Somewhere in those big hardback books of collected design that we had around the studios in which I studied, or perhaps it was in the 'Handwritten' book of collected hand lettering, I found the work of Stefan Sagmeister - the infamous talk poster for which he'd carved the information into his own torso.His reputation as a great designer is more than earned. Since 1993, working out of New York, he has created work for The Rolling Stones, HBO, Lou Reed, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum through Sagmeister Inc.His new book, 'Now is Better', out on October 4th with Phaidon is a tonic to the doom and gloom spirit of 24-hour news cycles and social media. It's a thing of visual beauty, but also promotes long-term thinking and perspective, so we can be better, happier, and more creative people to address the problems we face.We discuss these themes and more.The book will remain on my coffee table for the days when I get the blues!Photograph by James Braund.Supported by the brilliant Illustration X, founding sponsor of The Creative Condition podcast. View their global roster of illustrators and animators at https://illustrationx.comhttps://sagmeister.com/https://www.phaidon.com/https://bentallon.comhttps://bentallonwriter.com