Blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah, blah.
吧啦吧啦吧啦吧啦吧啦 吧啦吧啦吧啦吧啦 吧啦吧啦,吧啦啦啦啦啦 吧啦啦,吧啦
So what the hell was that? Well, you don't know because you couldn't understand it. It wasn't clear. But hopefully, it was said with enough conviction that it was at least alluringly mysterious.
講咩啊? 你唔知,因為你都冇聽明 把聲都唔清晰 但起碼,你已經 畀呢種神秘深深咁吸引咗
Clarity or mystery? I'm balancing these two things in my daily work as a graphic designer, as well as my daily life as a New Yorker every day, and there are two elements that absolutely fascinate me.
清晰定係神秘? 我係做平面設計嘅 日日都要兼顧呢兩樣嘢 喺紐約生活就係要咁 每日都係 其中有兩種元素令我着迷
Here's an example. Now, how many people know what this is? Okay. Now how many people know what this is? Okay. Thanks to two more deft strokes by the genius Charles M. Schulz, we now have seven deft strokes that in and of themselves create an entire emotional life, one that has enthralled hundreds of millions of fans for over 50 years. This is actually a cover of a book that I designed about the work of Schulz and his art, which will be coming out this fall, and that is the entire cover. There is no other typographic information or visual information on the front, and the name of the book is "Only What's Necessary." So this is sort of symbolic about the decisions I have to make every day about the design that I'm perceiving, and the design I'm creating.
舉個例 有幾多人知道呢個係咩? 宜家,又有幾多人? 多謝 Charles M. Schulz 加咗 絕妙嘅兩筆 七條線就足夠展現成個感情生活 一張喺過去五十年裡邊 獲得億萬粉絲嘅面孔 其實,呢個係我設計嘅一本書嘅封面 介紹舒茲同佢嘅作品嘅 今年秋季出街 呢個就係成個封面 上邊冇其他文字或者視覺訊息 書名係《簡明至上》 呢個笑臉代表 我認知嘅設計 同埋我個人嘅設計
So clarity. Clarity gets to the point. It's blunt. It's honest. It's sincere. We ask ourselves this. ["When should you be clear?"]
清清楚楚就係要點 就好似我畫出嚟咁 雖然粗爌,但感覺真 我哋問自己:「幾時要清楚?」
Now, something like this, whether we can read it or not, needs to be really, really clear. Is it?
呢本(飛機乘客手冊)就要—— 我哋讀唔讀都好 需要好清楚 噉佢清唔清楚?
This is a rather recent example of urban clarity that I just love, mainly because I'm always late and I am always in a hurry. So when these meters started showing up a couple of years ago on street corners, I was thrilled, because now I finally knew how many seconds I had to get across the street before I got run over by a car. Six? I can do that. (Laughter)
呢個係近期一個我好鍾意嘅 城市裡邊、增加咗訊息明確性嘅例子 主要係因為,我成日遲到,成日好趕 所以,幾年前 啲十字路口安裝咗計時器嗰時 我好激動,因為我終於可以知道 我仲有幾多秒過馬路 仲唔會被車撞親 六秒?我得(笑聲)
So let's look at the yin to the clarity yang, and that is mystery. Mystery is a lot more complicated by its very definition. Mystery demands to be decoded, and when it's done right, we really, really want to. ["When should you be mysterious?"] In World War II, the Germans really, really wanted to decode this, and they couldn't.
宜家,我哋嚟睇下同清晰相對嘅嘢 即係神秘 神秘嘅定義好複雜 有神秘,就需要解開神秘 如果神秘表達得當 我哋真係會好想好想去解開佢 「幾時應該神秘?」 喺第二次世界大戰時 德國人好想好想破解呢個密碼 但佢哋失敗咗
Here's an example of a design that I've done recently for a novel by Haruki Murakami, who I've done design work for for over 20 years now, and this is a novel about a young man who has four dear friends who all of a sudden, after their freshman year of college, completely cut him off with no explanation, and he is devastated. And the friends' names each have a connotation in Japanese to a color. So there's Mr. Red, there's Mr. Blue, there's Ms. White, and Ms. Black. Tsukuru Tazaki, his name does not correspond to a color, so his nickname is Colorless, and as he's looking back on their friendship, he recalls that they were like five fingers on a hand. So I created this sort of abstract representation of this, but there's a lot more going on underneath the surface of the story, and there's more going on underneath the surface of the jacket. The four fingers are now four train lines in the Tokyo subway system, which has significance within the story. And then you have the colorless subway line intersecting with each of the other colors, which basically he does later on in the story. He catches up with each of these people to find out why they treated him the way they did.
