When we were asked to watch the film, I don't really know what to expect from it. From what I know, it is a film about a designer tries to find happiness, and in the end he creates The Happy Show. Which I have seen tons of pictures of the interactive exhibition before.
In the film, he starts of with wanting to learn more on the topic of Happiness.
So, he started doing his research by interviewing psychologist, making a plan, list and script. In the end, he realized that the topic happiness is too big for him to focus on, so he narrowed it down to his own happiness instead. (Primary research)
Once he figured out the direction that he wanted to focus on, he went to consult the author of the book "The Happiness Hypothesis" as an adviser. He was then introduced to the 3 ways to change your thinking (change your mindset to become happier). Which is meditation, cognitive therapy and drugs. (Secondary research)
Once he had things plan out, he decided to try out this three methods in a year by experimenting and exploring with each of the methods for 3 months. He planned out different ways to record/ collect his data such as measuring his happiness daily and making a video diary weekly. (data collection and experimentation)
However, unlike us students his design process stretches out into a couple of years. Once he had the opportunity to showcase his work at Philadelphia museum of art, he decided that he want to exhibit The Happy Show. Here is when he started to envision how he want the exhibition to look like, while still conducting the experiment. From the film, you could see him sketching and writing down notes.
He also wanted to use the language of design for something more personal.
What I found interesting in this film is how he used objects in our surrounding to help us understand better. For example, the way he showcase his happiness level after each experiment in the way of filling up a glass of water. This is very easy for us audience to to understand and visualize.
Or how he wanted to tell us about "how we are not in control of unconscious". For example, more Paula is married to Paul according to researches. He still did it in a visual way for us to understand better.
Besides, one of the things I realized is that throughout the video is that, the way he wanted to show his notes or thinking is through scribbles on screen such as:
Which I personally find it nice! It reminds me of my own notes that I would scribble down during class. This also help the audience to have a better understanding on what he is talking about.
Lastly, I really like the typography that were showcase in the film. He used various materials and technique to create typography. As example, right after the scene where the director passed away, one of the message that he wanna share to us audience is "Life will be better for the future is stupid, I have to live now". He used tree branches and trunks to create the words because tree is a symbol for life and growth.
Personally I felt that the exhibition in the end include many of his experience in this journey, and most of the things he end up doing is very unexpected. For example, the method meditation doesn't really help him find happiness instead he enjoy the little motorcycle road trip. So, I feel like he did include the little experience in that bicycle setup that we later see in the exhibition.
Besides, the part when he fall in love is also unexpected. Which inspired him to do his research on compassionate and passionate love. Which in the end have its very own section in the exhibition.
From this I could say that, inspirations and ideas comes naturally. All of us could be inspired by our experience or interest to create something wonderful to be share.
I think that this film would be helpful for us because our projects required a lot of research and data collection, which is shown in this film where Stefan Sagmeister undergo tons of research, and data collection for him to be able to execute this project successfully. We could learned and apply his design process into our projects.
Besides, the learning outcome for this course is to encourage research or investigation (qualitative and quantitative) and expand the research through different media (new and traditional). Which could be seen throughout the film, he used different methods/media to send across the message of happiness that he have research and explore deeply during the film.
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