Stefan Sagmeister puts a smile back on America's face
The legendary graphic designer tours his Happy Film across the US this month - here’s where you can catch him
The pursuit of happiness might be written into the Declaration of Independence, but every now and then it takes an outsider to show America the way. Last year the award-winning Austrian graphic designer and typographer Stefan Sagmeister released a film about his own personal quest for increased happiness. Entitled The Happy Film it was the culmination of a seven-year project, during which the 54-year-old designer sought to measure and improve his own happiness via (among other things) cognitive behavioural therapy, pharmaceuticals and a pink bunny outfit. While two out of three ain't bad, how did he fare in his other efforts?
Well, you can find out this month when the hugely influential designer who's created brilliant work for Barneys, Snapchat, The Gap and BMW (to name just a handful of Sagmeister & Walsh's clients), alongside album artwork for the likes of Talking Heads, The Rolling Stones and Lou Reed, stages a 14-date US film tour. The Happy Film North American tour comes to Seattle’s Egyptian Theatre on May 9; Vancouver’s Rio Theater on May 10; the Museum of Vancouver on May 11; LA’s Downtown Independent on May 12; San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center on May 13; Portland’s Cinema 21 on May 14; Minneapolis Landmark Lagoon on May 15; Austin’s Alamo Ritz on May 17; Detroit’s Landmark Main Art Theater on May 18; Toronto’s Hot Docs Ted Rogers cinema; New York’s SVA Theater on May 22; Chicago’s Music Box on May 23; and the Berkshire International Film Festival on May 26.
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You can find out more here. Meanwhile, for more on finding happiness in the arts, get Art as Therapy. Finally, you'll see a lot of Stefan's great work in the very wonderful Graphic: 500 Designs that Matter.