Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off

翻译人员: Jingyu Li 校对人员: Joyce Lee

I run a design studio in New York.

我在纽约开一家设计工作室

Every seven years, I close it for one year

每七年我都关闭 一年

to pursue

让我进行一些 （萤幕：七年之痒）

some little experiments, things that

小实验，

are always difficult to accomplish

一些通常不容易

during the regular working year.

在正常的工作年度里达成的事

In that year, we are not available

关闭的一年， 我们不接受

for any of our clients.

任何顾客

We are totally closed.

完全关门

And as you can imagine,

可想而知

it is a lovely and very energetic time.

那是一段美好又充满能量的时光

I originally had opened the studio in New York

我起先在纽约开了这家工作室

to combine my two loves, music and design.

为的是结合我的两项酷爱： 音乐和设计

And we created videos and packaging

我们制作录像和设计装璜

for many musicians that you know,

其中有很多是你们熟悉的音乐家

and for even more that you've never heard of.

更多是你们没有听闻过的音乐家

As I realized, just like with many many things in my life

我发觉

that I actually love,

就像生活中很多我喜爱的事物

I adapt to it.

一旦习以为常

And I get, over time, bored by them.

便渐渐变得沉闷

And for sure, in our case,

我的工作室也不例外

our work started to look the same.

我们的作品开始变得类同

You see here a glass eye in a die cut of a book.

看到了吧，书中藏着一颗玻璃眼睛

Quite the similar idea, then, a perfume packaged

同样的设计，用于香水包装

in a book, in a die cut.

书中藏着一瓶香水

So I decided to close it down for one year.

因此我们决定关门一年

Also is the knowledge that

我还有另一个原因

right now we spend about

目前我们大概

in the first 25 years of our lives learning,

用生命的前二十五年学习

then there is another 40 years

之后的四十年

that's really reserved for working.

用于工作

And then tacked on at the end of it

放到最后的

are about 15 years for retirement.

是约十五年的退休生活

And I thought it might be helpful

我觉得更合理的，可能是

to basically cut off five of those retirement years

拿走五年的退休时间

and intersperse them in between those working years.

把它们穿插在工作的年头里

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

That's clearly enjoyable for myself.

我自己显然因此很开心

But probably even more important is

但更重要的是

that the work that comes out of these years

是来自休假那几年的成果

flows back into the company

可以回馈公司

and into society at large,

回馈社会

rather than just benefiting a grandchild or two.

而不仅是贡献给一两个孙子孙女

There is a fellow TEDster who spoke two years ago,

两年前有一位TED的讲者

Jonathan Haidt,

名叫乔纳森 海德特（Jonathan Haidt)

who defined his work into three different levels.

他把工作定义为三个不同的层次

And they rang very true for me.

教我深深认同

I can see my work as a job. I do it for money.

我可以把工作视为一份工，为的是钱

I likely already look forward to the weekend on Thursdays.

星期四就开始盼周末

And I probably will need a hobby as a leveling mechanism.

我可能会需要一种业余爱好，平衡生活

In a career I'm definitely more engaged.

或者，我可以把工作看成我的事业，这样我会做得更加用心

But at the same time, there will be periods when I think

但有时我又会想

is all that really hard work really worth my while?

花这多精力值得吗？

While in the third one, in the calling,

第三个层次，是把工作视为一种呼召

very much likely I would do it also

如果工作是一种呼召，很可能我无论如何也会做，

if I wouldn't be financially compensated for it.

即使没有金钱回报也没关系

I am not a religious person myself,

我不信教

but I did look for nature.

但我尊重自然

I had spent my first sabbatical in New York City.

我的第一个长修假是在纽约市度过的

Looked for something different for the second one.

我希望第二次会有所不同

Europe and the U.S. didn't really feel enticing

欧洲和美国对我吸引力不大

because I knew them too well. So Asia it was.

我太熟悉它们了，所以我选了亚洲

The most beautiful landscapes I had seen in Asia

我见到的亚洲最美丽的风景

were Sri Lanka and Bali.

是在斯里兰卡和巴厘岛

Sri Lanka still had the civil war going on, so Bali it was.

斯里兰卡仍有内战进行，因此我选择了巴厘岛。

It's a wonderful, very craft-oriented society.

那是一个美妙，十分重视手工艺的社会

I arrived there in September 2008,

我2008年9月到达那里

and pretty much started to work right away.

