Week 1- "The Happy Film" by Stefan Sagmeister (Review)

The first exercise of this week was to watch “The Happy Film” assigned by the lecturer. A graphic design documentary about a designer Stefan Sagmeister from Austria.

The Happy Film will not make you feel happy. But the fast-paced, painful, honest, stress-contemplative film directed by Ben Nabors and the late Hillam Curtis, will spark insight, sympathy, and voyeurism.

The Happiness by Jonathan Haidt

What is happiness? He gets inspired by the book "Happiness Hypothesis" by Jonathan Haidt, and he decided to explore the concept of happiness. As the film mentioned, he contacted Jonathan Haidt, along with professional help from researchers, and psychologists to get a better understanding of the fundamentals of happiness.

In the book "The Happiness Hypothesis" mentioned listed down in the chapter, two ways to change the way you think, which is included meditating, cognitive therapy and drugs.

Sagmeister's meticuluos happiness-level calculator

He spent a few months to experiment with each of the methods and measured the levels of his happiness until the end of the experiment. In this film mentioned that he was a data-driven person and he made the pros and cons list in his personal life and relationships as well.

The important key points in this film are how he went through a lot of data collections in his experimentation. This film reminded me of how important research is when we do every single project. As a graphic designer, we have to explore more and experiment with different things.

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References:

Drumm, P. (2020). There are Lessons to be Learned in Stefan Sagmeister’s The Happy Film, but They’re Not What You’d Expect. Retrieved 23 April 2020, from https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/there-are-lessons-to-be-learned-from-stefan-sagmeisters-happy-film-but-theyre-not-what-you-expect/