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.
Postoji jedna stvar zvana zakon nenamjernih posljedica. Mislio sam da je to samo izraz, ali, valjda doista postoji. Čak su o tome pisani i akademski članci. A ja sam dizajner. Ne volim nenamjerne posljedice. Ljudi me zapošljavaju jer imaju stvarno namjerne posljedice, a ono što je meni namijenjeno je da im pomognem ostvariti te posljedice. Tako da živim u strahu od nenamjernih posljedica. A ovo je priča o namjernim i nenamjernim posljedicama.
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.
Zvala me organizacija zvana Robin Hood da im učinim uslugu. Imaju sjedište u New Yorku, i doista su prekrasna filantropska organizacija koja radi kako joj i ime govori. Uzima od bogatih, daje siromašnima. U ovom slučaju, htjeli su pomoći školskom sustavu grada New Yorka, ogromnom poduzeću koje obrazuje više od milijun učenika istovremeno, i u zgradama poput ove, starim zgradama, velikim zgradama, zgradama punih propuha, ponekad i u zapuštenim zgradama, zasigurno zgradama kojima bi koristilo preuređivanje. Robin Hood ima za cilj poboljšati te zgrade na neki način, ali ono što su shvatili je da će popravak zgrada biti preskup i nepraktičan. Tako da su pokušali zaključiti u koju prostoriju mogu ući od svake od tih zgrada, u koliko god zgrada su mogli, i popraviti tu jednu sobu tako da bi poboljšali živote djece koja su unutra dok uče. I dosjetili su se školske knjižnice, došli su na ideju zvanu Inicijativa za knjižnice. Svi učenici moraju proći kroz knjižnicu. Tamo su knjige. Tamo je srce i duša škole. Pa hajdemo popraviti knjižnice.
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.
I ono što su oni uradili je prekrasno, doveli su prvo 10, pa 20, i onda još arhitekata, kojima su dodijelili po jednu knjižnicu sa zadatkom da promisle što je knjižnica. Obučili su specijalne knjižničare. I tako su započeli to moćno poduzeće za reformu javnih škola poboljšavanjem knjižnica. I onda su me nazvali i rekli: "Možeš li malo pridonijeti?" Odgovorio sam: "Naravno, što želite da uradim?" Pa su rekli: "Pa, želimo da budeš grafički dizajner zadužen za cijelu stvar." Pomislio sam, znam što to znači. To znači da ću morati dizajnirati logotip. Znam kako dizajnirati. Dizajniram logotipove. Zbog toga mi ljudi dolaze. Dakle, OK, hajdemo dizajnirati taj logo. Vrlo lako, kad se usporedi s arhitekturom i knjižničarima. To je samo logo, doprinesi, i gotov si, i osjećat ćeš se jako dobro. A ja sam super tip i volim se osjećati dobro kada činim takve usluge.
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.
Pomislio sam, napravit ću i više. Dat ću vam tri logotipa, sva tri prema istoj ideji. Tako da imate tri opcije, izaberite bilo koju. Sve su odlične, rekao sam. I osnovna ideja je bila ta da će to biti nove školske knjižnice za njujorške škole, a to znači da je ideja nova stvar, nova ideja kojoj je potrebno i novo ime. Ono što sam ja htio napraviti je odbaciti ideju pljesnivih starih knjižnica, onakvih koje su dosadile svima, znate, knjižnice kakve imaju djedovi i bake. Oko toga se ne morate brinuti. Ovo će biti sasvim novo, uzbudljivo, ne neka dosadna knjižnica.
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.
I opcija broj jedan: umjesto da razmišljamo o mjestu kao knjižnici, razmislimo o mjestu gdje su pravila: pričaj, buči. Jel? Nema šuštanja, to je zona-bez-šuštanja. To ćemo nazvati Čitaonica.
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.
I to je opcija broj jedan. OK, opcija broj dva. Opcija broj dva je bila, pazi sad, SOVA. Vidimo se u SOVI. Knjigu ću posuditi u SOVI. Vidmo se u SOVI poslije škole. To mi se sviđa, jel. E sad, što znači SOVA? Pa, moglo bi značiti Svijet Odgonetaka Vizija i Analiza. ili Sanjati. Odgonetnuti. Vjerovati. Analizirati. Ili bi moglo -- vjerujem da bi knjižničari mogli shvatiti što sve SOVA može biti jer se oni razumiju u riječi. Sad druge stvari, jel. I pogledajte sada ovo. Poput sovinog oka. Po mom mišljenju, neodoljivo.
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.
Ali postoji još jedna ideja. Opcija broj tri. Opcija broj tri se zasniva na jeziku. To je ideja da je riječ "read" (čitati) ista kao u prošlom vremenu "read" (čitao), obje se pišu jednako. Zašto ne bi ovo mjesto nazvali The Red Zone (Crvena zona)? Naći ćemo se u Red Zoni. Jesi li Red? Budi Red. Ja sam poprilično Red.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
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.
