Side Tracked

I promise I will start posting my work, soon even. Rather than posting work today though, I decided I would talk about the lecture I went to tonight. At first I was hesitant about the new programming at the Design Exchange, but the Stefan Sagmeister exhibit and accompanying lectures have been great.

Tonight's talk C'MON GET HAPPY: Happy people and what they know, was a series of short talks from a variety of multi-disciplinary designers on what makes them happy. There were a number of different ideas about the pursuit of happiness as well as a unanimous decision that children are the greatest source of happiness. One of my favourite parts of the whole night was when Christine Ralphs of Lloyd Ralphs Design put up a slide of the Olsen twins. At first I was skeptical, then she gave her reasoning, she said she put the slide in because it is crazy that will all of their success they look so depressed in all of their photos. The host, Gabe Gonda, Editor of the Arts section at The Globe and Mail, talked about how mastering your craft and being passionate is a reliable path to enduring happiness. All of the speakers are well known in their field and their passion for their work came through in all of the talks whether that was their intention or not. There were a ton of other great moments that I will surely forget in a couple of days, but overall I think it was a great way to spend an evening.

The Happy Show

This past Tuesday an old graphic design friend and I went to see Stefan Sagmeister's The Happy Show at the Design Exchange. I received many emails prior to the show explaining what it was about, but I was still surprised by how much fun the exhibit was to visit. The first interactive asked visitors to take a gum ball from one of 10 machines representing how happy they were. This created an interesting visual that allowed you to see how happy other visitors were when they entered the exhibit (I kind of wish they had a second set at the end to see how the exhibit affected people). While my friend and I agreed that being with other people was likely to taint your decision, I was still excited to see that the 8, 9, and 10 machines had the most missing from them.

In lieu of panels, vinyl graphics and typography were applied directly to the wall with Sagmeister's hand written notes added below. The information presented was succinct and interesting, and I loved the streamlined illustrations accompanying the stats and stories. I thought that the interactives were a lot of fun and really enjoyed the personal touches such as Sagmeister's favourite candy and his stories that were added throughout the exhibit.

I would highly recommend this exhibit and am excited about the direction the Design Exchange is taking for the upcoming year.