The Aesthetics of Joy is devoted to a simple, powerful idea: that our greatest source of joy is the world around us.
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An emerging body of research shows that there is a clear link between our surroundings and our mental health. Yet nearly all the advice on how to find happiness ignores this fact. Designer Ingrid Fetell Lee founded The Aesthetics of Joy in 2009 to shed light on the relationship between our environment and our emotions, and share inspiration for living a more joyful life through design.
In September, 2018, Little, Brown Spark published Joyful, the definitive guide to finding and creating more joy in the world around you. Check it out here!
Highlights
Here are some of our key topics, along with a selection of posts to give you an idea of what we're all about. If you're new here, this is a great place to start:
The Power of Joy
Joy is often thought of as a nice-to-have, rather than a necessity. But study after study shows that joy makes us healthier, more productive, creative, and resilient.
Creating a Joyful Home
Home should be a place that makes you happy. Rather than trying to keep up with trends or styles, we offer evidence-based ideas for creating your own joyful habitat.
Bringing Joy to the World
Everyone deserves joy. Unfortunately, our world isn’t exactly designed to delight. We’re devoted to sharing ideas for bringing joy into the places we live and work, learn and heal.
About Ingrid
Ingrid Fetell Lee
Ingrid Fetell Lee is a designer and author whose groundbreaking work reveals the hidden influence of our surroundings on our emotions and wellbeing. As a former design director at IDEO, author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness, and the founder of the website The Aesthetics of Joy, she empowers people to find more joy in life and work through design. Her immensely popular TED talk “Where Joy Hides and How to Find it” has been viewed more than 17 million times.
Lee has been featured as an expert on design and joy by outlets such as The New York Times, Wired, PRI's Studio 360, CBC's Spark, Psychology Today, and Fast Company. She has over twelve years of experience in design and branding, having led design programs for Target, Condé Nast, Eileen Fisher, American Express, Kate Spade, Diageo, Pepsico, and the US government, among others. She was a founding faculty member in the Products of Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her design work has been exhibited at imm Cologne, Germany.
Lee holds a Master’s in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute and a Bachelor’s in English and Creative Writing from Princeton University. She loves pancakes, polka dots, and rainbow sprinkles, and has an extensive repertoire of happy dances for any occasion.
