0:00:03.941,0:00:06.472 Blah blah blah blah blah. 0:00:06.472,0:00:08.399 Blah blah blah blah, 0:00:08.399,0:00:10.994 blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah blah. 0:00:10.994,0:00:13.741 Blah blah blah, blah. 0:00:14.997,0:00:17.170 So what the hell was that? 0:00:17.170,0:00:20.689 Well, you don't know[br]because you couldn't understand it. 0:00:21.320,0:00:23.620 It wasn't clear. 0:00:24.530,0:00:27.768 But hopefully, it was said[br]with enough conviction 0:00:27.768,0:00:31.467 that it was at least[br]alluringly mysterious. 0:00:32.792,0:00:35.973 Clarity or mystery? 0:00:35.973,0:00:40.199 I'm balancing these two things[br]in my daily work as a graphic designer, 0:00:40.199,0:00:45.031 as well as my daily life as a New Yorker 0:00:45.031,0:00:46.561 every day, 0:00:46.561,0:00:51.028 and there are two elements[br]that absolutely fascinate me. 0:00:51.028,0:00:53.390 Here's an example. 0:00:53.390,0:00:57.170 Now, how many people know what this is? 0:00:59.703,0:01:04.727 Okay. Now how many people[br]know what this is? 0:01:04.727,0:01:12.410 Okay. Thanks to two more deft strokes[br]by the genius Charles M. Schulz, 0:01:12.410,0:01:15.454 we now have seven deft strokes[br]that in and of themselves 0:01:15.454,0:01:18.984 create an entire emotional life, 0:01:18.984,0:01:21.863 one that has enthralled[br]hundreds of millions of fans 0:01:21.863,0:01:23.906 for over 50 years. 0:01:23.906,0:01:26.420 This is actually a cover of a book 0:01:26.420,0:01:29.711 that I designed about the work[br]of Schulz and his art, 0:01:29.711,0:01:32.497 which will be coming out this fall, 0:01:32.497,0:01:34.378 and that is the entire cover. 0:01:34.378,0:01:39.324 There is no other typographic information[br]or visual information on the front, 0:01:39.324,0:01:42.737 and the name of the book[br]is "Only What's Necessary." 0:01:43.317,0:01:48.790 So this is sort of symbolic about[br]the decisions I have to make every day 0:01:48.790,0:01:52.706 about the design that I'm perceiving, 0:01:52.706,0:01:54.985 and the design I'm creating. 0:01:55.525,0:01:56.842 So clarity. 0:01:57.332,0:01:59.421 Clarity gets to the point. 0:01:59.421,0:02:02.758 It's blunt. It's honest. It's sincere. 0:02:03.748,0:02:07.370 We ask ourselves this.[br]["When should you be clear?"] 0:02:07.370,0:02:12.818 Now, something like this,[br]whether we can read it or not, 0:02:12.818,0:02:16.418 needs to be really, really clear. 0:02:16.418,0:02:18.455 Is it? 0:02:20.586,0:02:27.284 This is a rather recent example[br]of urban clarity that I just love, 0:02:27.284,0:02:32.392 mainly because I'm always late[br]and I am always in a hurry. 0:02:32.742,0:02:39.288 So when these meters started showing up[br]a couple of years ago on street corners, 0:02:39.288,0:02:42.748 I was thrilled, because now I finally knew 0:02:42.748,0:02:45.673 how many seconds I had[br]to get across the street 0:02:45.673,0:02:48.553 before I got run over by a car. 0:02:48.553,0:02:53.475 Six? I can do that. (Laughter) 0:02:53.475,0:02:57.283 So let's look at the yin[br]to the clarity yang, 0:02:57.283,0:03:00.812 and that is mystery. 0:03:00.812,0:03:06.176 Mystery is a lot more complicated[br]by its very definition. 0:03:06.176,0:03:09.659 Mystery demands to be decoded, 0:03:09.659,0:03:12.643 and when it's done right,[br]we really, really want to. 0:03:12.643,0:03:14.303 ["When should you be mysterious?"] 