呢個係我最近 為村上春樹嘅小說做嘅設計 我幫佢做封面已經做咗廿幾年 呢本小說係講一個叫多崎造嘅後生仔 佢有四個老友 佢哋大學一年級之後突然全部同佢絕交 咩解釋都冇 多崎造大受打擊 每一個老友嘅日文名 都隱含住一種顏色 有紅色先生、藍色先生 白色先生同黑色先生 多崎造嘅名冇對應嘅顏色 所以佢自己叫「無色」 當佢回憶佢哋嘅友情歲月時 佢覺得佢哋就好似一隻手嘅五隻手指 於是,我用隻手做咗一個抽象嘅表達 小說裏面仲有好多故仔 同樣,封面背後都仲有好多嘢 依家四條手指變成 東京地鐵嘅四條路線 呢個細節喺故事裡邊好重要 呢條冇色嘅地鐵路線 同其他四條相交 就好似多崎造喺本書度 逐個朋友搵返 問佢哋點解噉對佢 呢個就係棟喺我嘅辦公室嘅
And so this is the three-dimensional finished product sitting on my desk in my office, and what I was hoping for here is that you'll simply be allured by the mystery of what this looks like, and will want to read it to decode and find out and make more clear why it looks the way it does.
立體嘅成品 我期望嘅封面效果係 佢有足夠嘅神秘感 吸引你去讀呢本書 同破解佢,明白設計嘅真正意圖
["The Visual Vernacular."]
「視覺白話」
This is a way to use a more familiar kind of mystery. What does this mean? This is what it means. ["Make it look like something else."] The visual vernacular is the way we are used to seeing a certain thing applied to something else so that we see it in a different way.
係一種運用熟悉嘅神秘感手法 咩意思? 即係整到佢似其他嘢 視覺白話 就係將我哋睇慣咗嘅一啲嘢 應用喺另一啲嘢 使我睇到唔同嘅嘢
This is an approach I wanted to take to a book of essays by David Sedaris that had this title at the time. ["All the Beauty You Will Ever Need"] Now, the challenge here was that this title actually means nothing. It's not connected to any of the essays in the book. It came to the author's boyfriend in a dream. Thank you very much, so -- (Laughter) -- so usually, I am creating a design that is in some way based on the text, but this is all the text there is. So you've got this mysterious title that really doesn't mean anything, so I was trying to think: Where might I see a bit of mysterious text that seems to mean something but doesn't? And sure enough, not long after, one evening after a Chinese meal, this arrived, and I thought, "Ah, bing, ideagasm!" (Laughter) I've always loved the hilariously mysterious tropes of fortune cookies that seem to mean something extremely deep but when you think about them -- if you think about them -- they really don't. This says, "Hardly anyone knows how much is gained by ignoring the future." Thank you. (Laughter) But we can take this visual vernacular and apply it to Mr. Sedaris, and we are so familiar with how fortune cookie fortunes look that we don't even need the bits of the cookie anymore. We're just seeing this strange thing and we know we love David Sedaris, and so we're hoping that we're in for a good time.
我將呢個方法用喺 David Sedaris 嘅散文集 書名係《你所需要嘅美麗》 難就難喺 個標題其實冇任何意思 又冇同書裡邊嘅任何一章有關係 佢係作者嘅男朋友發夢諗出嚟嘅 真係唔該曬(笑聲) 通常我以文字內容為基礎做設計 但係啲文字就係噉 個書名又其實咩都冇講 我就諗 有咩係又有神秘感 但係又冇意思? 果然,冇幾耐 有晚我去吃中餐之後,呢個出現咗 我諗:「啊,度橋度到有高潮!」 (笑聲) 我好鍾意幸運曲奇裡邊 又搞笑又神秘嘅短句 睇起嚟好似好有深度 但再諗下,其實冇深度 呢個講:「冇人知道 忽視未來會帶嚟幾多好處。」 唔該曬(笑聲) 如果我哋將視覺白話用喺 Sedaris 先生度 我哋好清楚幸運曲奇嘅外貌 清楚到睇到個字條,就知道係幸運曲奇 我哋睇到呢個奇怪嘅書名 我哋知道我哋好鍾意 David Sedaris 所以會好期待呢本書
["'Fraud' Essays by David Rakoff"] David Rakoff was a wonderful writer and he called his first book "Fraud" because he was getting sent on assignments by magazines to do things that he was not equipped to do. So he was this skinny little urban guy and GQ magazine would send him down the Colorado River whitewater rafting to see if he would survive. And then he would write about it, and he felt that he was a fraud and that he was misrepresenting himself. And so I wanted the cover of this book to also misrepresent itself and then somehow show a reader reacting to it.
