Design happy.

February 22, 2010 • 7:05 pm • POSTED BY anna hartley

Can happiness be visualized through design? How can design and creativity evoke happiness? And in the age of tongue-in-cheek visual media and mass advertising, do representations of happiness have to be so cynical?

I recently stumbled upon this interesting TED talk, in which graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister discusses the ways that design can portray happiness, and the distinct moments when design has brought unexpected happiness to his life.

Interestingly, Sagmeister cites a couple of urban guerilla projects that reframe the way that people normally interact with the city. (Examples? One project that replaced boring subway signage with graphically identical “life instructions”; another that placed blank voice bubble stickers over existing signage, inspiring passers-by to contribute their own dialogue to a given scene.) From a branding and creativity perspective, these are inspiring examples about how unexpected creativity and design can contribute to the happiness of a visually-savvy audience–on a deeply personal level.