Intellectual Hedonist
The one thing which can be credited most for Richard’s success is his desire to learn. Despite being brilliant in his own right, he knows that what he does not know is infinite. Most people take pride in what they know, but Richard does not mind admitting his ignorance. What allowed him to profit from it financially was his uncanny way of asking the right questions, thereby coming up with concise and easy-to-understand presentations of answers. His Access guides are great examples of this.
When asked what he gets out of procuring information, he genially answers:
"In the end, all I am ever trying to do with every project I do is to do good work. Not for fame, fortune or money. Just really to do something good. Something that is true at that moment to myself and as good as I can do at that moment. Not in the academic sense where you try to make something so perfect that you never do anything. Not the same quest for perfection, which is a very self-conscious thing." (SOURCE: Info Design)
From writing books, he set out to manage a business called “The Understanding Business,” and that, along with “Access Press,” sold millions. But TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) would soon preoccupy him entirely. He let go of his businesses to run what would later become one of the most sought-after conferences in history.
Although not an easy person to work with, Richard is begrudgingly admired by his ex-partners. They don’t like the way he does things, but are surprised by his audacity to think that he’s dealing with the “who’s who” of today.
How else can he be described but extraordinary?
Early Life
Richard is of Jewish descent, and was born on 26 March 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Morris Louis Wurman, was a cigar businessman and the “original intellectual hedonist,” if we can call him that. Their dinner table was used not just for meals, but also for quizzes his father regularly facilitated for him and his younger brother, Frank.
Richard’s father taught him to assert himself. From an early age, he was taught to believe that he could be entitled to privileges if he knew the right questions to ask. This principle ruled his life:
"I always ask for the best seat in a restaurant. Someone's going to sit in it. It's okay if it's not me, but it's not okay for me not to try to get it. My father told me that." (SOURCE: CNN)
Education and Early Career
Though a disciplinarian, Morris indulged his sons’ interests. He believes that, unless they do something they enjoy, they will not truly excel or learn. Richard showed an early talent for painting, and was encouraged by his father to take up college-level art classes.
When it was time to choose his major, his aptitude test determined that he would make a promising archaeologist, architect or hairdresser. The results led him to studying Architecture at the University of Philadelphia, where he also excelled in watercolor painting. In fact, he won first prize three years in a row, from 1954 to 1956.
He graduated with high honors and went on to complete his Master’s Degree. He later married Dorothy, his first wife, with whom he would have two children. He practiced architecture for thirteen years in a firm he set up with John Murphy and Alan Levy, two fellow U-Penn graduates. Richard had exhibited eccentric behavior ever since he started his career, which made it difficult for them to close deals and obtain funding; he could be quite stubborn.
Access Guides
Aside from working for the architecture firm, he also wrote books and taught at universities. His books did not sell well at first; however, he had a family to feed, and so he peddled his books when the business partnership finally ended. Frank Stanton finally took pity on him and decided to fund his publishing, which is how “Access Press” was born. Richard quickly became known for his interesting ways of laying out information, from which came the coinage of the term “information architecture:”
“The common term then was 'information design'. What got confusing was information design and interior design and industrial design, at that moment and still today in many and most people's minds, are about making something look good. Interior designers make your place look better, industrial designers were engineers doing something that usually went to an engineer to put a package around it. Information design was epitomized by which map looked the best—not which took care of a lot of parallel systemic parts. That is what I thought 'architecture' did and was a clearer word that had to do with systems that worked and performed. Thought 'architecture' was a better way of describing what I thought was the direction that more people should look into for information, and I thought the explosion of data needed an architecture, needed a series of systems, needed systemic design, a series of performance criteria to measure it.” (SOURCE: Info Design)
As previously mentioned, Richard is not the easiest person to deal with, and the school which made him its Dean eventually fired him for only doing 10 hours of his required 40 in a week. With nothing to do, he had much more time for asking questions.
The Birth of “TED”
Richard arranged a small number of conferences in 1972, and they each fared well. Harry Marks, a television executive, happened to be searching for a partner for organizing conferences, which he envisioned as a new way to earn money and entertain people. It led him to contact Richard, who was allured by the idea and convinced Frank Stanton to provide additional funding once again.
The first conference was held in 1984. Despite the illustrious cast of speakers, there were only 300 attendees. What made it worse was that the three (Harry, Frank and Richard) agreed not to push through with the conference if the introductory tickets didn’t sell. But Richard is Richard, and he retracted his promise at his partners’ expense. They were disappointed, and it ended his friendship with Frank.