David Rakoff 係一個好好嘅作家 佢將佢嘅第一本書命名為《騙局》 因為雜誌社畀咗佢一個 佢根本勝任唔到嘅工怍 之後佢一個瘦蜢蜢嘅城市人 俾《智族》雜誌派去科羅拉多河度漂流 睇下死唔死得 之後,佢仲要返嚟寫報導 佢覺得自己做咗老千 佢覺得佢喺度寫緊同自己不乎嘅嘢 所以,我都要整一個 引起假象嘅封面 而個封面會印埋讀者嘅表情
This led me to graffiti. I'm fascinated by graffiti. I think anybody who lives in an urban environment encounters graffiti all the time, and there's all different sorts of it. This is a picture I took on the Lower East Side of just a transformer box on the sidewalk and it's been tagged like crazy. Now whether you look at this and think, "Oh, that's a charming urban affectation," or you look at it and say, "That's illegal abuse of property," the one thing I think we can all agree on is that you cannot read it. Right? There is no clear message here. There is another kind of graffiti that I find far more interesting, which I call editorial graffiti. This is a picture I took recently in the subway, and sometimes you see lots of prurient, stupid stuff, but I thought this was interesting, and this is a poster that is saying rah-rah Airbnb, and someone has taken a Magic Marker and has editorialized about what they think about it. And it got my attention.
噉就令我諗起塗鴉 我對塗鴉好痴迷 我諗任何一個城市人 都會經常見到各式各樣嘅塗鴉 呢張係我喺紐約下東城區影嘅相 一個行人道上嘅變電箱 俾塗鴉畫到花曬 你可能會話:「佢喺街上幾好得意啊」 或者:「呢個係非法使用財產」 但我哋都同意 根本讀唔出講乜 係咪?讀唔到任何明確訊息 另外一種塗鴉仲好玩 我稱佢為評論式塗鴉 呢個係我最近喺地鐵拍嘅 有時你會睇到好多咸濕、白痴嘅嘢 但係我覺得呢個好有趣 有張海報 上面寫住:「嘩嘩 Airbnb」 有人用筆喺上邊加字 呢個引起我嘅注意 於是我諗,點樣將佢用喺個封面度?
So I was thinking, how do we apply this to this book? So I get the book by this person, and I start reading it, and I'm thinking, this guy is not who he says he is; he's a fraud. And I get out a red Magic Marker, and out of frustration just scribble this across the front. Design done. (Laughter) And they went for it! (Laughter) Author liked it, publisher liked it, and that is how the book went out into the world, and it was really fun to see people reading this on the subway and walking around with it and what have you, and they all sort of looked like they were crazy. (Laughter)
我讀咗作者本書 我諗,呢個人唔係佢自己講嘅自己 佢係個老千 於是,我攞支紅筆 發憫憎噉喺封面上亂畫 搞掂(笑聲) 上頭竟然批准咗!(笑聲) 作者鐘意,出版商鐘意 於是個封面就出咗世 見到有人喺地鐵讀呢本書 或者行嗰時攞住 我都覺得好搞笑 因為佢哋睇起嚟都好似癲癲哋咁 (笑聲)
["'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.
James Ellroy 係個好叻嘅犯罪小說作家 我同佢係好朋友,合作咗好多年 佢最出名嘅書係 《黑色大麗花》同《洛杉磯嘅秘密》 呢本係佢最新嘅作品,個名好神秘 肯定好多人知道佢嘅意思 但係好多人唔知 本書講一個日裔美籍偵探 喺 1941年 洛杉磯調查一單謀殺案 期間,珍珠港事件爆發 然後雪上加霜 種族關係變得好緊張 日裔美國人開始俾政府送去拘留營 形勢緊張,人心惶惶 但係佢繼續查案 我一開始嗰陣,我齋從字面意思考慮 然後就將珍珠港嘅景搬到去洛杉磯 成個畫面就係末日嘅景像 我嘅主編話: 「有意思, 不過我想你簡化啲。」 於是我同平時噉,返去用繪圖板畫 但我留意到自己嘅工作環境 我嘅辦公室喺紐約市中城嘅高樓大廈 每晚,我離開辦公室之前 要㩒呢個掣 又大又重嘅玻璃門先會打開 我先入到𨋢 有一晚 我突然用一個全新嘅視角去睇部𨋢 大紅點,危險 我就諗,佢噉明顯 肯定俾人用過好多次 於是我去谷歌查 竟然揾唔到有類似封面嘅書 於是乎,搞掂! 圖像本身變得更加有趣 用喺洛杉磯乃至美國上空嚟表現日出 又顯得更加有張力
["'Gulp' A tour of the human digestive system by Mary Roach."]
