Der er noget der hedder loven om utilsigtede konsekvenser. Jeg troede, det kun var et ordsprog, men det eksisterer faktisk Der er akademiske artikler om det. Og jeg er en designer. Jeg kan ikke lide utilsigtede konsekvenser. Folk hyrer mig fordi de vil have konsekvenser de virkelig tilsigter, og de regner med at jeg kan hjælpe dem med at opnå de konsekvenser Så jeg lever i frygt for utilsigtede konsekvenser. Så det her er en historie om både tilsigtede og utilsigtede konsekvenser.
So there's this thing called the law of unintended consequences. I thought it was just like a saying, but it actually exists, I guess. There's, like, academic papers about it. And I'm a designer. I don't like unintended consequences. People hire me because they have consequences that they really intend, and what they intend is for me to help them achieve those consequences. So I live in fear of unintended consequences. And so this is a story about consequences intended and unintended.
Jeg blev ringet op af organisationen Robin Hood for at gøre dem en tjeneste. Robin Hood ligger i New York, en skøn filantropisk organisation. De gør, hvad navnet siger. De tager fra de rige og giver til de fattige. I dette tilfælde ville de gerne give til skolesystemet i New York, et kæmpe foretagende, der uddanner millioner af elever på samme tid, og i bygninger som denne, gamle bygninger, store bygninger, bygninger med træk, indimellem dårligt vedligeholdte bygninger, helt sikkert bygninger, der kunne bruge renovering. Robin Hood har ambitionen om at forbedre de her bygninger på en måde, men det er gået op for dem, at ordne bygningerne vil blive både dyrt og være upraktisk. Så i stedet har de prøvet at finde ud af hvilket enkelt rum de kunne gå ind i i hver eneste bygninger, i så mange bygninger de kunne, og ordne det ene rum, så de kunne forbedre livet for eleverne inden i, imens de studerer. Og det de kom frem til var skolebiblioteket, og de kom på idéen, der hedder biblioteks-initiativet. Alle elever skal igennem biblioteket. Det er der bøgerne er. Det er der hjertet og sjælen af skolen er. Så lad os fikse bibliotekerne.
I got called by an organization called Robin Hood to do a favor for them. Robin Hood is based in New York, a wonderful philanthropic organization that does what it says in the name. They take from rich people, give it to poor people. In this case, what they wanted to benefit was the New York City school system, a huge enterprise that educates more than a million students at a time, and in buildings that are like this one, old buildings, big buildings, drafty buildings, sometimes buildings that are in disrepair, certainly buildings that could use a renovation. Robin Hood had this ambition to improve these buildings in some way, but what they realized was to fix the buildings would be too expensive and impractical. So instead they tried to figure out what one room they could go into in each of these buildings, in as many buildings that they could, and fix that one room so that they could improve the lives of the children inside as they were studying. And what they came up with was the school library, and they came up with this idea called the Library Initiative. All the students have to pass through the library. That's where the books are. That's where the heart and soul of the school is. So let's fix these libraries.
Så de gjorde den fantastiske ting at de fik fat i først 10 og så 20 arkitekter mere, som hver især blev tildelt et bibliotek, og skulle gentænke hvad et bibliotek er. De trænede specielle bibliotikarer. Så de begyndte dette mægtige foretagende, for at reformere folkeskoler ved at forbedre deres biblioteker. De ringede til mig og spurgte, "Kunne du hjælpe os en smule?" Jeg sagde, "Klart, hvad skal I bruge?" De sagde, "Vi vil gerne have dig som den grafiske designer, der står for det hele." Jeg tænkte, jeg ved, hvad det betyder. Det betyder, jeg skal designe et logo. Det ved jeg hvordan man gør. Jeg designer logoer. Det er derfor folk kommer til mig. Så okay, lad os designe et logo til det. Faktisk let at gøre sammenlignet med arkitektur og at være bibliotekar. Lav et logo, hjælp lidt og så er du færdig, og så har du det godt med dig selv. Jeg er en fed fyr, som får det godt med mig selv, når jeg hjælper andre.
So they did this wonderful thing where they brought in first 10, then 20, then more architects, each one of whom was assigned a library to rethink what a library was. They trained special librarians. So they started this mighty enterprise to reform public schools by improving these libraries. Then they called me up and they said, "Could you make a little contribution?" I said, "Sure, what do you want me to do?" And they said, "Well, we want you to be the graphic designer in charge of the whole thing." And so I thought, I know what that means. That means I get to design a logo. I know how to design that. I design logos. That's what people come to me for. So OK, let's design a logo for this thing. Easy to do, actually, compared with architecture and being a librarian. Just do a logo, make a contribution, and then you're out, and you feel really good about yourself. And I'm a great guy and I like to feel good about myself when I do these favors.