0:03:14.303,0:03:20.107 In World War II, the Germans[br]really, really wanted to decode this, 0:03:20.107,0:03:22.731 and they couldn't. 0:03:22.731,0:03:25.912 Here's an example of a design[br]that I've done recently 0:03:25.912,0:03:28.234 for a novel by Haruki Murakami, 0:03:28.234,0:03:31.438 who I've done design work for[br]for over 20 years now, 0:03:31.438,0:03:37.150 and this is a novel about a young man[br]who has four dear friends 0:03:37.150,0:03:40.819 who all of a sudden,[br]after their freshman year of college, 0:03:40.819,0:03:44.116 completely cut him off[br]with no explanation, 0:03:44.116,0:03:45.973 and he is devastated. 0:03:45.973,0:03:51.376 And the friends' names each have[br]a connotation in Japanese to a color. 0:03:51.376,0:03:56.050 So there's Mr. Red, there's Mr. Blue,[br]there's Ms. White, and Ms. Black. 0:03:56.770,0:04:00.160 Tsukuru Tazaki, his name[br]does not correspond to a color, 0:04:00.160,0:04:04.610 so his nickname is Colorless, and[br]as he's looking back on their friendship, 0:04:04.610,0:04:07.776 he recalls that they were like[br]five fingers on a hand. 0:04:07.776,0:04:12.257 So I created this sort of abstract[br]representation of this, 0:04:12.257,0:04:16.437 but there's a lot more going on[br]underneath the surface of the story, 0:04:16.437,0:04:21.110 and there's more going on underneath[br]the surface of the jacket. 0:04:21.110,0:04:25.515 The four fingers are now four train lines 0:04:25.515,0:04:27.582 in the Tokyo subway system, 0:04:27.582,0:04:29.973 which has significance within the story. 0:04:30.813,0:04:33.610 And then you have[br]the colorless subway line 0:04:33.610,0:04:36.173 intersecting with each[br]of the other colors, 0:04:36.173,0:04:38.820 which basically he does[br]later on in the story. 0:04:38.820,0:04:40.802 He catches up with each of these people 0:04:40.802,0:04:44.332 to find out why they treated him[br]the way they did. 0:04:44.332,0:04:48.558 And so this is the three-dimensional[br]finished product 0:04:48.558,0:04:50.879 sitting on my desk in my office, 0:04:50.879,0:04:55.546 and what I was hoping for here[br]is that you'll simply be allured 0:04:55.546,0:04:59.401 by the mystery of what this looks like, 0:04:59.401,0:05:02.196 and will want to read it 0:05:02.196,0:05:07.345 to decode and find out and make more clear[br]why it looks the way it does. 0:05:08.163,0:05:09.858 ["The Visual Vernacular."] 0:05:09.858,0:05:14.177 This is a way to use a more[br]familiar kind of mystery. 0:05:14.177,0:05:15.938 What does this mean? 0:05:15.938,0:05:18.772 This is what it means.[br]["Make it look like something else."] 0:05:18.772,0:05:23.302 The visual vernacular is the way[br]we are used to seeing a certain thing 0:05:23.302,0:05:27.691 applied to something else so that[br]we see it in a different way. 0:05:27.691,0:05:31.840 This is an approach I wanted to take[br]to a book of essays by David Sedaris 0:05:31.840,0:05:35.211 that had this title at the time.[br]["All the Beauty You Will Ever Need"] 0:05:35.211,0:05:39.402 Now, the challenge here was that[br]this title actually means nothing. 0:05:39.402,0:05:42.792 It's not connected to any[br]of the essays in the book. 0:05:42.792,0:05:47.503 It came to the author's boyfriend[br]in a dream. 0:05:47.993,0:05:53.659 Thank you very much, so -- (Laughter) --[br]so usually, I am creating a design 0:05:53.659,0:05:57.722 that is in some way based on the text,[br]but this is all the text there is. 0:05:57.722,0:06:02.111 So you've got this mysterious title[br]that really doesn't mean anything, 0:06:02.111,0:06:04.610 so I was trying to think: 0:06:04.610,0:06:10.848 Where might I see a bit of mysterious text[br]that seems to mean something but doesn't? 0:06:10.848,0:06:13.255 And sure enough, not long after, 0:06:13.255,0:06:16.570 one evening after a Chinese meal, 0:06:16.570,0:06:23.062 this arrived, and I thought,[br]"Ah, bing, ideagasm!" (Laughter) 0:06:23.472,0:06:28.673 I've always loved the hilariously[br]mysterious tropes of fortune cookies 0:06:28.673,0:06:31.575 that seem to mean something extremely deep 0:06:31.575,0:06:35.662 but when you think about them -- if you[br]think about them -- they really don't. 0:06:35.662,0:06:41.907 This says, "Hardly anyone knows how much[br]is gained by ignoring the future." 