“I’m an asshole.”
That would appear to be the conclusion of a six-year effort by Stefan Sagmeister, designer and co-founder of New York firm Sagmeister & Walsh, to figure out why he can’t just be happy all the time.
We last heard from Stefan when he left attendees of a 2014 Canadian creativity festival (and, by extension, everyone who works in communications) with the classic line, “No fuckhead, you are not a storyteller!”
He now has a movie screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, and its premise seems to concern his unending search for greater meaning in his own life. During at least some moments in that life, he chooses to wear a completely inconspicuous pink rabbit suit.
Here’s the trailer.
According to a piece from Friday’s Fastco Design, Sagmeister is quite serious about all this. He even gives himself a weekly happiness rating on a Pitchfork-style 1-10 scale.
The summary on the film’s home page tells us that he was willing to undergo pretty much any “self-experiments outlined by popular psychology” to figure out whether he could actually make himself happy somehow.
The solution seemingly did not lie in leaving the agency world forever; we will wait for Netflix to find out.
At least this movie didn’t have to compete against any anti-vaccination propaganda. On that note, what in the hell is wrong with RFK, Jr.?