Så jeg tænkte, jeg overleverer. Jeg laver tre logoer, alle baseret på én idé. Så har I tre muligheder, vælg én af de tre. De er alle gode, sagde jeg. Så idéen var at de skulle være til nye skolebiblioteker for skoler i New York, og idéen er, at det er en ny ting, en ny idé som har brug for et nyt navn. Det, jeg ville, var, at skrotte idéen om at det var gamle, klamme biblioteker, den slags steder, alle synes er kedelige, du ved, ikke dine bedsteforældres bibliotek. Det skal du ikke bekymre dig om Det her skal være nyt og spændende, ikke et kedeligt bibliotek.
So I thought, let's overdeliver. I'm going to give you three logos, all based on this one idea. So you have three options, pick any of the three. They're all great, I said. So the basic idea was these would be new school libraries for New York schools, and so the idea is that it's a new thing, a new idea that needs a new name. What I wanted to do was dispel the idea that these were musty old libraries, the kind of places that everyone is bored with, you know, not your grandparents' library. Don't worry about that at all. This is going to this new, exciting thing, not a boring library.
Så mulighed nummer et: i stedet for at tænke på det som et bibliotek, tænk på det som et sted, hvor man må tale og lave høje lyde. Ingen tysning, det er tys-fri zone. Vi kalder det læserummet.
So option number one: so instead of thinking of it as a library, think of it as a place where it is like: do talk, do make loud noises. Right? So no shushing, it's like a shush-free zone. We're going to call it the Reading Room.
Det var mulighed nummer et. Okay, mulighed nummer to. Mulighed nummer to er, vent på det... OWL. Jeg møder dig ved OWL. Jeg henter mine bøger fra OWL. Lad os mødes efter skole ved OWL. Lyder meget godt? Men hvad står OWL for? Altså det kunne være One World Library eller det kunne være Open. Wonder. Learn. Eller det kunne være bibliotekarerne kunne finde på noget, fordi de ved en masse om ord. Så andre ting. Og se så det her. Det ligner en ugles øje. Det er uimodståeligt, hvis du spørger mig.
That was option number one. OK, option number two. Option number two was, wait for it, OWL. I'll meet you at OWL. I'm getting my book from the OWL. Meet you after school down at OWL. I like that, right? Now, what does OWL stand for? Well, it could be One World Library, or it could be Open. Wonder. Learn. Or it could be -- and I figure librarians could figure out other things it could be because they know about words. So other things, right? And then look at this. It's like the eye of the owl. This is irresistible in my opinion.
Men der er også en anden ide. Mulighed nummer tre. Mulighed nummer tre er faktisk baseret på sprog. Det er idéen at "read" er datid af "read", og de er stavet på samme måde. Så hvorfor kalder vi det ikke den røde zone. Jeg møder dig i den røde zone. Er du rød? Bliv rød. Jeg er vellæst.
But there's even another idea. Option number three. Option number three was based actually on language. It's the idea that "read" is the past tense of "read," and they're both spelled the same way. So why don't we call this place The Red Zone? I'll meet you at the Red Zone. Are you Red? Get Red. I'm well Red.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Jeg elskede virkelig denne her idé og jeg var på en eller anden måde ikke fokuseret på idéen, at bibliotikarer er ret interesseret i, hvordan man staver. Jeg ved ikke.
I really loved this idea, and I somehow was not focused on the idea that librarians as a class are sort of interested in spelling and I don't know.
(Latter)
(Laughter)
Men nogle gange er snedighed vigtigere end stavning, og jeg tænkte, at dette ville være en af de gange. Så normalt når jeg laver de her præsentationer, siger jeg, at der kun er et spørgsmål, "Hvordan kan jeg takke dig, Mike?" Men i det her tilfælde var spørgsmålet mere, "Laver du sjov?" De sagde, at præmissen for alt det her arbejde var, at børnene kedede sig i klamme, gamle biblioteker. De var trætte af dem. Og istedet sagde de, at de her børn, aldrig havde set et bibliotek. Skolebibliotekerne på de her skoler er så faldefærdige, hvis overhovedet at de er der, at de ikke har kedet nogen. De har aldrig været der til at kede nogen. Så idéen var bare at glemme, at give dem et nyt navn. Bare kald dem, som en sidste mulighed, for et bibliotek. Ja? Okay. Så jeg tænkte, okay, skal vi give det et lille pift. Udråbstegn? Og så - fordi jeg er klog - flyt det ind til i'et, lav det rød, og der har du det, biblioteksinitiativet. Så jeg troede opgaven var færdig, her er jeres logo. Her er hvad der er interessant ved logoet, en utilsigtet konsekvens. Det viste sig, at de ikke engang rigtig ville have mit design, for du kunne skrive det i alle skifttyper eller skrive det i hånden, og da de begyndte at sende emails rundt brugte de bare shift og 1, de fik deres eget logo ud af det Og jeg tænkte, at det var fint. Vær velkommen til at bruge logoet. Og så begyndte jeg på den rigtige opgave, nemlig at arbejde med alle arkitekterne på, at få logoet på hoveddøren på deres eget bibliotek. Okay?