But TED would not have become what it is now if Richard had given up after that failure. He believed in “TED” and what it aims to do, and continued to push forward. The second conference, in 1989, was sold-out and highly successful. But, like Frank, Harry also soon became alienated from Richard because of his manner of doing business. Harry found him cunning to a fault, and so he sold his rights to Richard for a dollar.
“TED” Increases Richard’s Net Worth
Soon, TED received the accolades Richard always thought it deserved. From starting out as a flop, people from the highest echelon of different disciplines now fight for a seat. Richard arranged the conferences in a way that suited his taste, and it turned out that many others wanted the same.
While charging thousands of dollars for a four-day gathering, Richard was making a lot of money while spending little on advertising, manpower or the conference itself. Speakers were not paid, as companies lined up to fund his sessions. As expected when intellectuals and billionaires get together, ideas were [and still are] formed and put into action. “Wired,” an online magazine, was first conceptualized at a TED conference.
“Access Press” and “The Understanding Business” had to go, as Richard could no longer focus on anything other than TED, which was later sold to The Sapling Foundation in 2001. He went on to create TEDMED conferences which, as the name suggests, focus on medicine.
The “WWW.WWW” Conferences and “19.20.21”
After TEDMED was sold behind his back, Richard no longer wanted any involvement and instead started “WWW.WWW” which stands for “World, Weather, Water, War, Well-being, Wealth, the Web, and Wit.” He also created “19.20.21,” which provides information on how cities will soon become the crowded homes of the whole population.
“Information Anxiety” and Other Books
Although he has written 80-plus books and some have sold quite well, he does not call himself an author. He stands by “information architecture,” the term he coined himself, to describe what he does. Among his many books, one of the most popular is “Information Anxiety,” but his personal favorite is “What If Could Be.” He says of the book:
"The favorite book I did was in 1975. It was never sold, and you can't get it; I just printed a few. It is called What If Could Be. It is the story of this city and county that hired somebody and gave him the title of 'Commissioner of Curiosity and Imagination' to run the city and county for one year, and they would do everything this person told them to do. What he did was look at everything that was going on and did the opposite. Change the laws of copyrighting to the rights of copy, for example. The results were astonishingly favorable. In fact, everything he did was so successful that they banished him, as people would predictably do." (SOURCE: Info Design)
He now lives happily with his second wife, Gloria Nagy, who is a novelist herself.
Organizations and Programmes Supported
- Alliance Graphique Internationale (Member)
- Glen Gould Foundation (Board Member)
- Gehry Technologies, Inc. (Board Member)
- 555
- WWW.WWW
- FAIA
- Design Futures Council
- 19.20.21
Awards and Achievements
- 1954, 1955, 1956: Won first prize in watercolor painting at the University of Pennsylvania
- 1958: Member of the initial year of exploration and mapping of Tikal, Guatemala
- 1959: Graduated with high honors from the University of Pennsylvania
- 1967: Co-authored the first comparative statistical atlas of major American cities
- 1969: Received a Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1972: Chaired the “International Design Conference” in Aspen
- 1973: Chaired the “First Federal Design” assembly
- 1976: Chaired the annual “AIA Conference” and coined the term “Information Architecture”
- 1978: Served as Dean for the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design
- 1981: Founded “Access Press” in Los Angeles and created a series of travel guides
- 1984 - 2002: Created and chaired the TED conference
- 1987: Formed “The Understanding Business” in San Francisco
- 1991: Recipient of MIT's “Kevin Lynch Award” in urban design
- 1991: Honored by a retrospective exhibition at the AXIS Design Gallery in Tokyo
- 1992: Received Stars of Design’s “Lifetime Achievement Award”
- 1994: Named a Fellow of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
- 1995: Became Chairman of Graphic Design & Product/Industrial Design of the “Presidential Design Awards”
- 1995 - 2010: Created and chaired the TEDMED conference
- 1996: Received the “Chrysler Design Award”
- 1997 and 1999: Named one of the “100 Elite of the Technology Industry” by Upside magazine