0:06:42.537,0:06:44.899 Thank you. (Laughter) 0:06:45.389,0:06:51.046 But we can take this visual vernacular[br]and apply it to Mr. Sedaris, 0:06:51.046,0:06:56.657 and we are so familiar[br]with how fortune cookie fortunes look 0:06:56.657,0:06:59.424 that we don't even need[br]the bits of the cookie anymore. 0:06:59.424,0:07:02.419 We're just seeing this strange thing 0:07:02.419,0:07:04.416 and we know we love David Sedaris, 0:07:04.416,0:07:07.300 and so we're hoping that[br]we're in for a good time. 0:07:07.760,0:07:11.048 ["'Fraud' Essays by David Rakoff"][br]David Rakoff was a wonderful writer 0:07:11.048,0:07:14.211 and he called his first book "Fraud" 0:07:14.211,0:07:18.171 because he was getting sent[br]on assignments by magazines 0:07:18.171,0:07:20.841 to do things that he[br]was not equipped to do. 0:07:20.841,0:07:23.163 So he was this skinny little urban guy 0:07:23.163,0:07:26.762 and GQ magazine would send him[br]down the Colorado River 0:07:26.762,0:07:30.478 whitewater rafting to see[br]if he would survive. 0:07:31.378,0:07:34.679 And then he would write about it,[br]and he felt that he was a fraud 0:07:34.679,0:07:36.978 and that he was misrepresenting himself. 0:07:36.978,0:07:41.645 And so I wanted the cover of this book[br]to also misrepresent itself 0:07:41.645,0:07:46.916 and then somehow show[br]a reader reacting to it. 0:07:46.916,0:07:50.167 This led me to graffiti. 0:07:50.167,0:07:52.210 I'm fascinated by graffiti. 0:07:52.210,0:07:54.903 I think anybody who lives[br]in an urban environment 0:07:54.903,0:07:58.943 encounters graffiti all the time,[br]and there's all different sorts of it. 0:07:58.943,0:08:02.550 This is a picture I took[br]on the Lower East Side 0:08:02.550,0:08:05.398 of just a transformer box on the sidewalk 0:08:05.398,0:08:07.372 and it's been tagged like crazy. 0:08:07.372,0:08:12.991 Now whether you look at this and think,[br]"Oh, that's a charming urban affectation," 0:08:12.991,0:08:17.379 or you look at it and say,[br]"That's illegal abuse of property," 0:08:17.379,0:08:19.724 the one thing I think we can all agree on 0:08:19.724,0:08:22.905 is that you cannot read it. 0:08:22.905,0:08:26.458 Right? There is no clear message here. 0:08:26.458,0:08:31.682 There is another kind of graffiti[br]that I find far more interesting, 0:08:31.682,0:08:34.538 which I call editorial graffiti. 0:08:34.538,0:08:38.744 This is a picture I took recently[br]in the subway, 0:08:38.744,0:08:42.610 and sometimes you see[br]lots of prurient, stupid stuff, 0:08:42.610,0:08:47.517 but I thought this was interesting,[br]and this is a poster that is saying 0:08:47.517,0:08:49.747 rah-rah Airbnb, 0:08:49.747,0:08:52.510 and someone has taken a Magic Marker 0:08:52.510,0:08:56.434 and has editorialized about[br]what they think about it. 0:08:56.434,0:08:59.266 And it got my attention. 0:08:59.266,0:09:02.692 So I was thinking, how do we[br]apply this to this book? 0:09:02.692,0:09:08.405 So I get the book by this person,[br]and I start reading it, and I'm thinking, 0:09:08.405,0:09:13.079 this guy is not who he says [br]he is; he's a fraud. 