Mary Roach 嘅書《Gulp》
Mary Roach is an amazing writer who takes potentially mundane scientific subjects and makes them not mundane at all; she makes them really fun. So in this particular case, it's about the human digestive system. So I'm trying to figure out what is the cover of this book going to be. This is a self-portrait. (Laughter) Every morning I look at myself in the medicine cabinet mirror to see if my tongue is black. And if it's not, I'm good to go. (Laughter) I recommend you all do this. But I also started thinking, here's our introduction. Right? Into the human digestive system. But I think what we can all agree on is that actual photographs of human mouths, at least based on this, are off-putting. (Laughter) So for the cover, then, I had this illustration done which is literally more palatable and reminds us that it's best to approach the digestive system from this end. (Laughter) I don't even have to complete the sentence. All right.
Mary Roach 係一個好好嘅作家 佢將沉悶嘅科學話題 變得好有趣 呢本書有關人體消化系統 我喺度諗,個封面要點設計 呢個係我嘅自拍相 (笑聲) 日日朝早,我都會對住我藥櫃塊鏡 睇下我條脷係唔係黑色 如果唔係 我就行得喇 (笑聲) 我建議你哋都噉做 同時我亦開始諗 呢個係我哋嘅「入口」 係咪?人體消化系統嘅入口 我諗大家會同意 人體口腔嘅相 或者基於佢嘅作品 都係核突嘅(笑聲) 所以我同個封面畫咗個 更容易俾人接受嘅插圖 同時強調消化系統係從呢度開始 (笑聲) 我都唔使講完句話你都明……
["Unuseful mystery"] What happens when clarity and mystery get mixed up? And we see this all the time. This is what I call unuseful mystery. I go down into the subway -- I take the subway a lot -- and this piece of paper is taped to a girder. Right? And now I'm thinking, uh-oh, and the train's about to come and I'm trying to figure out what this means, and thanks a lot. Part of the problem here is that they've compartmentalized the information in a way they think is helpful, and frankly, I don't think it is at all. So this is mystery we do not need. What we need is useful clarity, so just for fun, I redesigned this. This is using all the same elements. (Applause) Thank you. I am still waiting for a call from the MTA. (Laughter) You know, I'm actually not even using more colors than they use. They just didn't even bother to make the 4 and the 5 green, those idiots. (Laughter) So the first thing we see is that there is a service change, and then, in two complete sentences with a beginning, a middle and an end, it tells us what the change is and what's going to be happening. Call me crazy! (Laughter)
「冇用嘅神秘感」 當明確性同神秘感撈埋一齊 會發生咩? 我哋隨時見得到 冇用嘅神秘感嘅例子 我行入地鐵,我經常搭地鐵 睇到個柱上有呢張紙 我就諗,死喇 班地鐵到喇 我仲未睇明個告示講咩 真係唔該曬 其中一個問題係 佢哋以為噉劃分訊息對我哋好有幫助 但老實講句,我覺得冇咩用 呢個就係我哋唔需要嘅神秘感 我哋需要有用嘅明確性 於是乎,我貪玩噉重新設計佢 用嘅元素一樣 (掌聲) 多謝 我仲等緊地鐵公司嘅電話 你睇下,我都冇用多一種顏色 佢哋甚至懶到冇將 4 同 5 變綠色 成班蠢人(笑聲) 宜家我哋睇到嘅第一條訊息係 車次有變動 然後有兩句完整嘅話, 有開始,有過程,有結尾 佢講清楚咩車次變咗,有咩後續安排 話我癲都係噉話(笑聲)
["Useful mystery"] All right. Now, here is a piece of mystery that I love: packaging. This redesign of the Diet Coke can by Turner Duckworth is to me truly a piece of art. It's a work of art. It's beautiful. But part of what makes it so heartening to me as a designer is that he's taken the visual vernacular of Diet Coke -- the typefaces, the colors, the silver background -- and he's reduced them to their most essential parts, so it's like going back to the Charlie Brown face. It's like, how can you give them just enough information so they know what it is but giving them the credit for the knowledge that they already have about this thing? It looks great, and you would go into a delicatessen and all of a sudden see that on the shelf, and it's wonderful. Which makes the next thing -- ["Unuseful clarity"] -- all the more disheartening, at least to me. So okay, again, going back down into the subway, after this came out, these are pictures that I took. Times Square subway station: Coca-Cola has bought out the entire thing for advertising. Okay? And maybe some of you know where this is going. Ahem.
