An artist's attempts at achieving personal happiness, from meditation
to pharmaceuticals
Austrian-born, New York-based graphic designer, typographer and artist
Stefan Sagmeister (born 1962) often tests and transgresses the boundary
between art and design, through his imaginative implementation of
typography. The Happy Film Pitch Book both documents Sagmeister's
touring exhibition, The Happy Show, and anticipates his ongoing
feature length film, The Happy Film. In both projects, Sagmeister
undergoes a series of self-experiments (each experiment lasting three
months)--with meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering
pharmaceuticals--attempting to improve his personal happiness. I am
usually rather bored with definitions," Sagmeister says. "Happiness,
however, is just such a big subject that it might be worth a try to pin
it down." The Happy Show, Sagmeister's first museum show in the United
States, documents his adventures in video, print, infographics,
sculpture and interactive installations, most of which were custom-made
for this exhibition. Here, Sagmeister offers his own witty and poignant
thoughts and reasons for his ten-year exploration of happiness.
Throughout the book, Sagmeister's trademark maxims serve as access
points to a larger exploration of happiness, its cultural significance,
our constant pursuit of it and its notoriously ephemeral nature.
