Stefan Sagmeister's "Now is better" exhibit mixes simple designs to create his interpretation of happiness.
Upon entering the Trisolini Gallery located on the fourth floor of Baker Center, one may perceive the images in the short video projected on the wall as simple, yet beautifully crafted.
It's an artistic metaphor for Stefan Sagmeister's "Now is better," presented by Ohio University’s School of Art and Design, which will showcase in the Baker gallery until Oct. 10.
On Sept. 14, Sagmeister presented a lecture, titled “Happiness,” in Walter Hall, where he spoke about his research on the subject of happiness and how he crafted his work on the specific concept.
"He talked about how we as a human race kind of tend toward negativity," Courtney Kessel, the Trisolini Gallery director, said. "(He) would take ‘happiness’ into the design world and apply it to his work and research."
The gallery has a designated space to sit in front of the projection of Stagmeister’s exhibit, which is a video set to music of different images of designs that he manipulated to tie into the theme of happiness. Some of these objects were basic designs such as sugar cubes, coffee creamer and flowers.
Sagmeister is the co-founder of the New York-based design firm, Sagmeister & Walsh. Sagmeister has also won multiple Grammys for his designs of album covers with bands such as The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith and The Talking Heads.
Kessel said Sagmeister led two master classes and a workshop in an open studio setting where undergraduates, graduates and faculty members were encouraged to design a piece that would represent an interpretation of their happiness.
"It was an all-day workshop where they were set to design and think of someone that they really love," Kessel said. "They had to think about something that they could design (that) could make a change in their life."
Jess Umbarger, a freshman studying journalism, said she couldn’t understand the amount of work put in to create a “well-crafted piece.”
"There’s like a lot of editing that goes into it,” Umbarger said. “I don’t know how he can have enough patience to do all of that. That’s a lot.”
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But Brittney Boaz, a freshman studying social work, said she understood that Sagmeister's piece displays a different message about life and “living in the now."
“He talks about how life is better now than it use to be,” Boaz said. “And how we’re gaining acceptance, and how we’re (accepting) that life is better than it use to be.”
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