有用嘅神秘,好 呢個係我鍾意嘅神秘: 包裝 呢款 Turner Duckworth 再版設計嘅 健怡可樂罐 對於我嚟講 係一件真正嘅藝術品,真係好靚 作為一個設計師,我欣賞佢嘅地方係 Turner 將健怡可樂嘅視覺白話︰ 招牌嘅字體、顏色,同銀色嘅背景 濃縮到最精華 所以,就好似卡通人物 查理.布朗塊面咁 畀你嘅訊息啱啱好、冇多冇少 既會畀啲訊息你 又照顧到你已經知嘅部分 真係好正 當你行入個熟食店 貨架上嘅佢就會投射入你眼中 真係好正 下一個,「冇用嘅清晰度」 起碼對我嚟講,更加令我心煩 咁,我哋再返返去地鐵站 健怡可樂嘅設計出嚟之後 佢哋做咗海報 喺時代廣場地鐵站 可口可樂買曬全部廣告位 可能有人知道跟住會發生咩 嗯
"You moved to New York with the clothes on your back, the cash in your pocket, and your eyes on the prize. You're on Coke." (Laughter) "You moved to New York with an MBA, one clean suit, and an extremely firm handshake. You're on Coke." (Laughter) These are real! (Laughter) Not even the support beams were spared, except they switched into Yoda mode. (Laughter) "Coke you're on." (Laughter) ["Excuse me, I'm on WHAT??"] This campaign was a huge misstep. It was pulled almost instantly due to consumer backlash and all sorts of unflattering parodies on the web -- (Laughter) -- and also that dot next to "You're on," that's not a period, that's a trademark. So thanks a lot.
「你嚟紐約時就得件外套、幾蚊雞, 意住個獎,同埋吸緊毒。」(笑聲) 「你嚟紐約時就得 一個商科學位、一套西裝, 同一隻握手有力嘅手。 你吸緊毒。」(笑聲) 全部都係真嘅!(笑聲) 連條柱都唔放過 不過換成尤達大師嘅風格(笑聲) 「毒,你吸咗。」(笑聲) 「唔好意思,我咩?」 呢個廣告活動嚴重失誤 俾消費者強烈抗拒 幾乎一上架就落架 仲俾好多人喺網上惡搞 (笑聲) 仲有,「You're on」隔離嘅點 唔係句號, 係註冊商標 真係唔該曬
So to me, this was just so bizarre about how they could get the packaging so mysteriously beautiful and perfect and the message so unbearably, clearly wrong. It was just incredible to me.
對我嚟講,真係好奇怪 點解佢哋嘅包裝做得噉神秘 噉精彩、噉完美 然後做文字嗰時就錯到 一塌糊塗、噉痛苦 真係匪夷所思
So I just hope that I've been able to share with you some of my insights on the uses of clarity and mystery in my work, and maybe how you might decide to be more clear in your life, or maybe to be a bit more mysterious and not so over-sharing. (Laughter)
所以,我希望你哋明白到 我嘅作品裡邊 明確性同神秘感嘅用法 然後或者你哋會決定 喺生活裡邊加多啲明確性 又或者加啲神秘感 但又唔好過量嘅資訊 (笑聲)
And if there's just one thing that I leave you with from this talk, I hope it's this: Blih blih blih blah. Blah blah blih blih. ["'Judge This,' Chip Kidd"] Blih blih blah blah blah. Blah blah blah.
如果我今次有一個主題 我希望係呢個: 嗶哩嗶哩嗶哩吧啦,吧啦吧啦嗶哩嗶哩 吧啦吧啦吧啦吧啦吧啦 吧啦吧啦吧啦
Blah blah.
吧啦
(Applause)
(掌聲)