounds
- space
- top
- wife
- work
- york