Customer Reviews
Very over valued - By: Mr. D. J. Moody, 29 Jun 2008 
I have to say I am extremely disappointed with this. Everyone at college has said you have just got to buy this book, its amazing. Is it?? No it isn't. Sagmeister is nowhere near being the design genius that he has been tagged with. When you compare it to Alan Fletcher, there is just no competition. I have seen far better work being displayed at the various university degree shows this year to be honest. Especially at Stoke, Birmingham & the fantastic illustration work at Bristol which was truly fantastic.
So whatever you do, keep hold of your money & buy something else. He is very over rated & has been built up on a pedestal when he clearly doesn't deserve to be.
Can graphic design touch someone's heart? - By: Hemant Jain, 16 May 2008 
There are countless books on design & many of them are good, even brilliant. And yet one looks for something that is more than a design book with lots of designers' work. One always searches for a book that would act as a trigger, as a spark than can light a million ideasin one's own brain.
A book to do that was Alan Fletcher's Art of Looking Sideways.
And a book which surpasses everything that I have ever seen is Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have learnedin my life so far.
Why? Because it is brutally honest.
It is what design was meant to be.
Sagmeister uses his own learnings & converts them into magic. You turn the pages & you are mesmerised by the immensity, the sheer scale of ideas there.
Your mind begins to fill up with images & words & ideas you never thought existed.
You turn the pages & it hits you: Thinking life will be betterin the future is stupid. I have to live now.
And `now' to me started with the book. This book truly changed my life.
I have read the critics say many things like this book being self indulgent. Well, a man who take pains to go around the world to encourage design & design students cannot be self indulgent. He is honest. And every page of this book is a primer for honesty.
And of course, brilliant design.
Sagmeister's design & typography are stuff legends are made of. I am a mere mortal to comment upon those. But I can say this, I have never seen an explosion of so many brilliant ideasin one place ever before.
Stefan Sagmeister has always asked the question: Can design touch someone's heart?
This book will touch millions.
A priceless book.
Emperor's New Clothes or Design Genius? - By: ailsam, 12 Mar 2008 Is Stefan Sagmeister the Emperor's new clothes of the design world, or does he really deserve the genius tag he's so often given?
After reading Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, I firmly believe the latter. Sagmeister doesn't disappoint; he makes design fun & accessible, without dumbing down or losing effect - this book illustrates perfectly, bothin content & format, that good design works.
The featured projects are fascinating; my reactions ranged from `oh that's sooo gorgeous,' to `how on earth....?' to `what HAPPENED to him to make him think like that?!'
It's beautifully put together - a design book that's not just for designers, with essays & Sagmeister's explanations of the projects, along with fantastic images.
As Sagmeister says, via the help of giant monkeys, "Everybody always thinks they are right," & I think I amin this case - buy it, swap around the covers to your heart's content, & enjoy your very own piece of Sagmeister!
A True Chameleon - By: Adam Whitaker, 24 Feb 2008 There are lots of design books that are about design. Design books for designers. This isn't one of them - it's much more than that. The sheer richness of this book takes a while to takein - you will find new things every time you dip into it. This book is inventive, poignant, informative & unusual - but above all it is beautiful. There's such a wealth of ideas executed with style & an individual confidence that it is hard to say which is best, but I would say it's worth buying the book for the Singapore 'Keeping A Diary' section alone. Also there are a lot of monkeys, & that can never be a bad thing. Full marks.
