Reflection on The Happy Film

At the beginning of the movie itself we can see that the whole project was experimental by his statement on how he don’t even know how to start it. Stefan Sagmeister did however make a deep research into his concept though, which is happiness. He mentioned his references, he showed his development and he even consulted some professionals. From his research he got the idea, tasks to execute and try out and since this is an experiment on himself, it would end in the explanation of each and every steps on how he encountered them. This stage is definitely related to our part A of our main brief. I believe that the outcome here is in the form of the various typography projects he did in between while we have to submit it in the form of an infographic, he did however had a curve illustrating his research.

He had afterward executed a Gallery where there was all his research and even some of his experiences while he is still progressing through his quest in finding happiness such as the part in the exhibition where there’s a bicycle and typography that are being generated as you’re cycling which he experienced while trying to attempt meditating. I believe that this gallery was similar to our part B, of course as a professional graphic designer he did it on a much larger scale with over 2 methods of expressing his work creatively alongside with the assistance of technology.

Finally as the part C of our course we have to make a publication of our journey which he did in the form of the movie which, in his case, also consist of a development from beyond his research where his expectations were altered and even his target changed yet again, whereby now his focus turned back towards his job as a Graphic Designer.

In conclusions the outcome were a series of typography, a gallery where there were many interesting ideas relating to what his psychologists requested him to find happiness in the form of interactive designs and his own research in the form of graphics and finally the movie which served as the conclusion.

I also found it interesting how he chose a movie as a medium for his project since as he explains, living his life felt like making a movie. There so much to talk about for each of the different designs he did during his exhibition which each one’s medium were cleverly chosen as well. I also like how he represented what he didn’t capture with some intriguing visuals, the first one being quite straight forward which was in the form of a 2D mannequins animation of his crossing with Tania and the illustration of his meetings with the mysterious Miss Private which are 2 great examples but there’s also the various representation of his life phases in the form of typography as well.

The thing that I’ve enjoyed overall in this movie is how the whole project was an experiment, like even though he had his research and his tasks which were scheduled, there were a lot of unexpected events and at the end the main purpose of the project changed. I wouldn’t say that it was a failure, but they failed the achievement they were waiting for at the start, but still they advance and realized the project. I believe that the movie will serve as a start in discovering human emotions, how perhaps we can start to picture the unpredictable. He ended the movie by showing the most unexpected shot he was doing for the movie’s end sort of showing how he embraced his work as a Graphic Designer.

My annotation while watching the movie