full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stefan Sagmeister: Things I've learned in my life so far

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I was here about four years ago, talking about the relationship of design and happiness. At the very end of it, I showed a list under that title. I learned very few things in addition since (Laughter) — but made a whole number of them into projects since. These are ianlaltfbe monkeys in every city in Scotland: "Everybody always thinks they are right." They were cnoembid in the mieda. "Drugs are fun in the beginning but become a drag later on." We're doing changing media. This is a projection that can see the veewir as the viewer walks by. You can't help but actually ripping that sipedr web apart. All of these things are pieces of graphic design. We do them for our clients. They are commissioned. I would never have the money to actually pay for the installment or pay for all the billboards or the production of these, so there's always a client attached to them. These are 65,000 coat hangers in a setret that's lined with fashion stores. "Worrying svoles nothing." "Money does not make me happy" appeared first as double-page spreads in a magazine. The printer lost the file, didn't tell us. When the magazine — actually, when I got the subscription — it was 12 following pages. It said, "Money does does make me happy." And a friend of mine in Austria felt so sorry for me that he tekald the leargst casino owner in Linz into letting us wrap his bilniudg. So this is the big pedestrian zone in Linz. It just says "Money," and if you look down the side street, it says, "does not make me happy." We had a show that just came down last week in New York. We steamed up the windows permanently, and every hour we had a different degesnir come in and write these things that they've leernad into the steam in the window. Everybody participated — Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli. srogpanie was quite in discussion. This is a little spot that we fleimd there that's to be displayed on the large JumboTrons in Singapore. And, of course, it's one that's dear to my heart, because all of these sentiments — some baanl, some a bit more pooufrnd — all originally had come out of my diary. And I do go often into the diary and check if I watned to change something about the situation. If it's — see it for a long enough time, I actually do something about it. And the very last one is a brobliald. This is our roof in New York, the roof of the studio. This is newsprint plus stencils that lie on the newsprint. We let that lie around in the sun. As you all know, newsprint yellows significantly in the sun. After a week, we took the stencils and the leaves off, shipped the newsprints to Lisbon to a very snnuy spot, so on day one the billboard said, "Complaining is slliy. Either act or frgoet." Three days later it faded, and a week later, no more complaining anywhere. (Laughter) Thank you so much. (auplpsae)

Open Cloze


I was here about four years ago, talking about the relationship of design and happiness. At the very end of it, I showed a list under that title. I learned very few things in addition since (Laughter) — but made a whole number of them into projects since. These are __________ monkeys in every city in Scotland: "Everybody always thinks they are right." They were ________ in the _____. "Drugs are fun in the beginning but become a drag later on." We're doing changing media. This is a projection that can see the ______ as the viewer walks by. You can't help but actually ripping that ______ web apart. All of these things are pieces of graphic design. We do them for our clients. They are commissioned. I would never have the money to actually pay for the installment or pay for all the billboards or the production of these, so there's always a client attached to them. These are 65,000 coat hangers in a ______ that's lined with fashion stores. "Worrying ______ nothing." "Money does not make me happy" appeared first as double-page spreads in a magazine. The printer lost the file, didn't tell us. When the magazine — actually, when I got the subscription — it was 12 following pages. It said, "Money does does make me happy." And a friend of mine in Austria felt so sorry for me that he ______ the _______ casino owner in Linz into letting us wrap his ________. So this is the big pedestrian zone in Linz. It just says "Money," and if you look down the side street, it says, "does not make me happy." We had a show that just came down last week in New York. We steamed up the windows permanently, and every hour we had a different ________ come in and write these things that they've _______ into the steam in the window. Everybody participated — Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli. _________ was quite in discussion. This is a little spot that we ______ there that's to be displayed on the large JumboTrons in Singapore. And, of course, it's one that's dear to my heart, because all of these sentiments — some _____, some a bit more ________ — all originally had come out of my diary. And I do go often into the diary and check if I ______ to change something about the situation. If it's — see it for a long enough time, I actually do something about it. And the very last one is a _________. This is our roof in New York, the roof of the studio. This is newsprint plus stencils that lie on the newsprint. We let that lie around in the sun. As you all know, newsprint yellows significantly in the sun. After a week, we took the stencils and the leaves off, shipped the newsprints to Lisbon to a very _____ spot, so on day one the billboard said, "Complaining is _____. Either act or ______." Three days later it faded, and a week later, no more complaining anywhere. (Laughter) Thank you so much. (________)