立即投入工作

There is wonderful inspiration coming from the area itself.

那地方本身就充满灵气

However the first thing that I needed was

然而，我首先需要的是

mosquito repellent typography

驱蚊剂

because they were definitely around heavily.

因为蚊子太多了

And then I needed some sort of way

其次我需要某种方法

to be able to get back to all the wild dogs

赶走那些野狗

that surround my house,

他们绕着我的房子

and attacked me during my morning walks.

当我早上散步时来袭击我

So we created this series of 99 portraits on tee shirts.

我们就此做了99狗像系列的T恤衫

Every single dog on one tee shirt.

一只狗一个T恤衫

As a little retaliation

作为一个小报复

with a just ever so slightly menacing message

我加了一条小小的、略带威胁的信息

(Laughter)

（笑声）

on the back of the shirt.

在T恤衫的背后

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Just before I left New York

在我离开纽约前

I decided I could actually renovate my studio.

我觉得可以装修一下我的工作室

And then just leave it all to them.

我把工作全交给别人

And I don't have to do anything.

自己不再操心

So I looked for furniture.

只管卖家具

And it turned out that

结果是

all the furniture that I really liked,

我喜欢的

I couldn't afford.

都买不起

And all the stuff I could afford, I didn't like.

买得起的 我又都不喜欢

So one of the things that we pursued in Bali

于是我在巴厘岛要做的其中一件事情

was pieces of furniture.

就是设计家具

This one, of course, still works with the wild dogs.

设计这个时 ， 当然 ， 我们仍跟野狗较量中

It's not quite finished yet.

还没全部完成

And I think by the time this lamp came about,

我记得完成这盏灯的时候

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I had finally made peace with those dogs.

我终于跟狗讲和了

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Then there is a coffee table. I also did a coffee table.

我还设计了这张茶几

It's called Be Here Now.

起名叫“现在到此”

It includes 330 compasses.

它里面装了330个指南针

And we had custom espresso cups made

我们还特制了特浓咖啡的小杯子

that hide a magnet inside,

里面藏着磁铁

and make those compasses go crazy,

它使这些指南针拼命地动

always centering on them.

全朝向咖啡杯为中心

Then this is a fairly talkative, verbose kind of chair.

之后又设计这个相当健谈， 絮絮不休的椅子

I also started meditating for the first time in my life in Bali.

在巴厘岛，我开始平生第一次打坐

And at the same time, I'm extremely aware

不过，同时我又请楚的意识到

how boring it is to hear about other people's happinesses.

听别人讲他们的高兴事有多无聊

So I will not really go too far into it.

所以我就不多说了

Many of you will know this TEDster,

你们很多人都认识这位TED的讲者

Danny Gilbert, whose book, actually,

Danny Gilbert， 他写了本书

I got it through the TED book club.

我从TED 读书会买了这本书

I think it took me four years

一直等到四年后

to finally read it, while on sabbatical.

我终于我休长假时读了这本书

And I was pleased to see

我很高兴知道

that he actually wrote the book while he was on sabbatical.

著者也是在休长假时写的这本书

And I'll show you a couple of people

我还要介绍给你们几位

that did well by pursuing sabbaticals.

得益于修长假的人

This is Ferran Adria. Many people think

这位是Ferran Adria：公认的

he is right now the best chef in the world

当今世界上最好的厨师

with his restaurant north of Barcelona, El Bulli.

他的餐馆位于Barcelona北部的 elBull

His restaurant is open seven months every year.

他的餐馆每年只开七个月

He closes it down for five months

另外五个月关门

to experiment with a full kitchen staff.

他用这段时间来做试验，全体厨房员工也不放假

His latest numbers are fairly impressive.

他的最新数据相当可观

He can seat, throughout the year,

他的餐馆一年可以容纳

he can seat 8,000 people.

8,000 人

And he has 2.2 million requests for reservations.

却收到220万的预订申请

If I look at my cycle, seven years, one year sabbatical,

看看我的周期，干七年，休一年

it's 12.5 percent of my time.

是我百分之12.5的时间

And if I look at companies that are actually more successful than mine,

看看比我更成功的公司

3M since the 1930s

3M公司，自20世纪30年代起

is giving all their engineers

让所有的工程师

15 percent to pursue whatever they want.

花百分之十五工作时间做他们自己想做的事

There is some good successes.

