Stefan Sagmesiter, Wally Olins, Milton Glaser, Rei Inamoto, Paolo Coelho and Sarah Moon - The Fear of Failure

To promote their graduation exhibition in May, students from Berghs School of Communication invited leading figures in the creative world to discuss their 'fear of failure'

Berghs student Louise Ljungberg explains: "Once a year, in May, we hold an exhibition. 151 graduation students will present their work within communication and design. The exhibition is created by a group of fourteen selected students, the Student Agency, and our aim it is to find a relevant and engaging angle on the students' theme, which is 'courage in communication'," she says. "Courage is very much associated with fear. We students (including me) are constantly flanked by the biggest creativity blocker of them all - the fear of failure. Therefore we've decided that this year's exhibition theme will be - the fear of failure. The purpose of having this theme is to equip the students (and the Swedish communication industry) with a new perspective on failure."

The students asked prominent figures in their fields to record messages on the theme using a webcam. First to contribute was author Paolo Coelho

Other contributors include Stefan Sagmeister

AKQA's Rei Inamoto

Photographer Sarah Moon

Wally Olins

And, perhaps offering the greatest insight, MIlton Glaser

Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World's Great Graphic Designers

Stefan Sagmeister's sketch book

If you peek inside a sketchbook of a designer, you can see the birth of their ideas: everything from corporate communications to hand-screened posters, beginning life as wandering doodles. But sketchbooks are usually private affairs; you only see inside them at the personal invitation for the designer himself. That's why Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World's Great Graphic Designers (The Monacelli Press) is such an exciting new book: It's like a exclusive journey inside the brains of the greatest design minds working today.

Authors Steven Heller and Lita Talarico take us inside the sketchbooks of top designers like Milton Glaser, Michael Bierut, and Stefan Sagmeister, showing the intriguing evolution of familiar logos, typefaces, and book covers. Some designers use their sketchbooks as creative outlets for their over-computerized lives, making room for the painting and drawing their design work doesn't require. And many of these sketchbooks also serve as journals for the designers' daily life, so we get to see activities like meals and vacations documented as beautifully as future design projects.

It's also a treat to see how and where designers like to sketch. Some use fancy hard-bound Moleskines, some swear by cheap drugstore spiral-bound notebook. Some designers create collages made from found objects, others have a ritualistic dedication to using the same type of pen. But no matter how designers choose to use their sketchbooks, each page tells a fascinating story about the creative process. Graphic proves that a fresh sheet of notebook paper is destined to become a work of art when placed in the right designer's hands.

Milton Glaser Sketchbook