Ova ideja mi se svidjela i nekako nisam bio fokusiran na mišljenje kako su knjižničari kao skupina ljudi zainteresirani za pravilno sricanje i to.
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
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?
Ali ponekad je pamet važnija od sricanja. i mislio sam da će i ovo biti jedan od takvih slučajeva. Pa obično kada radim ove prezentacije smatram da postoji jedno pitanje koje glasi "Mike, kako ti mogu zahvaliti?“ A u ovom slučaju, pitanje je zvučalo više kao "Um, šališ se, jel'da?“ Jer, rekli su, poanta cijelog ovog posla je da su djeci dosadile stare, pljesnive knjižnice. Dosta im ih je bilo. A umjesto, rekli su, ta djeca nikad doista nisu ni vidjela knjižnicu. Školske knjižnice u tim školama se tako rijetko posjećuju, ako i uopće, da nikome nisu ni dosadile. Uopće ni ne postoje da bi nekome i dosadile. Tako da sam razmislio, jednostavno zaboraviti dati novo ime. Nazvati ih, jednom za kraj, knjižnica. Jel'da? OK. Pa sam mislio, OK, dati malo "oomph“? Uskličnik? I zatim – a ovo je zato što sam bistar -- pomaknut ću ovo u „i," obojiti u crveno, i eto vam, Knj!žnična Inicijativa. I mislio sam, misija završena, evo vam logo. A ono što je zanimljivo je ta nenamjerna posljedica, tako da je ispalo da oni uopće nisu trebali moj dizajn jer možete ga napisati u bilo kojem fontu, čak i rukom, tako da kad su počeli slati e-mailove uokolo, pritisnuli bi Shift i 1, stvorio bi im se vlastiti logo gotovo iz ničega. I pomislio sam, pa, to je u redu. Slobodno koristite taj logo. I onda mi je sinulo što je stvarni ishod ove cijele stvari -- rad sa svakim od tih arhitekata kako bi postavili logo na ulazna vrata njihove knjžnice. Jel'da?
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."
I evo taj veliki ishod. U principu, radio bih s različitim arhitektima. Prvo mi je Robin Hood bio klijent. Sada su mi klijenti ovi arhitekti. Rekao bih "Evo vam logo. Stavite ga na vrata.“ "Evo vam logo. Stavite ga na oba vrata.“ "Evo vam vaš logo. Stavite ga na stranu.“ "Evo vam vaš logo ponavljan mnogo puta.“ I sve je išlo jako dobro. Samo sam govorio, "Evo vam vaš logo. Evo vam vaš logo.“
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.
Zatim me nazvao jedan od arhitekata, tip imenom Richard Lewis, koji mi reče, "Imam problem. Ti si grafičar. Možeš li ga riješiti?“ Rekoh "OK, naravno.“ Objasnio mi je: "Problem je u tome što postoji prostor između police i stropa.“ A meni to zvuči kao arhitektonski problem a ne grafičarski, rekao sam "Nastavi.“ I Richard reče "Pa, donja polica mora biti dovoljno niska da ju dijete može dosegnuti, a ja sam u velikoj staroj zgradi gdje su stropovi doista visoki, tako da ovdje gore imam sav taj prostor i treba mi nešto poput murala.“ A ja onak, „Vau, znaš, ja sam ti dizajner logotipova. Nisam Diego Rivera ili netko takav. Nisam muralist.“ No on je nastavio "Ali možeš li nešto smisliti?“ Tako da sam rekao "OK, što ako jednostavno fotkamo djecu u školi i postavimo po cijelom tom dijelu iznad te police, možda bi to upalilo.“ A moja supruga je fotografkinja, pa sam joj rekao "Dorothy, nema budžeta, možeš li doći u školu u istočnom New Yorku, snimiti te fotografije?“ I učinila je to, tako da kada odete u Richardovu knjižnicu, a ona je jedna od prvih otvorenih, ima tu veličanstvenu fresku tih, tih heroja škole, uvećani, gledaju dolje u malu kućicu za lutke koja je prava knjižnica, ne? I klinci su fantastični, osobno izabrani od strane ravnatelja i knjižničara. Na neki način to je stvaralo herojsku atmosferu u toj knjižnici, to vrlo ponosno uređenje niže i dječje veselje gore.
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.
I naravno svi ostali knjižničari iz drugih škola su to vidjeli i rekli, pa i mi isto želimo murale. A ja sam onak, OK. I mislim si, pa, ne može biti svaki put isti mural, pa je Dorothy napravila još jedan, pa još jedan, i onda nam je zatrebalo pomoći, pa sam pozvao poznanicu, ilustratoricu, zvanu Lynn Pauley, i Lynn je napravila prekrasne slike djece. Zatim sam nazvao Charlesa Wilkina iz Automatic Design-a. On je pravio fantastične kolaže. Imali smo Rafaela Esquera koji je pravio krasne siluete. On bi radio s djecom, tražio ih riječi, i bazirajući se na tim izvorima, napravio je taj nekakav mali, delirični obilik zviježđa silueta, stvari koje su u knjigama. Peter Arkle je intervjuirao djecu o njihovim najdražim knjigama i njihova kazivanja je stavio gore u fresku. Stefan Sagemeister je radio s Yuko Shimizu a oni su napravili prekrasnu pouku u stilu mange „Svi iskreni su zanimljivi.“ koja je univerzalna. Christoph Niemann, briljantni ilustrator, je izradio čitavu seriju stvari, u kojima je uvezao knjige s licima i likovima i slikama i mjestima koja možete naći u knjigama. A tad je čak i Maira Kalman izradila prekrasne kriptične instalacije predmeta i riječi koje nekako idu svuda okolo i fascinirati će učenike dokle god su tamo postavljene.