有些很成功的例子

Scotch tape came out of this program,

思高牌胶带就是这个公司政策下的产物

as well as Art Fry developed

还有Art Fry 研制的

sticky notes from during his personal time for 3M.

不干胶贴纸，也是他利用私人时间为3M发明的

Google, of course, very famously

谷歌， 众人皆知

gives 20 percent for their software engineers

给他们的软件工程师百分之二十的时间

to pursue their own personal projects.

去做他们自己想做的项目

Anybody in here has actually ever conducted a sabbatical?

听众里有没有人尝试过修长假呢？

That's about five percent of everybody.

大概百分之五吧

So I'm not sure if you saw your neighbor putting their hand up.

坐你身边的人举手了吗

Talk to them about if it was successful or not.

请和他们聊聊， 看他们的休假是否成功

I've found that

我发现

finding out about what I'm going to like in the future,

探讨我未来想做的事

my very best way is to talk to people

最佳的办法是

who have actually done it

与做过的人谈谈

much better than myself envisioning it.

那比自己空想要更有效

When I had the idea of doing one,

当我想到一个好主意时

the process was I made the decision and I put it into my daily planner book.

我便把决定写在日计划本里

And then I told as many, many people as I possibly could about it

然后我告诉很多很多的人，越多越好

so that there was no way that I could chicken out later on.

好等我日后不会轻易知难而退

(Laughter)

（笑声）

In the beginning, on the first sabbatical,

我的第一个休假初期

it was rather disastrous.

事情进展一点也不顺利

I had thought that I should do this without any plan,

我以为不用计划

that this vacuum of time somehow would

空闲本身

be wonderful and enticing

就很好

for idea generation. It was not.

使人创新。但我错了

I just, without a plan, I just reacted

没有计划，我会被动的去应付

to little requests, not work requests,

琐碎小事，我不是指工作上的事情

those I all said no to, but other little requests.

那些我全拒绝了，我是指的其他琐事

Sending mail to Japanese design magazines and things like that.

比如说给日本设计杂志写信

So I became my own intern.

就是说，我成了给自己打下手的学徒工

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And I very quickly

很快

made a list of the things I was interested in,

我把自己感兴趣的事情列了个清单

put them in a hierarchy, divided them into chunks of time

把它们分门别类，分给大块的时间

and then made a plan, very much like in grade school.

然后作个计划，就像在小学校做的一样

What does it say here? Monday, 8 to 9: story writing;

计划有什么呢？ 星期一8至9点：写小说

9 to 10: future thinking.

9至10点，预想未来

Was not very successful. And so on and so forth.

那不是很成功。等等，等等。

And that actually, specifically as a starting point

而实际上，作为第一次休假的开始

of the first sabbatical, worked really well for me.

这些安排很适合我

What came out of it?

结果呢

I really got close to design again.

我又重新爱上设计了

I had fun.

我自得其乐

Financially, seen over the long term, it was actually successful.

从长远经济角度看，我的第一个长假是成功的

Because of the improved quality, we could ask for higher prices.

由于质量提高，我们可以设更高的价格

And probably most importantly,

或许最重要的是

basically everything we've done

基本上

in the seven years following the first sabbatical

在下七年我们的设计

came out of thinking of that one single year.

意念俱源自我们休假的那一年

And I'll show you a couple of projects

请你看看以下几项作品

that came out of the seven years following that sabbatical.

都是那个长休假之后七年设计的

One of the strands of thinking I was involved in was

第一种体会

that sameness is so incredibly overrated.

是 （在设计品牌时）我们过分强调一致性

This whole idea that everything needs to be exactly the same

其实这种凡事必须完全相同的想法

works for a very very few strand of companies,

仅仅能对极少数公司行得通

and not for everybody else.

而并非每间公司都合适

We were asked to design an identity for Casa da Musica,

音乐之家 （Casa de Musica) 曾请我们设计标志

the Rem Koolhaas-built music center

就是那个由 Rem Koolhaas 设计建造的音乐中心

in Porto, in Portugal.

在波尔图，葡萄牙

And even though I desired to do an identity

尽管我想要把这个标志

that doesn't use the architecture,

设计得与建筑物造型没关

I failed at that.

结果却没有成功

And mostly also because I realized

一个主要原因

out of a Rem Koolhaas presentation to the city of Porto, where

是因为Rem Koolhaas给波尔图市做的一场简报

he talked about a conglomeration of various layers of meaning.