0:09:13.079,0:09:16.540 And I get out a red Magic Marker, 0:09:16.540,0:09:21.151 and out of frustration just[br]scribble this across the front. 0:09:21.151,0:09:25.259 Design done. (Laughter) 0:09:25.815,0:09:30.190 And they went for it! (Laughter) 0:09:30.190,0:09:32.107 Author liked it, publisher liked it, 0:09:32.107,0:09:34.824 and that is how the book[br]went out into the world, 0:09:34.824,0:09:39.723 and it was really fun to see[br]people reading this on the subway 0:09:39.723,0:09:41.859 and walking around with it[br]and what have you, 0:09:41.859,0:09:45.760 and they all sort of looked[br]like they were crazy. 0:09:45.760,0:09:48.120 (Laughter) 0:09:48.590,0:09:52.633 ["'Perfidia' a novel by James Ellroy"][br]Okay, James Ellroy, amazing crime writer, 0:09:52.633,0:09:55.117 a good friend, I've worked[br]with him for many years. 0:09:55.117,0:09:57.325 He is probably best known as the author 0:09:57.325,0:10:00.295 of "The Black Dahlia"[br]and "L.A. Confidential." 0:10:00.295,0:10:05.150 His most recent novel was called this,[br]which is a very mysterious name 0:10:05.150,0:10:08.756 that I'm sure a lot of people know[br]what it means, but a lot of people don't. 0:10:08.756,0:10:15.814 And it's a story about a Japanese-American[br]detective in Los Angeles in 1941 0:10:15.814,0:10:17.834 investigating a murder. 0:10:17.834,0:10:20.247 And then Pearl Harbor happens, 0:10:20.247,0:10:23.357 and as if his life[br]wasn't difficult enough, 0:10:23.357,0:10:28.200 now the race relations[br]have really ratcheted up, 0:10:28.200,0:10:32.718 and then the Japanese-American[br]internment camps are quickly created, 0:10:32.718,0:10:34.738 and there's lots of tension 0:10:34.738,0:10:38.824 and horrible stuff as he's still[br]trying to solve this murder. 0:10:38.824,0:10:44.656 And so I did at first think[br]very literally about this in terms of 0:10:44.656,0:10:48.538 all right, we'll take Pearl Harbor[br]and we'll add it to Los Angeles 0:10:48.539,0:10:55.736 and we'll make this apocalyptic dawn[br]on the horizon of the city. 0:10:56.146,0:10:58.561 And so that's a picture from Pearl Harbor 0:10:58.561,0:11:01.625 just grafted onto Los Angeles. 0:11:01.625,0:11:04.899 My editor in chief said,[br]"You know, it's interesting 0:11:04.899,0:11:10.286 but I think you can do better[br]and I think you can make it simpler." 0:11:10.286,0:11:14.506 And so I went back[br]to the drawing board, as I often do. 0:11:14.506,0:11:19.197 But also, being alive to my surroundings, 0:11:19.197,0:11:22.830 I work in a high-rise in Midtown, 0:11:22.830,0:11:26.500 and every night,[br]before I leave the office, 0:11:26.500,0:11:28.745 I have to push this button to get out, 0:11:28.745,0:11:32.483 and the big heavy glass doors open[br]and I can get onto the elevator. 0:11:32.483,0:11:35.979 And one night, all of a sudden, 0:11:35.979,0:11:41.750 I looked at this and I saw it in a way[br]that I hadn't really noticed it before. 0:11:41.750,0:11:44.279 Big red circle, danger. 0:11:44.279,0:11:47.158 And I thought this was so obvious 0:11:47.158,0:11:49.875 that it had to have been[br]done a zillion times, 0:11:49.875,0:11:54.449 and so I did a Google image search,[br]and I couldn't find another book cover 0:11:54.449,0:11:56.608 that looked quite like this, 0:11:56.608,0:11:59.232 and so this is really[br]what solved the problem, 0:11:59.232,0:12:01.763 and graphically it's more interesting 0:12:01.763,0:12:05.989 and creates a bigger tension[br]between the idea 0:12:05.989,0:12:11.096 of a certain kind of sunrise[br]coming up over L.A. and America. 