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.
Dokle god su tamo postavljene, i uglavnom moja uloga ovdje je bila čitanje niza dimenzija tim umjetnicima i govorio bih "Tri stope puta 15 stopa, štogod želiš. Javi mi ako bude kakvih problema s tim.“ A oni bi krenuli i to instalirali. I to je bilo najbolje od svega.
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?"
A zapravo, od svega najbolja stvar je zapravo bila to da -- Svako malo u pošti bih dobio pozivnicu napravljenu od građevinskog papira, u kojoj bi pisalo, "Pozvani ste na otvorenje naše nove knjižnice.“ Tako da bih otišao u knjižnicu, recimo, odeš u PS10, i uđeš. Bilo bi balona, predstavnik učenika, držanje govora, poezija napisana posebno za otvorenje, visoki uzvanici bi ljudima dodijeljivali certifikate a cijela stvar je bila jedna delirična, zabavna zabava. I volio sam ići. Stajao bih tamo tako odjeven, vrlo očito ne pripadajući, a netko bi rekao "Što vi tu radite, gospodine?“ A ja bih odgovorio "Ja sam dio tima koji je dizajnirao ovo mjesto.“ A oni bi rekli "Vi ste izradili police?“ Odgovorio sam "Ne.“ "Vi ste snimili fotografije koje su gore.“ "Ne.“ "No, što ste radili?“ "Znate kad ste ušli? Onaj znak iznad vrata?“ "Znak na kojem piše knjižnica?“
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
"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."
"Da, ja sam to napravio!“ A onda bi oni nekako izgovorili, "Dobro obavljen posao, ako ga skužite.“ I bilo je tako zadovoljavajuće ići na ta mala otvorenja unatoč činjenici da sam većinom bio ignoriran ili ponižavan, ali doista je bilo zabavno ići na otvorenja, pa sam odlučio da želim dovesti ljude u moj ured koji su radili na tim projektima, ilustratore i fotografe, i rekao sam, zašto ne unajmimo kombi da se vozimo po pet četvrti New Yorka i da vidimo koliko možemo posjetiti odjednom. I eventualno bit će 60 tih knjižnica, a mi smo uspjeli vidjeti možda 6-7 u jednom dugom danu. A najbolje od svega je bilo upoznavanje tih knjižničara koji su vodili ta mjesta, posjedovali ta mjesta kao da su njihova osobna pozornica na koju su pozvani kako bi opčinili njihove učenike i knjige vratili u život, i to je doista bilo jedno uzbudljivo iskustvo da vidimo te stvari u akciji. Tako da smo proveli dug dan radeći to, i bili smo na zadnjoj knjižnici. I još je bila zima, jer je rano pao mrak, i knjižničarka reče "Zatvorit ću. Jako je lijepo bilo imati vas ovdje. Hej, pričekajte trenutak, želite vidjeti kako gasim svjetla?“ A ja onako, "OK.“ I rekla je "Imam poseban način kako to radim.“ I onda mi je pokazala. Gasila ih je, svako svjetlo, jedno po jedno, jedno po jedno a zadnje svjetlo koje je ostalo gorjeti je ono koje je osvjetljivalo dječja lica, i rekla je "To je zadnje svjetlo koje gasim svake večeri, jer se volim podsjetiti zašto dolazim na posao.“
So when I started this whole thing, 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.
Dakle, kad sam počeo s ovom cijelom stvari, sjećate se, bilo je samo dizajnirati taj logo i biti bistar, smisliti novo ime? Nenamjerna posljedica ovdje, za koju ću si dati priznanje i volim misliti da duboko razmišljam o tom iskustvu do te mjere ali ne mogu. Bio sam fokusiran na korak ispred, onoliko koliko sam mogao dosegnuti rukama. A umjesto toga, jako daleko, je bila knjižničarka koja će otkriti lanac posljedica koje smo pokrenuli, izvor inspiracije tako da će ona, u ovom slučaju, svoj posao jako dobro obavljati. Knjižnice utječu na 40.000 djece godišnje. Događaju se duže od 10 godina tako da su ti knjižničari približili knjige generaciji djece i doista, bilo je prekrasno otkriti da su ponekad nenamjerne posljedice najbolje posljedice.
Thank you very much.
Hvala vam lijepa.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)