他说到要把多层含意交织在一起

Which I understood after I

我起先没有明白

translated it from architecture speech

直至我把他的建筑设计语言

in to regular English,

翻成一般英语去理解

basically as logo making.

基本上，建筑设计就是标志设计

And I understood that the building itself was a logo.

我才明白，那建筑本身就是一个标志

So then it became quite easy.

事情由此变得十分容易

We put a mask on it,

我们在建筑上蒙了个罩子

looked at it deep down in the ground,

从远远的地面查看

checked it out from all sides,

从各个角度查看

west, north, south, east,

西，北，南，东

top and bottom.

从上到下

Colored them in a very particular way

用非常特殊的方式着色

by having a friend of mine write a piece of software,

让我的一个朋友写了个软件

the Casa da Musica Logo Generator.

叫音乐之家®标志生成器

That's connected to a scanner.

把它连接到扫描仪

You put any image in there, like that Beethoven image.

把任何图像放上，例如贝多芬像

And the software, in a second,

软件可以立即

will give you the Casa da Musica Beethoven logo.

给你音乐之家贝多芬标志

Which, when you actually have to design a Beethoven poster,

当你想设计一个有贝多芬像的海报

comes in handy, because the visual information of the logo

那软件很有用，因为标志的视觉元素

and the actual poster is exactly the same.

和海报是完全一样的

So it will always fit together, conceptually, of course.

所以在概念的层面而言，它们一定能互相配合

If Zappa's music is performed, it gets its own logo.

如果演出Zappa的音乐，它会有自己独特的标志

Or Philip Glass or Lou Reed or the Chemical Brothers,

或Philip Grass，或Lou Reed，或 Chemical Brothers

who all performed there, get their own

谁在那里表演，谁就有自己的标志

Casa da Musica logo.

这是音乐之家自己的标志

It works the same internally with the president or the musical director,

在音乐之家内部也是一样，不论是音乐之家主席，或是音乐总监

whose Casa da Musica portraits wind up on their business cards.

他们的音乐之家画像印在他们的名片上

There is a full-blown orchestra

有一队完整的管弦乐队

living inside the building.

驻扎在那所建筑里

It has a more transparent identity.

他们拥有自己清晰的标志

The truck they go on tour with.

这是他们巡演用的卡车

Or there's a smaller contemporary orchestra,

它们还有一个较小的现代乐团

12 people that remixes its own title.

一个以"交织 "(remix) 为名的十二人乐团, 名字就交织在标志中

And one of the handy things that came about

十分方便的是

was that you could take the logo type

你可以用这个标志

and create advertising out of it.

创造广告

Like this Donna Toney poster,

就像这幅 Donna Toney海报

or Chopin, or Mozart,

或肖邦 (Chopin)，或莫扎特 (Mozart)

or La Monte Young.

或拉蒙杨 (La Monte Young)

You can take the shape and make typography out of it.

您可以根据它的形状设计字样

You can grow it underneath the skin.

你还可以把它从皮肤下长出来

You can have a poster for a family event in front of the house,

你可以设计一张海报，介绍一项适合一家大细， 在音乐之家外面举行的活动

or a rave underneath the house

或在音乐之家下面举行的狂野派对

or a weekly program,

或每周定期举行的活动

as well as educational services.

又或是教育服务

Second insight. So far, until that point I had

第二种体会：在那次长假之前

been mostly involved

多数时候

or used the language of design

我都时用设计这种语言

for promotional purposes,

帮助促销

which was fine with me.

那并没有什么不好

On one hand I have nothing against selling.

一方面我不反对销售

My parents are both salespeople.

我父母都是销售员

But I did feel that

但我觉得

I spent so much time learning this language,

我花了这多时间学习这种语言

why do I only promote with it?

为什么仅用来帮助促销？

There must be something else.

应该还可以利用它做些其他事

And the whole series of work came out of it.

这些作品都出自这个想法

Some of you might have seen it.

有些你们可能已经见过

I showed some of it

我在以前的TED 会上曾经展示过

at earlier TEDs before,

以前的TED 会

under the title "Things I've Learned in My Life So Far."

标题是“至今我所学到的”

I'll just show two now.

我现在就介绍两项

This is a whole wall of bananas

这是一整面墙的香蕉

at different ripenesses

不同的生熟程度

on the opening day in this gallery in New York.

在一家纽约的画廊开张那天

It says, "Self-confidence produces fine results."

上面说“自信产生优秀结果”

This is after a week.

