Client: Maggie's Centres
Design: Authentic Joy Selector

Problem:

At Studio Make Believe we create objects that solve problems. So when Anthony, our Creative Partner, was invited to create something to express the 'Joy of Living' using three pieces of coloured paper for an auction in aid of Maggie's Centres, we had to create something that tried to help bring meaningful joy into peoples lives.

Solution:

In “Authentic Happiness,” Dr. Martin Seligman; postulates that there are three paths to happiness: The Pleasant Life, The Good Life, and The Meaningful Life.

So we created the 'Authentic Joy Selector' for someone to randomly select one of these three paths each day by pressing the button and flipping the cards.

• The Pleasant Life: Do something you love. Life’s natural highs.

Happiness is primarily sought through the use of the senses: good food, fine wine, shopping, time off with friends, vacations, cars, houses, the pursuit of things of this world, having as many pleasures as possible.

• The Good Life: Do something that challenges your skills. Makes you grow.

The good life involves a balanced focus on the three main areas of life: work, play, love. Happiness is attained by achieving competence, identifying and building on your core strengths to reach a flow state – a sustainable feeling of energised involvement and enjoyment.

• The Meaningful Life: Live for a reason, a person or a purpose. Know your why.

Happiness comes from a deep sense of fulfilment by living for a purpose greater than oneself.

The Pleasant Life is obviously weighted toward the hedonistic. The chief disadvantage of the pursuit of physical pleasure is that we tend to quickly become habituated. Each new level rapidly becomes the norm and thus loses its allure. The three lives are not completely contradictory, and a balanced life can contain elements of all three. However Dr. Seligman believes that lasting happiness lies in progressing through each until we achieve the ability to have most of our happiness by living The Meaningful Life.

One of 192 anonymous designs by 150 of the UK's best known artists, designers and architects, the Authentic Joy Selector raised £335 in a silent auction - adding to a final total of £40,909 for Maggie's Centres.

Typography by our good friends Drew London