- 2003: Entered the “Art Directors Club Hall of Fame”
- 2004: Honored as a design conference impresario by the AIGA
- 2012: Received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Awards
- Awarded the “Arthur Spayed Brooks Gold Medal”
- Received a lifetime achievement award from the Pacific Design Center
- Awarded three Honorary Doctorates
- Created and chaired “California 101,” “TEDSELL,” “TEDNYC,” “TED4Kobe” in Japan and “TEDCity” in Toronto
- Awarded the “Arthur Spayed Brooks Gold Medal,” two Chandler grants and two graduate fellowships by the University of Pennsylvania
- Received two Graham Fellowships
- Received numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
HONORARY DEGREES:
- 1994: Honorary Doctorate, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
- 1995: Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Art Center of College and Design
- 1999: Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, Art Institute of Boston
Teaching Positions
- The University of North Carolina, Raleigh
- Cal Poly, Pomona
- Princeton University
- CCNY
- Cambridge University, England
- University of Pennsylvania
- NY Program, Cornell
- Columbia University
- University of Southern California
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Washington University, St. Louis
- Otis Parsons, Los Angeles
Courses Taught
- Basic Design
- Architectural Design
- Urban Planning
- Cartography
- Information Architecture
Conferences Created and Chaired
- California 101 Conference 1981,1982,1983
- TED (12) 1984-2002
- TEDMED (5) 1995, 1998, 2003, 2009, 2010
- TEDSELL 1996
- TEDNYC 1997
- TEDCity Toronto 2000
- EG 2006
Conferences Chaired
- International Design Conference in Aspen The Invisible City – 1972
- First Federal Design Assembly (Co-Chairman) – 1973
- AIA National Convention, Architecture of Information – 1976
- Pacific Design Center – 1981 - 1982
A Selection of Books Designed, Authored and Published
1960s
• Cities: A Comparison of Form and Scale
• The Notebook and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn
• Urban Atlas: 20 American Cities (with Joseph Passonneau)
• Various Dwellings Described in a Comparative Manner
1970s
• Aspen Visible
• Guidebook to Guidebooks
• Making the City Observable
• Man Made Philadelphia (with J.A. Gallery)
• The Nature of Recreation (with Alan Levy & Joel Katz)
• Our Man Made Environment Book 7 (with Alan Levy)
• What-If, Could-Be: An Historic Fable of the Future
• Yellow Pages Career Library (12 volumes)
• Yellow Pages of Learning Resources
1980s
• Baseball Access
• Dog Access
• Football Access
• Hawaii Access
• Las Vegas Access
• London Access
• Los Angeles Access
• Medical Access
• New Orleans Access
• New York City Access
• Olympic Access
• Paris Access
• Polaroid Access
• Rome Access
• San Francisco Access
• Summer Games Access
• Tokyo Access
• Hats
• Information Anxiety
• Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Markets
• Washington, DC Access
• What Will Be Has Always Been, The Words of Louis I. Kahn
• Winter Games
1990s
• Barcelona Access
• Boston Access
• C, The Charleston Guide
• California Wine Country Access
• Chicago Access
• Danny Goodman's Macintosh Handbook (with Danny Goodman)
• Florence/Venice/Milan Access
• Follow the Yellow Brick Road (with Loring Leifer)
• Fortune Guide to Investing in the 90's
• Information Architects (co-published with Graphis)
• N, The Newport Guide
• On Time, Airline Guide to North America
• Office Access
• San Diego Access
• Twin Peaks Access (with David Lynch)
• USAtlas
2000s
• Understanding USA
• Can I Afford To Retire?
• Information Anxiety2
• Drugs, Prescription, Non-prescription & Herbal
• Heart Disease & Cardiovascular Health
• Wills, Trusts & Estate Planning
• Diagnostic Tests for Men
• Diagnostic Tests for Women
• Understanding Children (with Civitas)
• 1000 - Richard Saul Wurman's Who's Really Who
• Understanding Healthcare
• 33: understanding change & the change in understanding
Source: Wurman.com
RESOURCES:
Wikipedia (Richard Saul Wurman)
Info Design (Richard Saul Wurman: The InfoDesign interview)
CNN (Fortune Magazine: Richard Saul Wurman)
AIGA (Richard Saul Wurman)
Wurman.com (Richard Saul Wurman)
TED (History)
LinkedIn (Richard Saul Wurman)
Harvard Magazine (Richard Saul Wurman: Seek Opposites)
The Washington Post (555 Conference: TED creator Richard Saul Wurman discusses his latest gathering)
Wired (The Wurmanizer)
Med Gadget (TEDMED Sold to Jay Walker, Richard Saul Wurman Says Adios)
Frontiers of Interaction (Richard Saul Wurman)
Penn Design (Richard Saul Wurman)
Financial Review (Flat out talking at Club Ted)