一周后

After two weeks,

两周后

three weeks, four weeks, five weeks.

三，四，五周后

And you see the self confidence almost comes back,

你可以见到自信心几乎都回来了

but not quite.

只是几乎，不是全部

These are some pictures visitors sent to me.

这是一些客人发送给我的照片

(Laughter)

（笑声）

And then the city of Amsterdam

阿姆斯特丹市

gave us a plaza and asked us to do something.

给了我们一个广场，并要我们做些事情

We used the stone plates as a grid

我们用石板作为网格

for our little piece.

作为我们一件小作品的背景

We got 250,000 coins from the central bank,

我们从中央银行提了25万个硬币

at different darknesses.

颜色有不同的深度

So we got brand new ones, shiny ones,

有的崭新发亮

medium ones, and very old, dark ones.

半旧的， 和非常旧的，发黑的

And with the help of 100 volunteers, over a week,

用了一周多的时间，得到了100多志愿者的帮忙

created this fairly floral typography

创造了这个以花卉模样的字样

that spelled, "Obsessions make my life worse

文字是，“沉迷破坏生活

and my work better."

却做就好作品”

And the idea of course was to

我们的构思

make the type so precious

是把图样做得很精美

that as an audience

要令观赏者

you would be in between,

觉得难以决定

"Should I really take as much money as I can?

我是要把这些钱尽量拿走

Or should I leave the piece intact as it is right now?"

还是保持图像完好无缺

While we built all this up

在拚砌这个图像的过程

during that week, with the 100 volunteers,

与数百名志愿者一起的那个星期

a good number of the neighbors surrounding the plaza

有很多居住在周围的居民

got very close to it and quite loved it.

都走近它看，很喜欢它

So when it was finally done,

当它终于完工时

and in the first night

第一夜

a guy came with big plastic bags

一个人拿了一个大塑料袋

and scooped up as many coins as he could possibly carry,

把钱币大堆大堆的装进袋子里，直到他提不动为止

one of the neighbors called the police.

一位邻居报了警

And the Amsterdam police

阿姆斯特丹警方

in all their wisdom,

急中生智

came, saw,

赶到现场， 看到一切

and they wanted to protect the artwork.

他们想保护这件艺术作品

And they swept it all up and put it into custody

就把钱币都扫了起来

at police headquarters.

放到警察局好好报存

(Laughter)

（笑声）

I think you see, you see them sweeping. You see them sweeping right here.

看见他们扫了吧

That's the police, getting rid of it all.

那是警察，把作品全扫光了

So after eight hours

8小时之后

that's pretty much all that was left

所剩的就只有那么多

of the whole thing.

几乎全部扫光

(Laughter)

（笑声）

We are also working on the start of a bigger project in Bali.

我们还在巴厘岛开始了一个更大的项目

It's a movie about happiness.

是一个讲关于快乐的电影

And here we asked some nearby pigs

在这里，我们请了附近的一些猪

to do the titles for us.

为我们做标题

They weren't quite slick enough.

却嫌它们不够仔细

So we asked the goose to do it again,

我们试用了鹅

and hoped she would do somehow,

希望她会做出

a more elegant or pretty job.

优雅美观的作品

And I think she overdid it.

它却似乎太讲究了

Just a bit too ornamental.

有点过分装饰

And my studio is very close to the monkey forest.

而我的工作室是在猴子森林边

And the monkeys in that monkey forest

这猴子森林的猴子

looked, actually, fairly happy.

看起来相当高兴

So we asked those guys to do it again.

我们又请了这些家伙帮忙

They did a fine job, but had

他们做得很出色， 但是

a couple of readability problems.

有可读性问题

So of course whatever you don't really do yourself

当然，如果你不自己亲自做

doesn't really get done properly.

就别指望完全满意

That film we'll be working on for the next two years.

我们今后两年将制作这个电影

So it's going to be a while.

还得有一阵子

And of course you might think that

你可能会想

doing a film on happiness

制作关于快乐的电影

might not really be worthwhile.

可能会不值得

Then you can of course always

你当然总是可以

go and see this guy.

去看这个家伙

Video: (Laughter)

（笑声）（笑瑜伽）

And I'm happy I'm alive.

我很高兴我活着

I'm happy I'm alive. I'm happy I'm alive.

我很高兴我活着 我很高兴我活着

Stefan Sagmeister: Thank you.

谢谢你们

(Applause)

（鼓掌）