Sagmeister’s Eighth Year Sabbaticals
Stefan Sagmeister’s TED talk on The Power of Time Off has an interesting idea. If your education takes 25 years, working life is 40 years and retirement is 15 years – why not intersperse 5 years of your retirement throughout your working life? The most recent Sagmeister sabbatical was taken in Bali where he meditated, took time to design furniture and came to some peace with the local dog population through creative thinking.
So for the sabbatical Sagmeister’s design studio in New York closes down for an entire 12 month period every 8th year. They simply stop taking on work and shut up shop. Its kind of refreshing to realise that’s actually a commercial option if its done correctly… if we dare. Because we have to admit we’re hardly Sagmeisters and invariably lack the attention he can bring as a contemporary designer and artist.
The part that I really do find interesting about the eighth year sabbatical is the movement out of the commercial design rut and into a creative zone which incurs a loss in the short term but pays for itself above the initial cost over the next seven years. Because new ideas have to come from somewhere – we have to admit that they’re not going to come endlessly for 40 years directly from client projects and sitting in the studio.
Its an interesting and inspirational TED talk and he’s always entertaining with that dry humour. I can’t help thinking this is a really great idea… almost an obvious one. Why the hell should you wait until the end of your working life to enjoy your retirement?