But sometimes cleverness is more important than spelling, and I thought this would be one of those instances. So usually when I make these presentations I say there's just one question and the question should be, "How can I thank you, Mike?" But in this case, the question was more like, "Um, are you kidding?" Because, they said, the premise of all this work was that kids were bored with old libraries, musty old libraries. They were tired of them. And instead, they said, these kids have never really seen a library. The school libraries in these schools are really so dilapidated, if they're there at all, that they haven't bored anyone. They haven't even been there to bore anyone at all. So the idea was, just forget about giving it a new name. Just call it, one last try, a library. Right? OK. So I thought, OK, give it a little oomph? Exclamation point? Then -- this is because I'm clever -- move that into the "i," make it red, and there you have it, the Library Initiative. So I thought, mission accomplished, there's your logo. So what's interesting about this logo, an unintended consequence, was that it turned out that they didn't really even need my design because you could type it any font, you could write it by hand, and when they started sending emails around, they just would use Shift and 1, they'd get their own logo just right out of the thing. And I thought, well, that's fine. Feel free to use that logo. And then I embarked on the real rollout of this thing -- working with every one of the architects to put this logo on the front door of their own library. Right?
Så her er den store opgave. Jeg arbejde med de forskellige arkitekter. Først var Robin Hood min klient. Nu var arkitekterne mine klienter. Jeg sagde, "Her er dit logo. Put det på døren." "Her er dit logo. Put det på begge døre." "Her er dit logo. Put det længere til siden." "Her er dit logo. Gentag det øverst." Så alt gik efter planen. Jeg sagde bare, "Her er dit logo. Her er dit logo."
So here's the big rollout. Basically I'd work with different architects. First Robin Hood was my client. Now these architects were my client. I'd say, "Here's your logo. Put it on the door." "Here's your logo. Put it on both doors." "Here's your logo. Put it off to the side." "Here's your logo repeated all over to the top." So everything was going swimmingly. I just was saying, "Here's your logo. Here's your logo."
Så blev jeg ringet op af en af arkitekterne, en fyr, der hedder Richard Lewis, og han sagde, "Jeg har et problem." Du er grafikeren. Kan du løse det?" Og jeg sagde "Helt sikkert." Og han sagde, "Problemet er, at der er et mellemrum mellem hylden og loftet." Det lyder som et arkitektonisk problem, ikke et grafisk problem, så jeg siger "Fortsæt." Og Richard siger, "Jamen, top-hylden skal være lav nok til, at børnene kan nå den, men jeg er i en virkelig gammel bygning, og der er højt til loftet, så jeg har faktisk en masse plads deroppe, og jeg skal bruge et vægmaleri." Og jeg tænker, "Orv, jeg er en logodesigner. Jeg er ikke Diego Rivera eller noget. Jeg er ikke vægmaler." Og han siger, "Men kan du komme på en idé?" Så jeg siger, "Okay, hvad hvis vi bare tager billeder af børnene på skolen, og putter dem på toppen af det, måske kunne det fungere." Og min kone er fotograf, og jeg sagde, "Dorothy, der er ikke nogen penge, kan du komme til denne skole i øst New York og tage billeder?" Og det gjorde hun, og hvis du går ind i Richards bibliotek, som er det første, der åbnede, så har det en vidunderlig frise af skolens helte, overdimensioneret, og kigger ind i dukkehuset af det rigtige bibliotek. Og børnene var fantastiske håndvalgt af rektorerne og bibliotekaren. Det skabte ligesom denne her heroiske atmosfære i biblioteket, det meget værdige sted nedenfor og glæden af børnene ovenover.
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.
