The Happy Show - by Stefan Sagmeister

           “The Happy Show” was the culmination of Sagmeister’s ten-year study of what happiness is. He really goes deep and attempts to talk about almost every way we tie happiness and life together. For example, in his section about happy and unhappy activities he constructed a graph to illustrate how inherently happy or unhappy common activities are, such as watching television (very unhappy) and going to a religious event (very happy).

            Interestingly enough, he bases a lot of his conclusions on survey-like tests. The section of his exhibit containing the gumball machines are a nice example of surveys going wrong. When I walked into the main room of the exhibit, these machines were one of the first things I saw. Oddly, numbers 1-5 were still about half full of gumballs, and 6-10 were completely empty. Instantly I was shaking my head, because clearly this data is wrong. If everyone were to rate their life’s overall happiness level on a scale from 1-10, I guarantee that the majority of people are not 8, 9, or 10/10. That would have to mean that they have been content and satisfied almost 100% of the time their entire life. I may be just cynical, but that seems absurd.

            The exhibit itself was absolutely amazing. After going the first time, I already have planned to go again before it closes. I loved as well how he hand writes in his exhibits to generate a personal feel and to explain why some pieces are they way they are, and furthermore, to help us get inside his head.

            In Ellen Lupton’s book, Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming, she talks a lot about the creative process. Although Sagmeister’s exhibit is arguably more about the finished product and the conclusions he made, he still gives us insight into his mind and bits of the creative process behind his work. For example, his discussions with Psychologists, Anthropologists, and Historians seem almost like his own version of a focus group, where he talks with people who study people in order to get to the roots of what “happiness” really is.