Design and Happiness

At the recommendation of a classmate, I decided to watch a Sagmeister video on TED.com (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/stefan_sagmeister_shares_happy_design.html)about happiness and design.  Usually you assume that all of these bigwig designers are going to be riding around on their high horses, staring down their noses at us common designers. Contrary to my presupposition, Sagmeister seems like a very genuine, humble, down to earth designer and a happy person.

Sagmeister makes a list of the things in his life that make him happy and about 5-6 out of 10 of them are design related. He then lists a few designs that have made him genuinely happy. What i took from this was not only does designing make us happy and fulfill that sense of creativity everybody has, but it also has the ability to evoke happiness in others.
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An Austrian magazine asked Sagmeister to develop dividing artwork in between pages. He keeps a journal and writes things he has learned and decided to have creative photographs spelling out some of these tidbits of self-improvement. One i really liked was “complaining is silly, either act or forget.” Nobody is bound my circumstance and we have the power to shape our lives in whatever fashion we wish. Sagmeister’s design not only satiates his creativity, but it sends a positive message to countless numbers of people. The ability graphic design has in touching the lives of hundreds, thousands or even millions fascinates me.

Why do we design? Do we do it for the money, to feed our ego, artistic expression, or to shape the world? Maybe we design for all of those reasons. Whichever the case, our design has the ability to send powerful messages on large scales and make seemingly ordinary things, beautiful.