Så naturligvis ser alle de andre skolers bibliotekarer det, og siger, at de også vil have vægmalerier. Og jeg sådan, okay. Så tænker jeg, altså, det kan ikke være det samme maleri hver gang så Dorothy lavede et til, og så et til, men så havde vi brug for mere hjælp så jeg ringede til en illustrator, jeg kender, der hedder Lynn Pauley, og Lynn lavede nogle smukke malerier af børnene. Så ringede jeg til Charles Wilkin fra et sted, der hedder Automatic Design. Han lavede nogle fantastiske kollager. Vi fik Rafael Esquer til at lave nogle fremragende silhouetter. Han arbejdede med børnene, spurgte dem om ord, og baseret på deres svar, kom han på de her små vilde konstellationer af silhouetter af ting, der er i bøger. Peter Arkle interviewede børnene, og fik dem til at snakke om deres yndlingsbøger, og puttede deres vidnesbyrd derop som en frise. Stefan Sagmeister arbejdede med Yuko Shimizu, og de lavede en fantastisk manga-inspieret erklæring "Alle der er ærlige er interessante," det går hele vejen rundt. Christoph Niemann, strålende illustrator, lavede en serie af ting, hvor han indlagde bøger i ansigter og karakterer og billeder og steder, som man finder i bøger. Og selv Maira Kalman lavede denne fantastiske kryptiske installation af objekter og ord, der vil gå hele vejen rundt og fascinere elever, så længe det er oppe.
So naturally all the other librarians in the other schools see this and they said, well, we want murals too. And I'm like, OK. So then I think, well, it can't be the same mural every time, so Dorothy did another one, and then she did another one, but then we needed more help, so I called an illustrator I knew named Lynn Pauley, and Lynn did these beautiful paintings of the kids. Then I called a guy named Charles Wilkin at a place called Automatic Design. He did these amazing collages. We had Rafael Esquer do these great silhouettes. He would work with the kids, asking for words, and then based on those prompts, come up with this little, delirious kind of constellation of silhouettes of things that are in books. Peter Arkle interviewed the kids and had them talk about their favorite books and he put their testimony as a frieze up there. Stefan Sagmeister worked with Yuko Shimizu and they did this amazing manga-style statement, "Everyone who is honest is interesting," that goes all the way around. Christoph Niemann, brilliant illustrator, did a whole series of things where he embedded books into the faces and characters and images and places that you find in the books. And then even Maira Kalman did this amazing cryptic installation of objects and words that kind of go all around and will fascinate students for as long as it's up there.
Så det var virkelig tilfredstillende, og hovedsagligt var min rolle at læse en serie af dimensioner til kunsterne, og jeg ville sige, "90 cm gange 460 cm, hvad end du vil. Sig til hvis du har nogen problemer." Og så ville de montere det. Det var det bedste.
So this was really satisfying, and basically my role here was reading a series of dimensions to these artists, and I would say, "Three feet by 15 feet, whatever you want. Let me know if you have any problem with that." And they would go and install these. It just was the greatest thing.
Men det allerbedste var faktisk -- Engang imellem, fik jeg en invitation i posten, lavet af byggeripaper, og det ville sige, "Du er inviteret til åbningen af vores nye bibliotek." Så jeg tog på biblioteket, lad os sige PS10, og jeg ville gå indenfor. Der var balloner, der var elevambassadører, der blev læst taler op, der var poesi skrevet til åbningen, dignitarer gav certifikater, og det hele var bare en vild, sjov fest. Så jeg elskede at tage til dem. Jeg stod der, klædt sådan her, hørte tydeligvis ikke til, og nogen ville spørge, "Hvad laver du her, herre?" Og jeg sagde, "Jeg er en del af holdet, der designede stedet." Og de sagde, "Lavede du de her reoler?" Jeg sagde, "Nej." "Du tog billederne deroppe." "Nej." "Jamen, hvad har du lavet?" "Du ved, da du kom ind? Skiltet over døren?" "Skiltet, der siger bibliotek?"
But the greatest thing, actually, was -- Every once in a while, I'd get, like, an invitation in the mail made of construction paper, and it would say, "You are invited to the opening of our new library." So you'd go to the library, say, you'd go to PS10, and you'd go inside. There'd be balloons, there'd be a student ambassador, there'd be speeches that were read, poetry that was written specifically for the opening, dignitaries would present people with certificates, and the whole thing was just a delirious, fun party. So I loved going to these things. I would stand there dressed like this, obviously not belonging, and someone would say, "What are you doing here, mister?" And I'd say, "Well, I'm part of the team that designed this place." And they'd said, "You do these shelves?" And I said, "No." "You took the pictures up above." "No." "Well, what did you do?" "You know when you came in? The sign over the door?" "The sign that says library?"