0:12:11.506,0:12:14.492 ["'Gulp' A tour of the human[br]digestive system by Mary Roach."] 0:12:14.492,0:12:16.530 Mary Roach is an amazing writer 0:12:16.530,0:12:20.152 who takes potentially mundane[br]scientific subjects 0:12:20.152,0:12:23.540 and makes them not mundane at all;[br]she makes them really fun. 0:12:23.540,0:12:25.167 So in this particular case, 0:12:25.167,0:12:28.279 it's about the human digestive system. 0:12:28.279,0:12:33.201 So I'm trying to figure out what[br]is the cover of this book going to be. 0:12:34.141,0:12:37.845 This is a self-portrait. (Laughter) 0:12:37.845,0:12:43.905 Every morning I look at myself[br]in the medicine cabinet mirror 0:12:43.905,0:12:46.622 to see if my tongue is black. 0:12:46.622,0:12:50.170 And if it's not, I'm good to go. 0:12:50.170,0:12:53.279 (Laughter) 0:12:55.185,0:12:58.296 I recommend you all do this. 0:12:58.296,0:13:02.243 But I also started thinking,[br]here's our introduction. 0:13:02.243,0:13:05.122 Right? Into the human digestive system. 0:13:05.962,0:13:08.210 But I think what we can all agree on 0:13:08.210,0:13:12.460 is that actual photographs[br]of human mouths, at least based on this, 0:13:12.460,0:13:16.244 are off-putting. (Laughter) 0:13:16.244,0:13:20.145 So for the cover, then,[br]I had this illustration done 0:13:20.145,0:13:22.374 which is literally more palatable 0:13:22.374,0:13:26.902 and reminds us that it's best[br]to approach the digestive system 0:13:26.902,0:13:29.200 from this end. 0:13:29.200,0:13:31.847 (Laughter) 0:13:31.847,0:13:34.793 I don't even have to complete[br]the sentence. All right. 0:13:35.533,0:13:37.079 ["Unuseful mystery"] 0:13:37.079,0:13:41.156 What happens when clarity[br]and mystery get mixed up? 0:13:41.516,0:13:43.489 And we see this all the time. 0:13:43.489,0:13:45.997 This is what I call unuseful mystery. 0:13:45.997,0:13:48.946 I go down into the subway --[br]I take the subway a lot -- 0:13:48.946,0:13:53.450 and this piece of paper[br]is taped to a girder. 0:13:54.590,0:13:58.243 Right? And now I'm thinking, uh-oh, 0:13:58.243,0:14:02.120 and the train's about to come and I'm[br]trying to figure out what this means, 0:14:02.120,0:14:04.914 and thanks a lot. 0:14:04.914,0:14:08.914 Part of the problem here is that[br]they've compartmentalized the information 0:14:08.914,0:14:12.420 in a way they think is helpful,[br]and frankly, I don't think it is at all. 0:14:12.420,0:14:15.694 So this is mystery we do not need. 0:14:15.694,0:14:23.780 What we need is useful clarity,[br]so just for fun, I redesigned this. 0:14:23.780,0:14:26.259 This is using all the same elements. 0:14:26.259,0:14:29.182 (Applause) 0:14:29.532,0:14:33.837 Thank you. I am still waiting[br]for a call from the MTA. (Laughter) 0:14:34.447,0:14:37.506 You know, I'm actually not even[br]using more colors than they use. 0:14:37.506,0:14:40.803 They just didn't even bother[br]to make the 4 and the 5 green, 0:14:40.803,0:14:43.961 those idiots. (Laughter) 0:14:44.851,0:14:47.920 So the first thing we see[br]is that there is a service change, 0:14:47.920,0:14:51.613 and then, in two complete sentences[br]with a beginning, a middle and an end, 0:14:51.613,0:14:56.383 it tells us what the change is[br]and what's going to be happening. 0:14:56.383,0:15:00.440 Call me crazy! (Laughter) 0:15:01.630,0:15:04.161 ["Useful mystery"][br]All right. 0:15:04.161,0:15:09.841 Now, here is a piece[br]of mystery that I love: 0:15:09.841,0:15:11.498 packaging. 0:15:11.498,0:15:14.772 This redesign of the Diet Coke can 0:15:14.772,0:15:20.200 by Turner Duckworth[br]is to me truly a piece of art. 0:15:20.200,0:15:23.716 It's a work of art. It's beautiful. 