full transcript

From the Ted Talk by John Maeda: My journey in design

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I bgaen to be fsaeaitncd by psilatc, so I spent four mohnts making eight plastic boklcs perfectly optically transparent, as a kind of release of stress. Because of that, I became ietrsneted in blue tape, so in San Francisco, at C.C., I had a whole exhibition on blue tape. I made a whole iaotlnitslan out of blue tape — blue painters' tape. And at this pinot my wife kind of got weorrid about me, so I stopped doing blue tape and began to think, Well, what else is there in life? And so computers, as you know, these big computers, there are now tiny computers. They're littler computers, so the one-chip computers, I began to program one-chip cperutoms and make objects out of P.C. boards, LEDs. I began to make LED sculptures that would live inside little boxes out of MDF. This is a series of light boxes I made for a show in Italy. Very simple boxes: you just press one btuotn and some LED interaction occurs. This is a series of lamps I made. This is a Bento box lamp: it's sort of a plastic rice lamp; it's very friendly. I did a show in London last year made out of iPods — I used iPods as a mtaraiel. So I took 16 iPod Nanos and made a kind of a Nano fish, basically. Recently, this is for Reebok. I've done shoes for reobek as well, as a kind of a hobby for apparel.

Open Cloze

I _____ to be __________ by _______, so I spent four ______ making eight plastic ______ perfectly optically transparent, as a kind of release of stress. Because of that, I became __________ in blue tape, so in San Francisco, at C.C., I had a whole exhibition on blue tape. I made a whole ____________ out of blue tape — blue painters' tape. And at this _____ my wife kind of got _______ about me, so I stopped doing blue tape and began to think, Well, what else is there in life? And so computers, as you know, these big computers, there are now tiny computers. They're littler computers, so the one-chip computers, I began to program one-chip _________ and make objects out of P.C. boards, LEDs. I began to make LED sculptures that would live inside little boxes out of MDF. This is a series of light boxes I made for a show in Italy. Very simple boxes: you just press one ______ and some LED interaction occurs. This is a series of lamps I made. This is a Bento box lamp: it's sort of a plastic rice lamp; it's very friendly. I did a show in London last year made out of iPods — I used iPods as a ________. So I took 16 iPod Nanos and made a kind of a Nano fish, basically. Recently, this is for Reebok. I've done shoes for ______ as well, as a kind of a hobby for apparel.

Solution

  1. installation
  2. plastic
  3. fascinated
  4. button
  5. blocks
  6. point
  7. material
  8. interested
  9. worried
  10. began
  11. computers
  12. reebok
  13. months

Original Text

I began to be fascinated by plastic, so I spent four months making eight plastic blocks perfectly optically transparent, as a kind of release of stress. Because of that, I became interested in blue tape, so in San Francisco, at C.C., I had a whole exhibition on blue tape. I made a whole installation out of blue tape — blue painters' tape. And at this point my wife kind of got worried about me, so I stopped doing blue tape and began to think, Well, what else is there in life? And so computers, as you know, these big computers, there are now tiny computers. They're littler computers, so the one-chip computers, I began to program one-chip computers and make objects out of P.C. boards, LEDs. I began to make LED sculptures that would live inside little boxes out of MDF. This is a series of light boxes I made for a show in Italy. Very simple boxes: you just press one button and some LED interaction occurs. This is a series of lamps I made. This is a Bento box lamp: it's sort of a plastic rice lamp; it's very friendly. I did a show in London last year made out of iPods — I used iPods as a material. So I took 16 iPod Nanos and made a kind of a Nano fish, basically. Recently, this is for Reebok. I've done shoes for Reebok as well, as a kind of a hobby for apparel.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
blue tape 3
tofu factory 2
family business 2
paul rand 2
strange moment 2
design schools 2
strange medium 2
digital media 2
art center 2

Important Words

  1. apparel
  2. basically
  3. began
  4. bento
  5. big
  6. blocks
  7. blue
  8. boards
  9. box
  10. boxes
  11. button
  12. computers
  13. exhibition
  14. fascinated
  15. fish
  16. francisco
  17. friendly
  18. hobby
  19. installation
  20. interaction
  21. interested
  22. ipod
  23. ipods
  24. italy
  25. kind
  26. lamps
  27. led
  28. leds
  29. life
  30. light
  31. littler
  32. live
  33. london
  34. making
  35. material
  36. mdf
  37. months
  38. nano
  39. nanos
  40. objects
  41. occurs
  42. optically
  43. perfectly
  44. plastic
  45. point
  46. press
  47. program
  48. reebok
  49. release
  50. rice
  51. san
  52. sculptures
  53. series
  54. shoes
  55. show
  56. simple
  57. sort
  58. spent
  59. stopped
  60. stress
  61. tape
  62. tiny
  63. transparent
  64. wife
  65. worried
  66. year