(Latter)
(Laughter)
"Ja, det har jeg lavet!" Og så blev de bare sådan, "Okay. Godt arbejde, hvis du kan få det." Så det var så tilfredsstillende at tage til de her små åbninger, trods at jeg var stort set ignoreret eller ydmyget, men det var faktisk sjovt at tage til åbningerne, så jeg besluttede, at jeg ville have folkene ind på mit kontor, der havde arbejdet på projekterne, få illustratorerne og fotograferne, og jeg sagde, hvorfor ikke leje en vogn, og køre rundt i de fem bydele i New York, og se hvor mange, vi kunne nå på en gang. Og med tiden ville der være 60 af de her biblioteker, så vi kunne nok nå at se et halvt dusin på en lang dag. Og det bedste var at møde alle bibliotekarene, som stod for driften, og tog ejerskab af stederne som deres private scene, hvorpå de var inviteret til at fortrylle børnene og bringe bøgerne til live. Og det var bare denne her rigtig spændende oplevelse for os alle at se de her ting i virkeligheden. Så vi brugte en lang dag på det, og vi var i det allersidste bibliotek. Det var stadig vinter, så det blev mørkt tidligt, og bibliotekaren sagde, "Jeg er ved at lukke ned, godt at se jer. Vent et øjeblik, vil du se hvordan jeg slukker lyset?" Og jeg er sådan, "Okay." Og hun siger, "Jeg har en speciel måde at gøre det på" Og så viste hun mig det. Det, hun gjorde, var, at hun slukkede lysene et ad gangen, og det sidste lys, hun lod være tændt, var det, der oplyste børnenes ansigter, og hun sagde, "Det er det sidste lys, jeg slukker hver aften, fordi jeg gerne vil mindes om, hvorfor jeg kommer på arbejde." Så da hele dette startede,
"Yeah, I did that!" And then they'd sort of go, "OK. Nice work if you can get it." So it was so satisfying going to these little openings despite the fact that I was kind of largely ignored or humiliated, but it was actually fun going to the openings, so I decided that I wanted to get the people in my office who had worked on these projects, get the illustrators and photographers, and I said, why don't we rent a van and drive around the five boroughs of New York and see how many we could hit at one time. And eventually there were going to be 60 of these libraries, so we probably got to see maybe half a dozen in one long day. And the best thing of all was meeting these librarians who kind of were running these, took possession of these places like their private stage upon which they were invited to mesmerize their students and bring the books to life, and it was just this really exciting experience for all of us to actually see these things in action. So we spent a long day doing this and we were in the very last library. It was still winter, because it got dark early, and the librarian says, "I'm about to close down. So really nice having you here. Hey, wait a second, do you want to see how I turn off the lights?" I'm like, "OK." And she said, "I have this special way that I do it." And then she showed me. What she did was she turned out every light one by one by one by one, and the last light she left on was the light that illuminated the kids' faces, and she said, "That's the last light I turn off every night, because I like to remind myself why I come to work." So when I started this whole thing,
husk, det var bare om at designe et logo og være smart ved at komme på et nyt navn? De utilsigtede konsekvenser her, som jeg gerne ville tage æren for og gerne tænker at jeg kan tænke denne oplevelse igennem, men det kan jeg ikke. Jeg var fokuseret på en meter foran mig, så langt jeg kunne nå med mine hænder. Istedet, langt ude i horisonten var der en bibliotekar, som fandt en kæde af konsekvenser, som vi havde sat igang, en kilde af inspiration så hun i dette tilfælde kunne udføre sig arbejde virkelig godt. 40.000 børn er hvert år påvirket af de her biblioteker. De har været igang i mere end 10 år nu, så de bibliotekarer har vendt en generation af børn til bøger, så det har været spændende at finde ud af at nogle gange er utilsigtede konsekvenser de bedste konsekvenser. Mange tak!
remember, it was just about designing that logo and being clever, come up with a new name? The unintended consequence here, which I would like to take credit for and like to think I can think through the experience to that extent, but I can't. I was just focused on a foot ahead of me, as far as I could reach with my own hands. Instead, way off in the distance was a librarian who was going to find the chain of consequences that we had set in motion, a source of inspiration so that she in this case could do her work really well. 40,000 kids a year are affected by these libraries. They've been happening for more than 10 years now, so those librarians have kind of turned on a generation of children to books and so it's been a thrill to find out that sometimes unintended consequences are the best consequences. Thank you very much.
(Bifald)
(Applause)