0:15:23.716,0:15:26.893 But part of what makes it[br]so heartening to me as a designer 0:15:26.893,0:15:31.351 is that he's taken the visual[br]vernacular of Diet Coke -- 0:15:31.351,0:15:34.889 the typefaces, the colors,[br]the silver background -- 0:15:34.889,0:15:39.974 and he's reduced them[br]to their most essential parts, 0:15:39.974,0:15:42.714 so it's like going back[br]to the Charlie Brown face. 0:15:42.714,0:15:46.661 It's like, how can you give them just[br]enough information so they know what it is 0:15:46.661,0:15:50.539 but giving them the credit[br]for the knowledge that they already have 0:15:50.539,0:15:52.396 about this thing? 0:15:52.396,0:15:56.181 It looks great, and you would go[br]into a delicatessen 0:15:56.181,0:16:00.631 and all of a sudden see that on the shelf,[br]and it's wonderful. 0:16:00.631,0:16:04.330 Which makes the next thing -- 0:16:04.330,0:16:06.862 ["Unuseful clarity"] --[br]all the more disheartening, 0:16:06.862,0:16:08.510 at least to me. 0:16:08.510,0:16:12.350 So okay, again, going back[br]down into the subway, 0:16:12.350,0:16:14.440 after this came out, 0:16:14.440,0:16:16.460 these are pictures that I took. 0:16:16.460,0:16:18.503 Times Square subway station: 0:16:18.503,0:16:23.681 Coca-Cola has bought out[br]the entire thing for advertising. Okay? 0:16:23.681,0:16:27.990 And maybe some of you[br]know where this is going. 0:16:28.660,0:16:30.438 Ahem. 0:16:30.438,0:16:33.056 "You moved to New York[br]with the clothes on your back, 0:16:33.056,0:16:35.640 the cash in your pocket,[br]and your eyes on the prize. 0:16:35.640,0:16:39.147 You're on Coke." (Laughter) 0:16:45.298,0:16:48.251 "You moved to New York[br]with an MBA, one clean suit, 0:16:48.251,0:16:50.341 and an extremely firm handshake. 0:16:50.341,0:16:53.138 You're on Coke." (Laughter) 0:16:53.638,0:16:58.142 These are real! (Laughter) 0:16:58.142,0:17:01.973 Not even the support beams were spared, 0:17:01.973,0:17:05.789 except they switched into Yoda mode.[br](Laughter) 0:17:07.569,0:17:10.838 "Coke you're on." (Laughter) 0:17:11.298,0:17:13.998 ["Excuse me, I'm on WHAT??"] 0:17:14.018,0:17:17.623 This campaign was a huge misstep. 0:17:17.623,0:17:22.310 It was pulled almost instantly[br]due to consumer backlash 0:17:22.310,0:17:26.850 and all sorts of unflattering[br]parodies on the web -- 0:17:26.850,0:17:28.731 (Laughter) -- 0:17:28.731,0:17:34.451 and also that dot next to "You're on,"[br]that's not a period, that's a trademark. 0:17:35.141,0:17:36.421 So thanks a lot. 0:17:36.421,0:17:40.433 So to me, this was just so bizarre 0:17:40.433,0:17:46.447 about how they could get the packaging[br]so mysteriously beautiful and perfect 0:17:46.447,0:17:50.905 and the message so unbearably,[br]clearly wrong. 0:17:50.905,0:17:54.365 It was just incredible to me. 0:17:54.365,0:17:59.891 So I just hope that I've been able[br]to share with you some of my insights 0:17:59.891,0:18:03.699 on the uses of clarity[br]and mystery in my work, 0:18:03.699,0:18:09.005 and maybe how you might decide[br]to be more clear in your life, 0:18:09.005,0:18:15.273 or maybe to be a bit more mysterious[br]and not so over-sharing. 0:18:15.273,0:18:18.110 (Laughter) 0:18:19.000,0:18:23.806 And if there's just one thing[br]that I leave you with from this talk, 0:18:23.806,0:18:25.757 I hope it's this: 0:18:25.757,0:18:29.022 Blih blih blih blah. Blah blah blih blih.[br]["'Judge This,' Chip Kidd"] 0:18:29.022,0:18:32.086 Blih blih blah blah blah.[br]Blah blah blah. 0:18:32.086,0:18:33.883 Blah blah. 0:18:33.883,0:18:37.883 (Applause)