Yesterday’s most memorable talk at the MOB Design Conference was given by Susan Andrews of the Visão Futuro Institute, a non-profit based in the state of São Paulo dedicated to the study and promotion of happiness. There was a whole panel of the conference dedicated to the study of happiness and GHP, or Gross Happiness Product – in Portuguese, Felicidade Interna Bruta. Quite appropriate in our “Post-Economic” era, too. Brazil was said to be a country with highly valuable human (and happiness) capital, and an inspiration for the rest of the world (following the world’s own kingdom of happiness, Bhutan). Susan Andrews is also organising the next world conference on happiness, to take place in November in Foz do Iguaçu. Other speakers on the panel spoke of how GDP is a wrong index to measure progress, of the symbolic and intangible nature of design and culture, and of what really makes us happy (not stuff, but healthy, lasting human connections).

Later in the day, I attended the opening for Patrick Jouin’s retrospective exhibition at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake called “Patrick Jouin’s Paris”. Talk about a change of scenery and tone. While his work undoubtedly makes people happy, there was no “post economy” discourse there. Lots of crystals, sleek furniture (including his remarkable rapid prototyping pieces), a concept room for W Hotels (shot after the opening by my friend Leonardo Finotti, who I’m staying with here in São Paulo, the reason we only left the Institute well after 1am), a house in Kuala Lumpur, restaurants for Alain Ducasse (from the Eiffel Tower to Las Vegas) and the like. This exhibition, like Jouin’s work, is “pre-post economic era” design – French style – at its best.

My personal highlight from the MOB Design Conference’s first day was Fred Gelli’s presentation. Gelli is founding partner of Tátil Design, with offices in São Paulo and Rio. His talk on how Tátil started doing “eco-design” back in 1989, persuading manufacturers and clients to make stuff from other people’s trash (and they would have none of it). For 10 years they kept on doing it, working in packaging for small and increasingly larger companies. Eco became a trend, particularly after the Rio Summit in 1992, and by 1999 Tátil was being copied left and right, got larger accounts (Nokia, Coca-Cola, among many other) and its eco side got somewhat lost. Gelli himself admitted it.

But Tátil went back to its roots recently, creating an EcoInnovation department, and works closely with clients to achieve “less, but better” solutions. And when his clients include some of Brazil’s and the world’s largest corporations, he knows you can only do so much, but what you can do can go a long way.

This flyer for an eco-design workshop in Cannes last year is a great example of that: a normal, natural leaf where graphics have been laser cut. No ink, no paper. Throwing it on the ground isn’t even littering. These flyers were later used by Redley during Rio Fashion week and for Fernando Gabeira‘s campaign for mayor.