Stefan Sagmeister's Things I have learned in my life so far, a compendium of aphorisms turned into typographic experiments, is precisely what one would expect from a designer whose early claim to notoriety was a poster featuring his razor-etched torso. The 46-year-old graphic designer has made much use of his body in the past, and this latest offering is no exception. To start, the slipcase, which encloses 15 signatures, features Sagmeister's die-cut visage, allowing for a variety of covers depending on which pamphlet faces front.

It's fitting that Things I have learned should foreground the designer so. After all, it's a collection of design commissions Sagmeister fulfilled by turning a diary entry into creative material. In 2000, he took the risky move of closing his studio for a year-long journey of creative soul-searching. During this time, Sagmeister kept a regular journal that produced an entry from which this book derives its title. That entry — a list of 20 Jenny Holzer-like maxims ranging from "Over time I get used to everything and start taking it for granted" to "Trying to look good limits my life" — became the starting point for the ongoing body of unclassifiable work we see today.

Although the introductory essays make a candid effort to place Sagmeister's project within the lineage of artists Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, and Holzer, the designer himself is keen to point out that the projects must "work" and are firmly rooted in design. Unfortunately, such insistence on grounding the project in either milieu serves only to divert the reader from a more visceral response. For example, Sagmeister deployed a platoon of six giant inflatable monkeys through six cities in Scotland, each bearing a single word in the phrase, "Everybody always thinks they are right." In order for a viewer to complete the phrase, one had to visit every location — and it's doubtful that classifying the piece as design or art would impact the experience. The success of this book stems not from the critical musing that it inspires, but from the joy in creative expression that it propagates.

-Brian Fichtner