It has always been one of the great and prolonging questions: can true happiness be quantified? Is it possible to take emotional elements of a subjective human life and convey them, through an objective lens, to a global audience? For that matter, is happiness even something that can be quantified, or is it a localized phenomenon? Austrian graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister attempts to answer this question through design, a paradoxically unorthodox medium for conveying the impartial. Through graphic design, with unique attention given to Sagmeister's design exhibit The Happy Show, it becomes clear that perhaps true, lasting happiness isn't a relative emotion; it's a science.

             Stefan Sagmeister began his career as a graphic designer in Hong Kong in 1991, where he joined the Hong Kong Design Group, led by infamous designer and advertising magnate Leo Burnett. After a short stint as a staff designer, Sagmeister moved to New York in 1993 to form his own design firm, Sagmeister, Inc. His company has since created graphics, branding elements, and packaging for clients ranging from HBO to the Rolling Stones. Sagmeister himself produced solo exhibitions worldwide, and is currently teaching in New York's School of Visual Arts. Sagmeister's signature philosophy is his tendency to create lists. In his 2008 biography Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far (which, in itself, is a list "a collection of 15 booklets, each independent but integral to the whole), he expounds on the myriad lists he has created during his tenure as a designer. Most poignant among these lists is the one dedicated to happiness, and how he believes true happiness is achieved. Within this list are statements such as, "Being not truthful works against me, "Assuming is stifling, ""Traveling alone is helpful for a new perspective on life," and "Everything I do always comes back to me. From this list, Sagmeister created a series of typographic billboards and signs, as reminders to the general populous that happiness is not easily achieved.