Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmiester:
Yes, design can make you happy.

Superstition and Karma

The very first point that I connected with Sagmiester was his belief in superstition and in karma. In my personal life, I am very obsessive complusive about superstition and karma and I can feel it creeping into my design world as well. For example, since junior year of high school I have worn the same t-shirt under my pads for every lacrosse game. It's a Czech Republic shirt that my grandfather gave me and it now looks like swiss cheese. I follow the same morning and evening routines, and I can see it emerging in how I proceed through my designing processes as well. How I work, where I work, what I listen to while I do it, all is starting to form a routine and it's now something that I have become superstitious about.

Enjoy Designing

The second thing that he points out that I believe in is to enjoy designing, not just the final product. Obviously the work we do and the load it comes in gets stressful, but it's never homework to me. When I look at it , its just working hard on something that I enjoy. It's a different story when it's studying for hours to take a test just for those two numbers and a percent sign. In design you work to make your product work, and that in effect is what produces success. Like I said in my last journal, if you enjoy your job, you'll never work a day in your life, and that is something that I want to pursue.

Visualization of Happiness v. Happiness

This point that he made put a few things into perspective to me. The visualization of happiness versus actual happiness are two completely different things. If I was asked to visualize on paper or on screen what it is that makes me happy I would put a girlfriend, money, and friends. But as a visual that doesn't describe why the things that make me happy. It's the things that happen within those categories that I can't visually explain that make me happy. And the same goes for design. I can show you the visualization of happiness as a final product or a grade, but I can't show you the happiness that came in the process of that product. The skills I have learned and the growth within myself as a designer are what really produced the happiness from that product.

“Thinking life will be better in the future is stupid, I have to live life now”
and
“Worrying solves nothing”

In one of his journal entries towards the end of the video, Sagmeister offers up these two points that I personally connected with the most. I initially plugged these quotes into my personal life and realized that I do the exact opposite of what they preach, and that bothers me. Then I looked at how I design and realized that I practice them a little better than in personal life, but I can improve. So a project is due next week, don't worry about it, solve it. So maybe things aren't going well on a project at a specific moment, don't look toward the future for success, find it now.

Theo Jansen:
The art of creating creatures.

I picked this video based off my my brief stint as an industrial designer while at the University of Kansas. The principle of how he described 5000 years after the invention of the wheel that his kenetic sculptures are the new wheel is pretty bold statement. But the fact that it works the same as a wheel, staying on the same plane while in motion but causing less friction between the ground and the object, actually makes sense. The thought and design that went in to creating these “animals” is so in depth and in detail, it's far beyond anything that I could even imagine. This man actually created a machine that can survive on it's own. If that is not the prime example of immersing every bit of yourself into a project, and accounting for every potential problem and having a solution, I don't know what is.

Stefan Sagmeister:
How Good is Good?

After reading this article, the things I took as important are four things:

Good Design+Bad Cause = Bad

Bad Design + Good Cause = Good?

Good Design + Good Cause = Good

Commercial Art makes you buy things, Graphic Design gives you ideas.

These four points to me sum up the principle of the article. And as a designer you need to decide where you stand? As a student, I am yet to develop a cause my cause is to graduate, and whatever I am asked to do, I'll do it. But once I graduate, and get a job, what am I going to have as my cause. Is it going to be to earn money, or to advance my employer or to advance myself? I want to fall under the good design+good cause=good category. Money is important to me. Obviously I need to pay bills feed myself and have shelter, but in essence that is all I NEED money for. NEED and WANT in terms of money is like night and day. I don't NEED a BMW or Mercedes to get to work, but I do NEED a form of transportation. And although a nice car would be nice, it's not a necessity. I am not saying that if I have the money for a BMW I won't by one, but it's nice to realize the difference between need and want. As far as good design, that is why I am in school, to learn the rules and principles and to practice them, but the good cause, that is up to each person. Someone created the swastika because they might have felt like it was a good cause to them. So I guess what I am getting at, from my point of view, a designer's good cause may differ from one person to another, but that good cause is always open for interpretation.

What is Graphic Design? I like the concept so I am going with it for this week. Graphic Design gives you ideas.

What is Typography? Typography is ways to see information. Large, small, skinny, fat, organic, mechanic, whatever it is, some thought of typography was probably involved.

What are my responsibilities? I used to feel like my personal responsibilities where most important. Don't get my wrong they are, but the things you do personally effect other people be it good or bad, and that is something to be aware of.

How to make class more valuable? To understand what you are doing something for. Don't look at your work as for a grade, look at it as for the success of the project. How it reads, how it's presented, and how it's successful. If all of that falls into place, then the grade will come.