A list from designer Stefan Sagmeister’s diary:
Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
Being not truthful works against me.
Helping other people helps me.
Organizing a charity group is surprisingly easy.
Everything I do always comes back to me.
Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted.
Money does not make me happy.
Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life.
Assuming is stifling.
Keeping a diary supports my personal development.
Trying to look good limits my life.
Worrying solves nothing.
Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
Having guts always works out for me.
He discusses this list and how good design is the basis for many of the things that make him happy in his TEDTalk: “Yes, design can make you happy.”
Analyzing a list of things that have made him happy, graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister realized that almost half of the items were in some way related to design. In this intensely personal talk, he shares the details of some of those moments, and gives props to three artists whose work has had a positive impact on his world. Concluding with some examples of his own work, Sagmeister offers a real insight into his aesthetic and philosophy of work—and life.”
Aside: It’s interesting how the video player at ted.com breaks up sections according to content.
Tim
on 09 Jul 07This guy sure has some strong lines! The first and last point from the list are the ones I find myself in. I hate it when people keep coming up with things that happened months ago. Ok, it was a bad experience. Now, you learn from it or don’t bring it up again!
Dennis Eusebio
on 09 Jul 07Bar none my favorite designer. I wonder why there aren’t more rockstar designers like Sagmeister these days.
Bernd
on 09 Jul 07I translated his wisdom into german, see: http://blog.berndgoldschmidt.de/index.php?/archives/199-Sagmeisters-Weisheiten.html
Karl N
on 09 Jul 07As a warning to those at work, there is some fairly explicit nudity depicted in the presentation.
Thanks for posting this, it’s very interesting.
Benoit Caccinolo
on 09 Jul 07This list is so zen. It’s a true one.
Doug
on 09 Jul 07I thought Viddler did this really well with commenting (on sites like tv.winelibrary.com) however TEDtalks far exceeds Viddler. This is such a simple feature but adds so much to the user’s experience.
Karl N
on 09 Jul 07How long til we get this on dvds?
Not that I actually use scene finder features, ever.
james vreeland
on 09 Jul 07I dig the big bricks of timeline on the TED player, it was actually a bit surprising to see something so similar to the player I developed last summer to support another conference in the same vein. EG2006 DVD video thingy Great minds, or some such…
The TED execution is clean and really elegant, we had to load ours with a ton of extra content/controls since it was a DVD based system and users couldn’t easily surf around while watching the video.
mimo
on 10 Jul 07No Doubt one of the greatest designers nowadays. In the league of saul bas, tibor and paul rand.
This discussion is closed.