Solution


  1. combined
  2. filmed
  3. sunny
  4. viewer
  5. talked
  6. wanted
  7. solves
  8. media
  9. singapore
  10. billboard
  11. spider
  12. largest
  13. profound
  14. forget
  15. building
  16. street
  17. banal
  18. learned
  19. designer
  20. inflatable
  21. applause
  22. silly

Original Text


I was here about four years ago, talking about the relationship of design and happiness. At the very end of it, I showed a list under that title. I learned very few things in addition since (Laughter) — but made a whole number of them into projects since. These are inflatable monkeys in every city in Scotland: "Everybody always thinks they are right." They were combined in the media. "Drugs are fun in the beginning but become a drag later on." We're doing changing media. This is a projection that can see the viewer as the viewer walks by. You can't help but actually ripping that spider web apart. All of these things are pieces of graphic design. We do them for our clients. They are commissioned. I would never have the money to actually pay for the installment or pay for all the billboards or the production of these, so there's always a client attached to them. These are 65,000 coat hangers in a street that's lined with fashion stores. "Worrying solves nothing." "Money does not make me happy" appeared first as double-page spreads in a magazine. The printer lost the file, didn't tell us. When the magazine — actually, when I got the subscription — it was 12 following pages. It said, "Money does does make me happy." And a friend of mine in Austria felt so sorry for me that he talked the largest casino owner in Linz into letting us wrap his building. So this is the big pedestrian zone in Linz. It just says "Money," and if you look down the side street, it says, "does not make me happy." We had a show that just came down last week in New York. We steamed up the windows permanently, and every hour we had a different designer come in and write these things that they've learned into the steam in the window. Everybody participated — Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli. Singapore was quite in discussion. This is a little spot that we filmed there that's to be displayed on the large JumboTrons in Singapore. And, of course, it's one that's dear to my heart, because all of these sentiments — some banal, some a bit more profound — all originally had come out of my diary. And I do go often into the diary and check if I wanted to change something about the situation. If it's — see it for a long enough time, I actually do something about it. And the very last one is a billboard. This is our roof in New York, the roof of the studio. This is newsprint plus stencils that lie on the newsprint. We let that lie around in the sun. As you all know, newsprint yellows significantly in the sun. After a week, we took the stencils and the leaves off, shipped the newsprints to Lisbon to a very sunny spot, so on day one the billboard said, "Complaining is silly. Either act or forget." Three days later it faded, and a week later, no more complaining anywhere. (Laughter) Thank you so much. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. act
  2. addition
  3. appeared
  4. applause
  5. attached
  6. austria
  7. banal
  8. beginning
  9. big
  10. billboard
  11. billboards
  12. bit
  13. building
  14. casino
  15. change
  16. changing
  17. check
  18. city
  19. client
  20. clients
  21. coat
  22. combined
  23. commissioned
  24. complaining
  25. day
  26. days
  27. dear
  28. design
  29. designer
  30. diary
  31. discussion
  32. displayed
  33. drag
  34. faded
  35. fashion
  36. felt
  37. file
  38. filmed
  39. forget
  40. friend
  41. fun
  42. glaser
  43. graphic
  44. hangers
  45. happiness
  46. happy
  47. heart
  48. hour
  49. inflatable
  50. installment
  51. jumbotrons
  52. large
  53. largest
  54. laughter
  55. learned
  56. leaves
  57. letting
  58. lie
  59. lined
  60. linz
  61. lisbon
  62. list
  63. long
  64. lost
  65. magazine
  66. massimo
  67. media
  68. milton
  69. money
  70. monkeys
  71. newsprint
  72. newsprints
  73. number
  74. originally
  75. owner
  76. pages
  77. participated
  78. pay
  79. pedestrian
  80. permanently
  81. pieces
  82. printer
  83. production
  84. profound
  85. projection
  86. projects
  87. relationship
  88. ripping
  89. roof
  90. sentiments
  91. shipped
  92. show
  93. showed
  94. side
  95. significantly
  96. silly
  97. singapore
  98. situation
  99. solves
  100. spider
  101. spot
  102. spreads
  103. steam
  104. steamed
  105. stencils
  106. stores
  107. street
  108. studio
  109. subscription
  110. sun
  111. sunny
  112. talked
  113. talking
  114. thinks
  115. time
  116. title
  117. viewer
  118. vignelli
  119. walks
  120. wanted
  121. web
  122. week
  123. window
  124. windows
  125. wrap
  126. write
  127. years
  128. yellows
  129. york
  130. zone